If you’re like me, you sometimes take a dose of ibuprofen or aspirin to combat a headache or other aches and pains that just won’t resolve on their own. Did you know though, that aspirin and related painkillers may help protect against skin cancer?
Danish researchers have found that people who took painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen (known as a group as NSAIDS or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) long-term seem to have a lower risk for some forms of skin cancer. The study, recently published in the journal Cancer, involved researchers from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. The group analyzed the medical and prescription records of people in northern Denmark from 1991 through 2009. During that time, about 18,000 of the 200,000 participants had been diagnosed with of one of three types of skin cancer.
Those who filled at least two prescriptions for NSAIDs had a 15 per cent lower risk for developing squamous cell carcinoma and a 13 per cent lower risk of the rarer but more dangerous malignant melanoma.
The higher the dose of NSAIDs and the longer someone was taking the medication, the greater the protection measured. The researchers hope that the potential cancer-protective effect of NSAIDs will inspire more research on skin cancer prevention.
Read more here.
