Aspirin Linked to Blinding Eye Disease

Aspirin Linked to Blinding Eye Disease

By Brenda Goodman, MA

WebMD Health News

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/news/20130118/aspirin-blinding-eye-disease

Jan. 22, 2013 -- Regular aspirin users are more likely to develop the “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration compared to people who rarely or never take the drug, a new study shows.

Aspirin is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. Millions of people with heart disease take a daily low dose of aspirin in hopes of preventing heart attacks and stroke. It’s also used to ease pain.

Macular degeneration is a leading cause of blindness in older adults, and it is on the rise. The “wet” form accounts for only about 10% to 15% of cases, but it progresses more rapidly and is more likely to lead to vision loss than the “dry” form.

In “wet” macular degeneration, tiny new blood vessels grow under the retina, the light-sensing part of the eye. These blood vessels break open and leak, causing scar tissue to form. Over time, the scar tissue clouds central vision. It’s not clear why this happens.

Both kinds of macular degeneration become more common as people age. Beyond age, the only risk factor that’s consistently been linked to the condition is smoking.

News that aspirin may be linked to macular degeneration surfaced last year when a large European study found that regular aspirin users were more likely to develop the sight-stealing disease. Before that, two large studies found no association between aspirin and macular degeneration. Another study had even suggested that aspirin might protect against the “dry” form of the disease.

Aspirin and Macular Degeneration

For the new study, researchers in Australia followed more than 2,000 older adults. Doctors conducted detailed interviews at the start of the study, asking people about a variety of diet and lifestyle habits, including medication use. About 11% of people (257) were regular aspirin users, meaning they'd taken the drug at least once a week in the past year.

Study participants had regular eye exams to check for changes to their retinas.

Fifteen years later, 63 people in the study -- 15 regular aspirin users and 48 who rarely or never took it -- had developed “wet” macular degeneration.

Compared to people who never took aspirin, regular users were more than twice as likely to develop macular degeneration. That was true even after researchers accounted for other things known to influence a person’s risk for macular degeneration, including age, sex, smoking, heart disease, BMI, and high blood pressure.

The findings are published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Study Strengths and Limitations

The study doesn’t prove that aspirin causes macular degeneration. Different kinds of studies are needed to understand whether aspirin may directly harm the eye.

But one theory is that aspirin ramps up a part of the immune system called the complement system. Many people with macular degeneration carry a form of a gene that keeps them from being able to turn down the complement system when needed. Researchers say the result is that the immune system may be chronically overstimulated, causing damage to the back of the eye.

Aspirin

Bayer AG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_AG

The Bayer company then became part of IG Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps, notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[3] IG Farben owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,[4] a chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in prison during the IG Farben Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, was made head of the supervisory board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.

Note: Klaus Kleinfeld is a director at Bayer AG, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary for Bayer AG.

Mayer Brown was the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.

Report: Document shows surveillance of US law firm (Past Research on Mayer Brown)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2014/02/report-document-shows-surveillance-of.html

Robert A. Helman is a partner at Mayer Brown, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Newton N. Minow is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare.

Bayer HealthCare is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary for Bayer AG.

Mayer Brown was the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.

William M. Daley was a partner at Mayer Brown, the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William M. Daley 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Daley

Professional career 

Daley returned to the practice of law, as a partner with the firm Mayer Brown (then Mayer, Brown & Platt) from 1993 to 1997.