Yeah something seems fucky about this, especially that it's from Washington Compost. From what I understand, Aspirin is just a concentrate of the Willow Root, it's just one ingredient and something your body is familiar with since it's derived from a natural occurring wild root. The acid just goes around the body clearing plaque from blood vessels. I was a smoker for a few years and not to mention all the gunky foods I was eating so I decided to use it for a while and noticeably felt better. The medicine has been so advanced and concentrated that it doesn't have the same side-effects as it did even 30 years ago. Back then aspirin would alleviate a lot of problems for people but still cause stomach issues. Now the acid that's used has been so isolated that you only get the benefits. I personally take one every morning with ephedrine as they synergize with one another. You can add caffeine to it and you'd now be taking the ACE (aspirin, caffeine, ephedrine) stack which a lot of bodybuilders used back in the day to burn fat and boost metabolism. Don't overdo it obviously since bodybuilders are known to take 10-100x the normal dose of something and they were known to drop dead of heart attacks because of this stack not to mention everything else they were using.
It is worth mentioning that relying on big pharma is still risky since Aspirin is owned by Bayer and they can "accidentally" lace your medicine with cyanide which has actually happened in the past.