by Wassungk
(Health Secrets) Aspirin, one of the first drugs to come into common usage, is probably the most widely used drug in the world. Approximately 35,000 metric tons are produced and consumed each year, enough to make over 100 billion standard aspirin tablets. Each year over 60 billion aspirin tablets are taken worldwide, with Americans consuming 34 billion of them. Right now over 50 million Americans take aspirin to prevent heart disease. At this point the question becomes: Is all this aspirin really helping, or is it actually causing harm?
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What is aspirin?
Aspirin, chemically known as acetylsalicylic acid, is a non-steroidial anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that comes from the bark of the willow tree. It is sold alone and is found combined with other ingredients in such products as Ascription, Ecotrin, Bufferin, Aspergum, and many others. Other NSAIDs include ibuprofen and naproxen and acetominophen.
How aspirin and other NSAID’s works
When a cell is damaged, it releases a substance called a prostaglandin which carries a chemical message to the central nervous system telling it the cell is in need of repair. The central nervous system responds by initiating the healing process that is needed to repair the damage. Aspirin destroys prostaglandins so the communication is broken between damaged cells and the nervous system, and the natural healing process is interrupted.
This interruption of the healing process was revealed in a review of several studies that found flu sufferers who took an anti-fever medication were sick an average of 3.5 days longer than people who did not take drugs. On average, flu symptoms lasted 5.3 days in participants who did not take aspirin or acetominophen, compared with 8.8 days in people who took anti-fever drugs. One possibility is that reducing fever may interfere with the immune system’s response to an infection. Dr. Karen Plaisance, lead author and professor of pharmacy at the University of Maryland, noted that similar findings have been reported in studies of chickenpox.
Side effects of aspirin and other NSAIDs
Besides carrying a chemical message, prostaglandins also maintain a protective lining in the stomach. Destruction of prostaglandins by aspirin or other NSAIDs destroys the stomach lining and inhibits its replacement. The FDA estimates that NSAID’s account for a reported 200,000 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding, 107,000 hospitalizations and as many as 20,000 deaths each year.
Reyes Syndrome is a deadly disease that strikes quickly and can attack any child or adult without warning. All organs are affected with the liver and brain suffering the most damage. While the cause and cure of this syndrome remain unknown, epidemiologists’ research has established a link between Reye’s and the use of aspirin and products that contain aspirin for flu-like symptoms.
In 1986 the United Kingdom banned the giving of aspirin products to children under the age of 12, and has recently hardened that advice to include children under the age of 16. Though it is not widely publicized, the Surgeon General, FDA, and the CDC recommend that aspirin products not be given to children under the age of 19 during episodes of illness that include fever.
An extensive study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported the use of acetaminophen was associated with a 2.5 times greater risk of chronic kidney failure compared to nonusers of acetaminophen. For those who took 500g or more of acetaminophen per year, the risk was 5.3 times greater than for nonusers. The regular use of aspirin was associated with a 2.5 times greater risk of chronic kidney failure compared to nonusers of aspirin. For those who took 500g or more of aspirin per year (about 4 regular strength tablets every day), the risk was 3.3 times greater than for nonusers.
Aspirin and bleeding
The bowel movement of someone who takes only one aspirin a day will contain blood. This is because aspirin thins the blood by destroying blood platelets. Platelets are responsible for the blood clotting that is an important part of the body’s natural healing process. In fact, patients who are scheduled for any type of surgery are warned not to take aspirin for several days prior to their surgery because bleeding would be almost uncontrollable.