Aspirin
AspirinAspirin is in the purses and backpacks of over millions of people around the world. Americans consume more than 80 billion tablets of aspirin a year. The drug has an incredible past and an amazing future. The past of aspirin reaches as far back as Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C. where he used a powder from a willow tree to ease aches and pains. To the future in laboratories and clinics where scientists are looking for new uses for this “Wonder Drug.”
Aspirin is in the family of chemicals called salicylates. Many people who practice medicine for many centuries have known the chemicals in this family. The first mention of Aspirin was by the father of medicine Hippocrates who wrote about a bitter powder extracted from the bark of a willow tree. He wrote about the success of the bark in curing aches and pains. The chemical in the bark is a chemical known as salicin. The chemical than can be converted by the body into salicylic acid. The man who uncovered this was a pharmacist known as Leroux in 1829. He discovered that in high doses the chemical can reduce pain and swelling especially for arthritis. The only problem with this chemical is that it caused severe stomach irritation (Hoffman 2).
Than in August 1897 in comes German industrial chemist Felix Hoffmann. Who set out to find a drug to ease his father’s arthritis and that wouldn’t cause stomach irritation as with the salicylate. The salicylate was the only drug available at that time to ease the pain of arthritis. So Hoffmann set out to find a less acidic formula for the chemical. All the searching led him to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid also known as ASA which chemical formula is C9H8O4.The compound is similar to salicylate but has a therapeutic property that will not cause stomach irritation. His studies found that ASA reduced fever, relieved moderate pain, and at high doses relieved arthritis (Flieger 1). But than in 1897 Hoffmann’s superiors doubted him they didn’t believe that ASA would become valuable and didn’t think it had been tested enough. By 1899 however one of Bayer’s, the company who employed Hoffmann, top chemist’s a man named Dreser finished demonstrating the usefulness of the drug and gave it a new name Aspirin. The name came from a plant relative of the rose the makes salicylic acid. At this time Bayer now supported the medicine and spread the word to market the new pill to the world. This is the beginning of how the Wonder Drug became the worlds most known drug.
Aspirin is a very interesting drug in the way it works and how it actually heals. The main ingredient in aspirin ASA inhibits chemical processes within the body including natural physiological processes causing pain and inflammation (”Aspirin” 1). Aspirin relieves pain by inhibiting the production of chemicals in the body called prostaglandins. ASA stops the body’s response to a chain of chemical processes that lead to pain. This process of stopping pain was so complex that it took more than 70 years to uncover. The man who uncovered it was a British pharmacologist named John Vane who had a Ph.D. Vane showed that blocking the synthesis of prostaglandins, aspirin prevented blood platelets from aggregating which is one of the steps in the formation of blood clots. Aspirin is also an antipyretic compound, which means it could help reduce fever (”Aspirin” 1).
Aspirin inhibits cyclooxygenase or COX to provide cardiovascular benefits and pain-relieving properties when taken. Scientists discovered early that there are two forms of this enzyme. They are COX-1 and COX-2, Cox-1 is largely responsible for protecting the lining of the stomach and Cox-2 is responsible for its role in triggering pain and inflammation (”Aspirin & Cox-2 inhibitors” 1). COX-2 drugs supposedly reduce pain and inflammation while at the same time cause little damage to the gastrointestinal system. The only downside is that COX-2 drugs don’t show the same lifesaving cardiovascular benefits that the regular aspirin display.
As the interest in how ASA helped reduce pain inflammation and arthritis scientist became interested in the way ASA stopped blood from clotting. As we all know a heart attack results in the blockage of blood flow to the heart which leads to the area not getting enough blood supply which ends up with the muscle dying. The events that lead up to a heart attack are the gradual build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries. The blockage leads to the person getting chest pains and subsequently a heart attack. About 1,250,000 people suffer from heart attacks each year in the U.S. and 500,000 of them die (Flieger 2). Tests were ran on people with cardiovascular conditions and proved that ASA reduced their risk of myocardial infarction if they take ASA regularly.
After all these studies on ASA uses scientist figured out that ASA had some other uses also. It could prevent migraine headaches, increasing circulation in the gums, preventing some forms of cataracts, lowering the risk reoccurrence of colorectal cancer, and controlling high blood pressure (Flieger 4). But none of these uses for aspirin have been proven to be safe and effective in a clinical study.
For many years it was assumed that Aspirin would not benefit women as well as it benefited men. For many years middle aged women believed that cardiovascular health was less of a concern. But we now know that cardiovascular disease claims more women’s lives than it does men’s lives (”Aspirin and Women” 1). With many studies done to show the benefits of ASA in women people have gained knowledge in how ASA benefits women. In a study published in 1996, Effect of Aspirin in women with Symptomatic or Silent Myocardial Ischemia in the American Journal of Cardiology further showed the effect of Aspirin on women’s health (”Aspirin” 8). The study states that women with identified risk factors for cardiovascular disease have benefited more from taking ASA. It also states that of the women studies only 2.7 percent of the women taking ASA died compared to 5.1 percent of women not taking ASA. And finally the patients taking ASA had a 33 percent reduction in death from cardiovascular disease (”How Aspirin Works” 9).
Even with all the ways that Aspirin helps people it isn’t all good. Say if you get a cut from hitting yourself with a hammer and you take an aspirin to stop the pain and swelling. But by taking the aspirin it may take longer for the blood to clot and therefore stop bleeding. It is also an irritant to the stomach especially if you take high doses like in arthritis cases. Aspirin is also not very good for kids who are suffering from flu, chickenpox, or other viral ailments. Giving aspirin to kids with these sicknesses could potentially cause the deadly problem called Reye Syndrome. Aspirin changes the way your kidneys make urine and can cause some people to have trouble breathing. It also causes gastrointestinal distress, nausea, heartburn and pain (Flieger 4). Aspirin’s antiplatelet activity also can account for hemorrhagic strokes, which is caused by bleeding into the brain in a small percentage of people who use the drug regularly. ASA is also not suitable for people who have uncontrollable high blood pressure, liver or kidney disease, peptic ulcer, or any other conditions that might increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage or other internal bleeding. Large doses can also provoke vomiting, diarrhea, vertigo and hallucinations (”Aspirin” 1).
Even though it can cause these side effects it is still used in many other forms. Aspirin is used in many forms of medicines in one-way or another. In products such Excedrin and Alka Seltzer aspirin is used. Other forms of aspirin include ibuprofen and naxproxen, which are also called Motrin and Naprosyn. Another family that is related to the aspirin family is acetaminophen also called Tylenol. With all the different products that contain the chemical aspirin it just makes the chemical an even more widely used throughout the world.
Felix Hoffmann set out to find a drug to cure his father’s arthritis but I bet he didn’t think that it would end up being a “Wonder Drug”. With all the understanding of how aspirin works and what it can do leaves you with the thought of is there anything else it could do. Who knows there could be another way that this drug that was first discovered by Hippocrates had been transformed into a medicine that would save millions of peoples lives. Maybe there will be another medicine that will be discovered that will help humanity like the chemical acetylsalicylic acid did. Aspirin could hold many more secrets that we have yet to uncover that could help people out. The one thing can be said is that discovery of this chemical changed that way that the world heals itself.