Long-term use of aspirin can cause blindness

About 19% of American adults take long-term aspirin for headache, joint pain, and heart disease prevention.

According to a report in The New York Times, a new study shows that adults who take aspirin for more than 10 years suffer from eye lesions and even have twice the risk of blindness.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in older adults over the age of 60, and affects the site where the eye controls the details of things. Current treatments can slow blindness but not fully restore vision. In the United States, there are 9.1 million middle-aged people over the age of 40 suffering from this disease. 90% of patients are of the “dry” type. Their vision will gradually become blurred; 10% will be “wet” type, which will generate new ones under the retina. Vascular, and leakage of liquid or blood, wet age-related macular degeneration patients have a greater chance of blindness.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, used a 20-year long-term vision study, "BeaverDamEye," as reference data, and received an eye exam every five years and asked subjects to take medication. The study plan included 4,926 participants aged 43 to 86, including those who took aspirin more than twice a week.

The results of the study showed that the long-term use of aspirin caused a slight increase in the risk of ocular lesions. After considering age and gender, the researchers found that those who took aspirin had a 1.4% chance of having wet age-related macular degeneration, compared with 0.6% for those who did not take aspirin.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in older adults over the age of 60, and affects the site where the eye controls the details of things. Current treatments can slow blindness but not fully restore vision.