Aspirin and inflammation

I have been on daily aspirin for the past six years on the advice of my cardiologist. Since aspirin is anti inflammatory I have often wondered if it suppresses the immune system to some degree. Also curious to know if it affects inflammatory blood markers such as CRP and ESR. Would be interested in any thoughts on this Thanks

the immune system is a very complex beast

from my reading of the literature on the subject, it is controlled by so many chemical signaling compounds that keep it in equilibrium or triggers it to adjust in many different directions at once to deal with whatever threat it is facing - through many different pathways all occurring at the same time.

what I'm getting at is that the notion that there are compounds that simply turn it up or down, like the temperature dial on an oven, is largely a falsehood devised by marketing departments to sell us stuff.

there are some herbs that are regarded as immune stimulants - like Echinacea Augustofolia - but on the whole most herbs tend to have immunomodulating effects where they raise or decrease a subset of these chemical signals or the expression of their receptors resulting in a more subtle adjustment of the immune response.

as I recall aprins main function in the cardiovascular disease context is to reduce platelet aggregation ( to act as an anti-clotting agent) and it is usually used in rather small doses for that eg 50mg / day

at that dosage, I would not expect and dramatic anti-inflammatory action and perhaps less immune modulation.
in this context, it is being used to treat a symptom, rather than a root cause and in such cases, effects are usually minor to moderate as the upstream root cause is still driving the downstream events. That would include inflammatory markers such as CRP and ESR. ESR is a crude measurement of clotting though, and platelets are involved in that process, so you could see some effects there.

blueize said...
I have been on daily aspirin for the past six years on the advice of my cardiologist.

Is this for heart disease, either currently or previously? Or, are you considered at risk for heart disease?

The reason I ask is due to the guidance on daily, low-dose aspirin having been updated a couple of years ago.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/daily-low-dose-aspirin-found-have-no-effect-healthy-life-span-older-people
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/were-the-old-aspirin-studies-wrong

If you've seen your cardiologist in the past two or three years, then please disregard this post. If not, then maybe a phone call to your cardiologist would be worthwhile, to ensure the daily aspirin is still warranted.

Ah, I see. That's too bad about the Familial Hypercholesterolemia...I hope it's under control. Thanks for reading my note and responding.

wow. that's a pretty large dose of aspirin to take every day!

there are known gastrointestinal effects for a lot of people well below that level, stomach upset and increased risk of internal bleeding I think. it's a bit of a harsh drug to take long term - i think that is one of the factors in the mix when they reconsider the guidance on taking it long term from what i recall.

for the subset of people that have hypercholesterolemia due to genetic disposition - I think it can be related to high TMAO - and there are blood tests for that as well as potential treatments.