Two new reports on aspirin studies: One offers hope for those facing liver damage. The second presents the latest thinking on dosage levels.

• The aspirin and liver damage study is still in clinical trials:
  

  Aspirin may be good for your liver, protecting it against damage from too much Tylenol and possibly even from obesity and alcohol abuse, according to a new study by a Yale physician.

  A study by Dr. Wajahat Mehal, published in Monday’s edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows liver damage can be prevented by low doses of aspirin. Mehal is associate professor in the Department of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine…

  [Mehal] said the dosage still has to be worked out, but that it would be low enough not to cause stomach damage. “It’ll be in the range we know people can take, in the milligram range,” he said…

  [Those] who take low-dose aspirin to protect against heart attacks and stroke likely would not receive the benefit to the liver from a daily 81-milligram dose because the protective effect would not last long enough. “The anti-inflammatory effect [lasts] much less than a day,” Mehal said. Small doses several times a day is the more likely regimen, he said.

  Patients should not ask their doctors about taking aspirin for liver damage yet, though, Mehal said. “I can’t tell them which dose to give their patients. I can’t tell them how frequently to take it. … They don’t have the information to write a [prescription].”

• The dosage study found that for protecting against heart attack and stroke, most adults only need the equivalent of one baby aspirin per day:
  

  The … report in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at almost 15,600 adults at risk of cardiovascular events who were taking various aspirin doses daily.

  It found that lower doses of the medication — between 75 and 81 milligrams — were as effective as higher doses. Meanwhile, higher doses (above 100 milligrams) appeared to be associated with a greater chance of internal bleeding.