Acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin, is an analgesic (pain-killing), antipyretic (fever-reducing), and anti-inflammatory sold without a prescription as tablets, capsules, powders, or suppositories. The drug reduces pain and fever, is believed to decrease the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and may deter colon cancer and help prevent premature birth.Often called the wonder drug, aspirin can have serious side effects, such as irritating the stomach lining, causing Reye's syndrome in children between the ages of three and 15 years, adversely affecting breathing in people with sinusitis or asthma, and possibility delaying the onset of labor in full term pregnancies. More more accidental poisoning deaths in children under five years of age and 10% of all accidentalor suicidal episodes reported by hospitals are related to aspirin.
In the mid-to-late 1700s, English clergyman Edward Stone chewed on a piece of willow bark and discovered its analgesic property. The bark's active ingredient was isolated in 1827 and named salicin for the Greek word salix, meaning willow. Salicylic acid, first produced from salicin in 1838 and synthetically from phenol in 1860, was effective in treating rheumatic fever and gout, but caused severe nausea and intestinal discomfort. In 1898, a chemist named Felix Hoffmann, working at Bayer Laboratories in Germany and whose father suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, synthesized acetylsalicylic acid in a successful attempt to eliminate the side effects of salicylic acid, which until then was the only drug that eased his father's pain. The process for making large quantities of acetylsalicylic acid was patented, and aspirin--named for its ingredients acetyl and spiralic (salicylic) acid--became available by prescription. Its popularity was immediate and worldwide. It became available without a prescription in the United in 1915.
Aspirin's recommended therapeutic adult dosage ranges from 600-1000 milligrams and works best against "tolerable" pain; extreme pain is virtually unaffected, as is pain in internal organs. Aspirin inhibits (blocks) production of hormones (chemical substances formed by the body) called prostaglandins that may be released by an injured cell, triggering release of two other hormones that sensitize nerves to pain. The blocking action prevents this response and is believed to work in a similar way to prevent tissue inflammation. Remarkably, aspirin only acts on cells producing prostaglandins--for instance, injured cells. Its effect lasts approximately four hours.
Aspirin also reduces fever by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins in the hypothalamus, a portion of the brain that regulates such functions as heart rate and body temperature. The body naturally reduces its heat through perspiration and the dilation (expansion) of blood vessels. Prostaglandins released in the hypothalamus inhibit the body's natural heat-reducing mechanism. As aspirin blocks these prostaglandins, the hypothalamus is free to regulate body temperature.
Another prostaglandin that is inhibited by aspirin is thromboxane A2, which aids platelet aggregation (accumulation of blood cells). Because aspirin inhibits thromboxane production, thus "thinning the blood," it is frequently prescribed in low doses over long periods for at-risk patients to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
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