Aspirin Levels in Plant Foods
Why people eating healthy diets may have aspirin in their bloodstream even if they don’t take any.
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Supplementary Info
Aspirin Levels in Plant Foods,
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Acknowledgements
Image thanks to comprock.
Transcript
Inflammation plays a key role in a number of disease processes, including dementia, heart disease, and certain cancers. This is why doctors recommend some patients take an aspirin every day for prevention. Recently, though, researchers found that even people who don’t take aspirin have a certain level of aspirin, salicylic acid, in their bloodstream. Very low levels, but not all zero. How did it get there at all if they weren’t taking any?
Well, aspirin was originally extracted from the bark of the willow tree, so researchers started to wonder if it might be found in other plants as well, and it turns out aspirin is widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom—plants use it to prevent disease too.
So, if it’s found in plants, what about the blood levels of those eating plant-based diets? Vegetarians naturally have healthy low levels of aspirin coursing through their systems, because they eat more plants—as much as some people who take aspirin as a drug. The problem with the drug is that it increases our risk of bleeding, like hemorrhagic stroke. But some studies find vegetarians have lower risk of bleeding into their brain, so by eating a plant-based diet one might be able to get some of the benefits of taking aspirin, without some of the risks.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org
Doctor's Note
Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out theother videos on vegetarians. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!
For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: Inflammation, Diet, and"Vitamin S", Fighting Inflammation with Food Synergy, and The Most Anti-Inflammatory Mushroom.
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Michael Greger M.D.
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