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 bark, has been used to treat pain since at least 3,000 B.C.
Aspirin is a powerful weapon to have in your medicine cabinet. It is so potent that if a drug company developed it today, many experts believe it would be available only by prescription.
"Aspirin is the most effective drug we have," Dr. Philip Majerus told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. If we eliminated all but three drugs, he said, aspirin would be one the drugs we should keep.
"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. It's an inexpensive, widely available, first-class painkiller that treats numerous conditions. Here are six of the many ways aspirin works its medical magic:
Headache. Studies have shown aspirin is as effective as the prescription painkiller Imitrex. It eases pain in 60 to 75 percent of patients with tension headaches and in 50 to 60 percent of cases of migraine. 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.
Chronic pain. For many years aspirin was the "gold standard" for relieving the symptoms of arthritis, and according to the University of Iowa Health Care, it's still the standard by which all other pain relievers are measured. Aspirin in high doses is often used round-the-clock to reduce the redness, swelling, and pain of arthritis. Aspirin in lower doses (one or two 325 mg tablets) combats muscle pulls and other minor ailments.
Heart attack. The National Heart Foundation reported a study which found that a daily low-dose aspirin engendered a 26 percent lower risk of having a nonfatal heart attack. Studies have shown that regular use of aspirin by those who have already suffered a heart attack lowers the risk of having a second heart attack, and may even lower the risk of a first heart attack in those patients at high risk. Most experts recommend a baby or low-dose aspirin (81 mg) daily. During an acute heart attack, chewing two full-strength (325mg) tablets can help you survive long enough to get to the emergency room.
Stroke.A study reported by the National Heart Foundation found those who took aspirin had a 25 percent reduction in risk of stroke and a 13 percent reduction in the risk of death compared to patients who didn't take aspirin. Aspirin may prevent ischemic (clot-related) strokes by slightly thinning blood. It interferes with the production of prothrombin, which is necessary for blood clots to form.
Dementia. Population-based studies have found that a daily low-dose aspirin can slow and even prevent the onset of dementia, including Alzheimer's. A study of more than 3,000 people in Utah found that people who took aspirin, Advil, or Ibuprofen four times a week for longer than two years, reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's by 45 percent. Experts theorize that Alzheimer's is caused by inflammation, which aspirin fights. The other theory is that aspirin's anti-inflammatory characteristics keep memory-destroying amyloid plaques from forming.
Cancer. A recent study of more than 4,000 nurses found that those who took aspirin had a 50 percent reduced risk of dying from the disease, and a 50 percent reduced risk that the disease would spread. Aspirin may also keep prostate cancer from returning. A study from the University of Chicago found that anti-clotting medication, such as aspirin, reduced the recurrence rate by 46 percent.
Aspirin also fights colon cancer. An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients who used aspirin after being diagnosed with colon cancer had a 29 percent lower risk of dying from cancer than aspirin nonusers. In addition, those who used aspirin for the first time after a diagnosis of colon cancer reduced their risk of colorectal death by 47 percent. Researchers believe aspirin may control cancer cells by fighting inflammation.
Aspirin may even fight deadly lung cancer. A study from New York University School of medicine found that aspirin may lower the chances of developing lung cancer by 50 percent.
For pain, most experts recommend a dosage of two 325 mg tablets every four hours.
Aspirin should not be given to children with chicken pox or flu, which has been linked with Reye's syndrome, an often fatal disease.
Read more in the September issue of Newsmax magazine.
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