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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Letters

Will a lick of aspirin a day keep heart attacks at bay?

Aspirin tablets and an aspirin bottle.
‘When we pressed [Sir Richard Doll] for a definitive dose, he replied that he kept an aspirin in the bathroom and licked it every day.’ Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

I remember as a medical student in the early 1980s hearing the late, great epidemiologist Sir Richard Doll talk about the importance of aspirin in reducing fatal heart attacks (Daily aspirin unlikely to help healthy people to live longer, 17 September). Sir Richard was well aware of the risks of internal bleeding. The solution he suggested was dosage – only a tiny amount of aspirin is needed to protect the heart. When we pressed him for a definitive dose, he replied that he kept an aspirin in the bathroom and licked it every day.
Lore Feldberg
Bath

• The answer seems obvious to me (Discounted admission tickets for over-60s in UK ‘unfair to young’, 17 September). Keep the discounts on weekdays for the people who have the time and money to visit museums and galleries. On weekends swap the discount to families.
Annette Dent
Keighley, West Yorkshire

• Why do you describe the growth in the use of e-bikes as a “craze” (Report, 15 September)? It’s the most positive thing to happen in urban transport in years. E-bikes are popular for good reason because they can replace most car journeys in town. At last there is hope that their use will bring about an end to the carnage on our roads caused by the misguided craze for driving.
Carolyn Coupland
Bath

• Re possible post-Brexit copyright issues concerning health warnings on cigarette packets (13 September), and in the spirit of blue passports, perhaps British artists could be commissioned to replace them – David Hockney, for instance, immediately comes to mind.
Richard Benedict
Blo’ Norton, Norfolk

• There is a god (Our new TV critic: Lucy Mangan, 17 September)!
Jane Hesketh
North Queensferry, Fife

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition

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