Aspirin may prevent asthma, study shows

Daily use of household cure-all could reduce chance of developing lung inflammation

By: Ryan Foster

Posted: 4/30/07

After recent studies, people may no longer have to dread Mother Nature and her ability to take away their breath and vitality away every time winter comes to an end.

Scientists have discovered that daily aspirin use may prevent healthy adults from developing asthma, according to a recent five-year study by Dr. Tobias Kurth, of the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition of the lungs that affects roughly 20 percent of American adults.

An asthma attack can occur for a variety of reasons, such as allergies, cold air, exercise, exertion or emotional stress. All of these triggers obstruct air flow and cause the lung's airways to constrict.

Michaelene Jansen, nurse practitioner and professor with the Adult Health Nursing Department, said asthma is most often triggered by environmental elements.

Seasonal irritation is usually brought on by pollen in the spring and ragweed in the fall. However, Jansen said continual asthma cases are sometimes caused by heightened sensitivity to circumstantial elements, such as cat dander and dust mites.

In Kurth's study, adult women who frequently took aspirin developed asthma only 60 percent as often as did women who had never taken it.

Jansen said aspirin use is limited to adults only. Since the early 1980s, doctors have been hesitant to give aspirin to children, even for mild cold relief, due to its potential risk in increasing the likelihood of Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal liver disease. This is what gave rise to the popular cold medicine painkiller alternative, acetaminophen, an analgesic and fever reducer, Jansen said.

Acetaminophen doesn't reduce inflammation as aspirin, ibuprofen, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as naproxen, do. Jansen said aspirin itself is a mild anti-inflammatory drug which could help fight bronchial inflammation.

She said aspirin inhibits a hormone known as prostaglandin, which is a mediator responsible for soothing muscles and combating inflammatory properties in lung infections.

Jansen said acetaminophen, however, has no such anti-inflammatory effects and has no beneficial effects on fighting lung inflammation, or asthma.

Jansen also said the most common treatment for an acute asthma attack is through the use of a bronchodilator, which acts quickly to relax tightened muscles around airways so they can open and allow more air to flow through.

Maintenance use of an inhaled corticosteroid inhaler is essential for controlling asthma symptoms on an ongoing basis, she said.

With new research on pre-existing medicine revealing surprising results and engineers developing tools to better cure breathing ailments, the future may be a bit brighter for those afflicted with asthma, allergies and similar lung inflammatory problems.

But, people should still contact their doctors prior to regularly taking aspirin for asthma treatment. According to the National Institute of Health, "the drug is known to provoke attacks in a small fraction of people - 3 to 5 percent - who already have asthma."