Aspirin Use Linked to Pancreatic Cancer

By Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

A recent study released from findings gathered from the longitudinal Nurses Health Study
at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found women who had taken at least two aspirin tablets per week for twenty years or more experienced a 58 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer than women who did not use aspirin. The increased risk for pancreatic cancer ranged from 86 percent among women who took fourteen or more aspirin tablets a week, a 41 percent increased risk for taking six to thirteen tablets per week, and a 29 percent increase for four to six tablets per week.

The Nurses Health Study, initiated in 1976 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the ongestrunning major women’s health study ever undertaken.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer. Very few survive for five years after this diagnosis.The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2003 about 30,000 will die from this disease. Other factors,such as eating a diet low in fruits and vegetables and high in meat, cheese, and processed foods, also have been shown to be associated with pancreatic cancer.

Utilizing drugs to combat the effects of a disease-causing diet, rather than removing the dietary
causes of disease, will always be less than optimally effective, and for some, it will be deadly.