Aspirin 'causes brain to bleed'

Published on Tuesday 14 April 2009 22:03

ASPIRIN may cause bleeding in the brain, according to new research.

Brain scans of 1,062 people found a 70 per cent higher incidence of microscopic bleeding among those taking the drug or carbasalate calcium, a close chemical relative, than among those not taking such anti-clotting medication.

It was already known that anti-clotting medications carry a small risk for bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.

But the new findings by Dutch researchers suggest they can also raise the odds of "cerebral microbleeds" in the brain.