The claimEvidence A · guideline-tier
Aspirin 60+ for primary cardiovascular prevention
The evidence
The US Preventive Services Task Force withdrew its recommendation for people 60 and over in 2022: the bleeding risk outweighs the heart and blood-vessel benefit, a net harm.
The mechanism, in brief
The heart is a pump that never stops for a lifetime, and it has to eat and drink too: it needs a steady supply of energy, a few minerals, and oxygen to keep contracting, beat after beat.
Sources (4)
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2021). Potassium — Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2022). Magnesium — Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2024). Calcium — Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2024). Iron — Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. Fact sheet (updated September 4, 2025; Wayback snapshot 21 September 2026): RDAs 8 mg/day for men and for women 51+, 18 mg women 19-50, 27 mg pregnancy; UL 45 mg/day from age 14; bioavailability about 14%-18% from mixed diets with meat, seafood and vitamin C and 5%-12% from vegetarian diets; serum ferritin below 30 mcg/L suggests iron deficiency and below 10 mcg/L IDA, but inflammation can raise ferritin; supplemental iron of 45 mg/day or more may cause nausea and constipation; people with hereditary hemochromatosis are at risk of iron overload (fact sheet). Heme vs nonheme: heme iron (lean meat and seafood are the richest sources) has higher bioavailability than nonheme iron, and other dietary components affect it less; calcium might reduce the bioavailability of both forms; heme iron is about 10%-15% of total iron intake in western populations. The sheet gives no separate heme and nonheme absorption percentages (fact sheet, Wayback 2026 snapshot).