Prevention | Integrative Medicine > Aspirin / Vitamin E

Abstract

Eric J. Jacobs, PhD; Michael J. Thun, MD

This issue of JAMA includes 2 articles from the Women’s Health Study (WHS).^1-2 
This 10-year long, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of low-dose aspirin and vitamin E included nearly 40 000 predominantly middle-aged women with no history of cancer or cardiovascular disease.³ 
The WHS used a 2 x 2 factorial design to evaluate the effects of low-dose aspirin (100 mg) taken every other day and 600 IU of vitamin E (in the form of natural-source -tocopherol), also taken every other day. 
Neither alternate-day, low-dose aspirin nor vitamin E showed any evidence of efficacy in reducing overall cancer incidence or mortality.^1-2 
With respect to noncancer outcomes, notable findings for low-dose aspirin included a reduction in stroke risk, no apparent effect on myocardial infarction, and an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding requiring transfusion.⁴ 
Vitamin E had no apparent effect . . . [Full Text of this Article]