Guest Speaker

Dennis Shean introduced Gillian O’Brien who is from Monash University in Albury and is working on an Aspirin Project. It is called ASPREE , which stands for Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly. It is being funded by the Australian and American Federal Governments.

It is a large study involving nineteen thousand people.

It is a double blind study controlled trial of 100 mgs of Aspirin and a placebo over a period of 5 years.  It is restricted to people over the age of 70. As the life expectancy has increased so much, it is in everyone’s interest to help maintain the health of the elderly.

This will be the first study to verify whether it is beneficial for older people to take low-dose daily aspirin.

For people who have had heart attack or a stroke, it is a given that they should take daily aspirin.  But, should it be used as a broad spectrum preventative?   ASPREE hopefully, will help answer this question. Gillian proceeded to give a history of Aspirin.  It is available in over 80 countries and is regarded as the most successful non-prescription medication of all time.  Aspirin acts as a blood thinner. Aspirin also acts an anti-inflammatory which may help with dementia.  It also may help with some cancers.

Studies have been done on the effects of Aspirin with middle aged people, but this is the first study dealing with the elderly and the benefit of taking low-dosage aspirin. There are sub-studies dealing with sleep apnoea and macular degeneration.

The dose used as a blood thinner is lower than what is used for pain relief.

For any more information please contact 1800 728 745 or visit www.aspree.org

The cost of the study is 50 Million U.S. dollars.

John Smith gave the Vote of Thanks.  John said that since Gillian deals with the elderly, everyone in Wollundry qualifies except for Nelson and himself.