​Aspirin is an amazing drug. And also one of the oldest. A precurser to aspirin was found in leaves from the willow tree and has been used medicinally for several thousand years. In 1853, a German chemist developed an early version of the drug In 1897, scientists at the Bayer company began studying acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement medication for common salicylate medicines. They named it “Aspirin” and sold it around the world. The rest, as they say, is history.

​We all know aspirin as a common medicine to thin blood, alleviate back pain, avoid headaches, and reduce fevers. But the ability to aspirin to affect many other medical conditions is still being studied. And new benefits are being found.

​A new study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute has found that taking aspirin as infrequently as one to three times a month reduced the risk of all-cause and cancer-related mortality in older adults. Weekly use of aspirin reduced mortality from both gastrointestinal and colorectal cancer, as well as reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease.

The study was initially begun to determine whether the benefits of aspirin worked differently for obese and non-obese patients. The findings were that the apparent protective effects of aspirin were not diminished for overweight/obese individuals.

The study participants were in the age group from 50-59. For older patients, it is not clear that the same protective advantages outweigh the negative effects, such as stomach bleeding or excessively thinned blood, and further studies are planned.

Read more here: [Low-Dose Aspirin May Cut Cancer Risk](https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20191204/low-dose-aspirin-might-cut-cancer-risk-especially-for-overweight-people#1)