This weeks article comes from Consumer Reports and addresses a medicine tens of millions of Americans take everyday. With all of the back and forth on the risks and benefits, we felt it was appropriate to share.

There’s always a balance to strike between the benefits and side effects of a medicine. That balance is even finer when the medicine is being taken to prevent an illness, rather than to treat existing symptoms.

We’ve seen that in areas fracture prevention, where women are sometimes advised to take drugs bisphosphonates, to prevent their bones from getting weaker and breaking. How do you know how ly someone is to have a fracture, and whether reducing that risk can outweigh the risk of side effects, such as cancer of the esophagus?

That’s why I’m cautious about a new study that suggests regular low-dose aspirin may prevent cases of colon and rectal cancer . This isn’t the first time that aspirin has been suggested as a preventive treatment for these types of cancer, although study results have been mixed. There have been a number of observational studies suggesting a link, and also several randomized controlled trials that didn’t find any benefit.

Now a new observational study says that taking the lowest dose of aspirin (75 mg) every day, for at least a year, may cut the chances of being diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer. The study looked at men and women in Scotland, where rates of colon and rectal cancer are highe...