An aspirin a day to improve your health?

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in North America.  It claims over 700,000 lives each year.  It has been strongly associated with poor lifestyle and while much of the public health focus is on ‘prevention’, its numbers continue to climb.

Does an aspirin a day do what it promises to?

Let’s be clear – prevention is an act of avoidance of a negative event.  I’ve never liked the term ‘preventative medicine’.  What that truly implies is avoiding sickness or disease rather than moving towards optimal health.  Many ‘preventative measures’ are encouraged from health care practitioners – don’t smoke, exercise, eat healthy, avoid saturated fats and take a baby aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks.  While I agree that smoking is awful and exercise and proper eating are a must (INCLUDING SATURATED FATS), I decided to dive in a look a little deeper at aspirin.