The Aspirin Alternative Your Doctor Never Told You About

The Aspirin Alternative Your Doctor Never Told You About By Sayer Ji for Green Med Info

Millions use aspirin daily without realizing its true dangers. The good news is that there is a natural alternative which preliminary research indicates is safer and more effective.

WARNING: Never discontinue a pharmaceutical product without the guidance of a physician. Doing so could have serious, if not life-threatening side effects. This article is for informational purposes only. Nothing here is intended as or should be substituted for medical advice. 

Aspirin is taken faithfully by millions every day as a preventive measure against heart attack, often without the user having any awareness of the serious health risks associated with it, some potentially fatal. You can view over 60 adverse effects of aspirin on the GreenMedInfo.com’s aspirin research page if you have any doubts about how serious a concern this is.

Indeed, only a few days ago, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published a final recommendation statement on aspirin advising AGAINST starting its use for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in individuals aged 60 years or older. A battery of mainstream news media headlines followed their announcement, such as:

• NPR: Older adults shouldn’t start a routine of daily aspirin, task force says
• ABC NEWS: Aspirin no longer recommended to prevent 1st heart attack, stroke for most adults over 60
• CNN: Task force’s updated guidelines do not recommend daily aspirin for heart health for most adults

Aspirin’s widespread popularity is based on its much-touted blood-thinning properties, and a now debunked widespread belief that it can prevent cardiovascular disease. Thankfully, there are safer, surprisingly more effective and far more natural alternatives on the market today.

For instance, pycnogenol, a branded form of an extract of French maritime pine bark, can be found on the shelves of thousands of health food stores around the country, and unique among natural products, has a broad base of human clinical research supporting its use for a wide variety of health conditions. You can view GreenMedInfo.com’s pycnogenol research page take a look at the published research.

Moreover, in cross comparison tests, pycnogenol has been found at least as effective as aspirin in preventing blood from clotting, but at significantly lower doses and with a superior safety profile.

Smoker’s Study Proves Pycnogenol More Effective and Safer Than Aspirin

In a previous article titled, “The Powerful Aspirin Alternative That Grows on Trees,” we featured a 1999 clinical study published in Thrombotic Research that found that when habitual smokers were given either 500 mg of aspirin or anywhere between 100-200 mg of pycnogenol, the pycnogenol group experienced equivalent platelet aggregation inhibiting effects but with much lower bleeding times:

“Thus, smoking-induced enhanced platelet aggregation was inhibited by 500 mg Aspirin as well as by a lower range of 100-125 mg Pycnogenol. Aspirin significantly (p<0.001) increased bleeding time from 167 to 236 seconds while Pycnogenol did not.These observations suggest an advantageous risk-benefit ratio for Pycnogenol.” 

This is a highly significant finding, as aspirin-induced bleeding can result in significantly increased morbidity and mortality. One might ask, if pycnogenol is as effective a ‘blood thinner’ as aspirin but without the same side effects, then what is the downside of using the natural alternative?

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Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.