Generic Aspirin pain medication pills are shown in the pharmacy of the J.W.C.H. safety-net clinic in the center of skid row in downtown Los Angeles, July 30, 2007.
Generic Aspirin pain medication pills are shown in the pharmacy of the J.W.C.H. safety-net clinic in the center of skid row in downtown Los Angeles, July 30, 2007. Reuters/Stringer

A medical trial, ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE), was funded by National Institutes of Health, one of the world's foremost medical research centres in the US, is in process in Australia. The trial will check whether aspirin could help delaying the onset of dementia as well as in the prevention of a few types of cancers, deafness and blindness. Aspirin has been recognised previously in the prevention of stroke as well as heart attack. It is used for many purposes like in the cure of headaches and for hangovers.

The trial is a joint project between the Berman Centre for Outcomes and Clinical Research, a clinical site that has conducted over 100 trials in kidney and heart-related diseases, and Monash University School of Public Health. The trial is considered to be the biggest medical trial that is being conducted in Australia as it recruited its 19,000th participant recently, reported the Age.

The study started of initially with the aim of studying the effects of aspirin in preventing the development of stroke as well as heart attacks. Now, the study has progressed in such a way that it is being determined if the drug could help keep dementia patients active, increase their disability-free years and keep them out of nursing homes for a longer period of time. It was found that salicin, which is an active ingredient of aspirin, had an anti-inflammatory effect and was derived from the willow tree.

The anti-inflammatory effect could help the people who might have low-grade inflammation in the eyes, ears, muscles, brain and other areas of the body. This, in turn, could trigger deafness, dementia as well as blindness.

The chief investigator of the study, Professor John McNeill, said that the important issue regarding elderly people was the question of how to keep them as healthy as possible. He added that the issue had become a priority for medicine. He explained that there was a hypothesis that the inflammation might be damaging and so one of the things that they were considering was if low doses of aspirin might suppress the inflammation.

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