November 4, 2014 
People who regularly take aspirin for longer periods of time, such as those who use it to protect against stroke and heart attack, are more likely to lose vision, according to an Australian study conducted on more than two thousand people…
According to the research published in the journal of the American Medical Association JAMA Internal Medicine, people who take aspirin for years have twice the risk of developing wet macular degeneration – the most common cause of vision loss in the elderly.
Scientists say the evidence collected is still not sufficient to change the recommendations in taking these pills, but the results should be kept in mind in the case of people who have already developed macular degeneration in one eye.
Every tenth person of 2389 people, who participated in the study at the University of Sydney, has taken aspirin at least once a week, and participants were an average of 65 years. They were subjected to eye examination after five, 10 and 15 years.
The final results showed that 9.3 percent of patients who took aspirin developed wet macular degeneration compared with 3.7 percent of those who did not take it. ‘Increased risk of wet macular degeneration was detected after 10 or 15 years which suggests that the cumulative effect is important’, the scientists concluded.
Given the widespread use of aspirin, every increase of risk for conditions causing disability are important because they affect many people, the researchers say.
The wet macular degeneration leads to uncontrolled proliferation of blood vessels in the retina that create islands and bleeding. Age, smoking and disease in family are important factors.
Taken from: www.dnevnik.hr