Aspirin?

[marcusmarcusrc]

So, my mom has gotten hold of the forwarding bug, and in return, I have taken to consulting snopes fairly frequently in the hopes of limiting the wrongness that is being forwarded around the internet. Recently, she forwarded a document which accused aspirin of being responsible for a very large number of deaths, mainly due to the very large number of aspirin consumed, with blood thinning being the mortality factor. My google-fu failed me: while I was able to come up with a large number of websites citing the deaths (including some accusing aspirin of 1918 Spanish Flu mortality), none of them were what I considered to be reputable sources, and in contrast, I was unable to find any reputable sources which discussed the aspirin mortality claim either pro-or-con.

(the aspirin-Reyes syndrome link seems more solid, as do the benefits of aspirin for several conditions)

Any of my medically-competent friends want to weigh in here?

Comments

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

The problem with evidence of absence is that the sillier the claim, the less likely it is that anyone competent felt the need to debunk it. If I propose that schizophrenia is caused by radiation from turnips, you'll never be able to find any conclusive research to the contrary.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Really? Turnips? I guess I better stop eating them, then...


I see what you mean, but when something has elevated itself to spam status (google "aspirin deaths"), I usually expect to be able to find a rebuttal. If I google "schizophrenia turnip" I'm not going to... oh, my.

http://m.fark.com/comments/6889670/Schizophrenia-could-be-a-profound-form-of-jetlag-in-which-turnips-central-heating-clockwasher-runs-counter-culture-to-individually-wrapped-Twinkies-creamy-centers

Apparently you are not the first to suggest the schizophrenia-turnip connection.