I think it has to create anti-platelet effects.” “It’s a good anti-inflammatory agent, but we have other drugs out there for that. “I don’t think of it as much as a (painkiller). “I think of it more as an anti-platelet,” Thekkepat says. Prescription drugs do wonders for blood pressure and heart disease.īut while there’s a better drug for anything aspirin can do, no drug can do everything aspirin can do. They’re more powerful and longer-lasting. Sexier over-the-counter and prescription painkillers have eclipsed aspirin as the frontline pain remedy. Some would consider aspirin semiretired as a pain reliever. Majerus agreed: “The effect on platelets is long-lasting at such a low dose that it doesn’t affect anything else.” “Remember that the low-dose aspirin for (cardiovascular health) is a completely different drug than taking 20 aspirin a day for pain,” Brasington says.
BEST ANTI STROKE MEDICATION FULL
For example, a very low dose - one pill of 81 milligrams compared with two pills of 325 milligrams for a full dose - will protect your cardiovascular system by preventing blood clots and relaxing constricted blood vessels, but it rarely upsets the stomach. Still, the versatility of aspirin allows a range of dosages for physical problems. Richard Brasington, head of the Division of Rheumatology at Washington University School of Medicine. “Aspirin is the most toxic (painkiller) to the stomach,” says Dr. Drugs in this family include ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), naproxen (Aleve) and ketoprofen (Orudis).
They’re known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. That’s where stomach bleeding comes from when you take aspirin or other drugs in the aspirin family. So while it blocks prostaglandins that cause pain or cause clotting and narrowing of the blood vessels and inflammation, it also blocks prostaglandins that protect the stomach lining. Some versions are good some versions promote pain some versions constrict blood vessels and help platelets clot.īut to aspirin, the only good prostaglandin is a dead prostaglandin. Prostaglandins are unique to each family of cells.
That’s why aspirin stops mild inflammation and pain. “It helps inflammation, fever, and it can save your life (from heart attack).”Īspirin works by blocking the production of prostaglandins, the on-off switch in cells that regulate pain and inflammation, among other things. “To the consumer, it is almost a miracle drug,” says Nimita Thekkepat, assistant professor of pharmacy at St. Consumers still like it because it’s the least expensive and most versatile drug on the market. Aspirin is in virtually everyone’s medicine cabinet.ĭoctors still like it because, while there’s a pill for every ailment aspirin addresses, aspirin is the only pill that takes care of so many conditions. “If we eliminated all but three drugs, aspirin would be one” of the three drugs we should keep, he says. “Aspirin is the most effective drug that we have,” Majerus says.
Since then, Majerus, a professor at Washington University, has maintained a deep respect for this little white pill, which has been around since the 1800s. Philip Majerus discovered a few decades ago that aspirin can help prevent heart attacks and stroke. This article originally ran in the Healthy & Fit section on Monday, July 23, 2007)īy Harry Jackson Jr. (Republished with permission from the St.