Millions of people take low-dose aspirin daily for their cardiovascular health, but because of the risk of bleeding many wonder if it’s a good idea. But now comes a new study that shows the benefits of aspirin outweigh any risks.

Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death and disability across the world, and research has shown that a small daily dose of aspirin can reduce the occurrence of both diseases by around 20-30 percent.

Recent research has also shown that low-doses of aspirin given to patients with cancer, alongside chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, is an effective additional treatment, reducing the deaths of patients with bowel, and possibly other cancers, by a further 15 percent.

But some health experts have cautioned against aspirin use, noting that, in some people, it can cause stomach bleeding.

In order to put this risk in perspective, a team of U.K. researchers recently reviewed an extensive number of medical studies that revealed that although stomach bleeds could occur, they are considerably less serious than the spontaneous bleeds that can occur in people not taking the drug, they say.

They also found that while regular use of the drug increases the risk of stomach bleeds by about half, there is no valid evidence that any of these bleeds are fatal.

"Although many people use aspirin daily to reduce the risk of health problems such as cancer and heart disease, the wider use of the drug is severely limited because of the side effect of bleeding from the stomach,” says Peter Elwood, who was involved in the study.

“With our study showing that there is no increased risk of death from stomach bleeding in people who take regular aspirin, we hope there will be better confidence in the drug and wider use of it by older people, leading to important reductions in deaths and disablement from heart disease and cancer across the community.”

The study appears in the journal Public Library of Science.