Have you heard of the miracle drug that costs pennies and could save 100,000 lives a year? It's aspirin, and it's been around for a while. Although the aspirin we know today has been in pill form for more than 100 years, its active ingredient, which is found in willow tree bark, has been used to treat pain since at least 3,000 B.C.
"Aspirin is the most effective drug we have," Dr. Philip Majerus told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"To the consumer, it is almost a miracle drug," Nimita Thekkepat, assistant professor of pharmacy at St. Louis College of Pharmacy, told the Post-Dispatch. "It helps inflammation, fever, and it can save your life."
Aspirin works by preventing the production of prostaglandins that regulate pain and inflammation. That's great when it comes to treating pain and other conditions, but it's also the cause of aspirin's main side effect — stomach bleeding. It blocks the prostaglandins that protect the stomach lining.
But aspirin has a host of advantages. Here are six of the many ways aspirin works its medical magic:
1. Ease headaches
Studies have shown aspirin is as effective as the prescription painkiller Imitrex. It eases pain in up to 75 percent of patients with tension headaches and in up to 60 percent of migraines. One British study of high-dose aspirin found it was effective in relieving both pain and nausea. "Aspirin 900 mg or 1,000 mg is an effective treatment for acute migraine headaches, with participants in these studies experiencing reduction in both pain and associated symptoms, such as nausea and photophobia," Henry J. McQuay, DM, of the University of Oxford in England, and co-authors said in a statement.
