Editor—If as many as 80% of men and 50% of women over 50 will benefit from taking aspirin then perhaps a non-disease approach should be considered.1 Could the effects of aspirin be mimicking a nutrient missing in the modern/civilised diet? As reported in New Scientist, organically grown vegetable soups contain almost six times more salicylic acid than do non-organic vegetable soups.2 Morgan has suggested that salicylates are essential for good health and could be designated vitamin “S.”3
Many commonly used medicinal herbs contain substances that the body biotransforms to salicylic acid. For example, salicin is found in Salix spp, Populus spp, Viola spp, and Viburnum spp; fraxin is found in Fraxinus spp; and both spiraein and salicylaldehyde are found in Filipendula spp.4,5 These substances are biotransformed after passage through the stomach and so are not associated with the risks of gastrointestinal bleeding, as is aspirin.w1 w2 Salix extracts have several anti-inflammatory targets, including effects on both forms of cyclo-oxygenase.w2
Competing interests: MM is a distributor of herbal and nutritional products.
References w1 and w2 are on bmj.com
References
- 1.Elwood P, Morgan M, Brown G, Pickering J. Aspirin for everyone older than 50?: FOR. BMJ 2005;330: 1440-1. (18 June.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Edwards R. The national choice. New Scientist 2002. Mar 16: 10.
- 3.Morgan GP. An aspirin a day. New Scientist 2004. Feb 7: 36-9.
- 4.Pengelly A. The constituents of medicinal plants. Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CABI Publishing, 2004: 18-9.
- 5.Mills S, Bone K. Principles and practice of phytotherapy. London: Churchill Livingstone, 2004: 61.