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STORIES: The History of
Asprin
Aspirin
or acetylsalicylic acid, is a derivative of salicylic acid that is a mild,
nonnarcotic analgesic useful in the relief of headache and muscle and joint
aches. The drug works by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins, body
chemicals that are necessary for blood clotting and which also sensitize
nerve endings to pain.
The father of modern medicine was
Hippocrates, who lived sometime between 460 B.C and 377 B.C. Hippocrates
was left historical records of pain relief treatments, including the use of
powder made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree to help heal
headaches, pains and fevers.
By 1829, scientists discovered that it was
the compound called salicin in willow plants which gave you the pain
relief.
According to "From A Miracle Drug" written
by Sophie Jourdier for the Royal Society of Chemistry: "It was not long
before the active ingredient in willow bark was isolated; in 1828, Johann
Buchner, professor of pharmacy at the University of Munich, isolated a
tiny amount of bitter tasting yellow, needle-like crystals, which he called
salicin. Two Italians, Brugnatelli and Fontana, had in fact
already obtained salicin in 1826, but in a highly impure form. By 1829,
[French chemist] Henri Leroux had improved the extraction procedure
to obtain about 30g from 1.5kg of bark. In 1838, Raffaele Piria [an
Italian chemist] then working at the Sorbonne in Paris, split salicin into a
sugar and an aromatic component (salicylaldehyde) and converted the latter,
by hydrolysis and oxidation, to an acid of crystallised colourless needles,
which he named salicylic acid."
Henri Leroux had extracted salicin,
in crystalline form for the first time, and Raffaele Piria succeeded
in obtaining the salicylic acid in its pure state.
The problem was that salicylic acid was
tough on stomachs and a means of 'buffering' the compound was searched for.
The first person to do so was a French chemist named Charles Frederic
Gerhardt. In 1853, Gerhardt neutralized salicylic acid by buffering it
with sodium (sodium salicylate) and acetyl chloride, creating
acetylsalicylic acid. Gerhardt's product worked but he had no desire to
market it and abandoned his discovery.
 In
1899, a German chemist named Felix Hoffmann, who worked for a German
company called Bayer, rediscovered Gerhardt's formula. Felix
Hoffmann made some of the formula and gave it to his father who was
suffering from the pain of arthritis. With good results, Felix Hoffmann then
convinced Bayer to market the new wonder drug. Aspirin was patented on March
6, 1889.
The folks at Bayer came up with the name
Aspirin, it comes from the 'A" in acetyl chloride, the "spir" in spiraea
ulmaria (the plant they derived the salicylic acid from) and the 'in' was a
then familiar name ending for medicines.
Aspirin was first sold as a powder. In
1915, the first Aspirin tablets were made. Interestingly, Aspirin ® and
Heroin ® were once trademarks belonging to Bayer. After Germany lost World
War I, Bayer was forced to give up both trademarks as part of the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919.
Health Benefits of
Aspirin
Aspirin's greatest benefit
is reducing cardiovascular events including heart attacks and strokes.
According to a study supported by the CDC, being published in the American
Journal of Preventive Medicine, doctors should do more to promote aspirin
use and discourage smoking because those measures, along with childhood
vaccines, are the most efficient means to prevent disease in the U.S. About
95 percent of spending on health care in the nation goes to treat diseases,
said David Satcher, a former surgeon general.
Aspirin is more likely to do good than cause harm. At a low dose,
undesirable effects are unusual and seldom serious, and probably 90 to 95%
of the adult population could take low dose aspirin without problems.
Aspirin appears to increase the activity of the ovaries, allowing them to
release multiple eggs during ovulation. It also appears to increase blood
flow to the uterus, allowing for a thicker and healthier uterine lining.
Women who had experienced multiple miscarriages and who were undergoing IVF
treatment were given low doses of aspirin daily. Subsequent pregnancy rates
were then compared to pregnancy rates produced by women who received no
aspirin therapy. More than 45% of those women taking aspirin during
treatment became pregnant, while only 28% of those women not taking aspirin
were able to conceive.
Each person, not a doctor should evaluate risks and benefits. A heart attack
or stroke has serious physical and medical effects on the family, work
colleagues and friends. Most older people know this from experience and many
will dread a vascular event [a stroke or heart attack].
There is growing evidence
to suggest regular aspirin use may reduce cancer and dementia as well.
Regular Use of Aspirin Will Reduce or Prevent:
- Adult Leukemia (50% Reduction)
- Alzheimer’s Disease (50% Reduction)
- Angina
- Blindness with Diabetes
- Bowel Cancer (40% Reduction)
- Breast Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Cataracts
- Colon Cancer (40% Reduction)
- Colon Polyps
- Dementia (50% Reduction)
- Esophageal Cancer
- Head Aches
- Heart Attacks
- Infections
- Infertility
- Lung Cancer
- Migraines
- Mini Stroke
- Miscarriages
- Pancreatic Cancer
- Periodontal Gum Disease
- Preeclampsia
- Prostate Cancer
- Rectal Cancer
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Stomach Cancer
- Strokes
- TIA Transient Ischemic Attack
A Duke University study suggests aspirin significantly reduces the risk
of stroke, heart attack or death due to cardiovascular disease in men and
women. The Duke Medical Center meta-analysis of more than 95,000 patients
found that the risk reduction differed between the sexes.
For men, aspirin lowered the risk of a heart attack, while in women aspirin
reduced the risk of a stroke.
Among women, aspirin therapy reduced ischemic stroke, which is caused by
blood clots, by 24 percent.
In the group of men studied, taking aspirin caused a 32 percent drop in
heart attacks.
The older you are, the more important it is to take aspirin on a regular
basis: Take one 81mg "baby aspirin" everyday or one 325mg tablet every other
day or at least 3 times a week. If you buy generic 325mg aspirin tablets in
a large bottle, and take one every other day, the cost will be about $2 a
year.
Do not give aspirin to under 16-year-olds. The British Medicines Control
Agency advises that this is because it's been shown to be linked to a rare,
but potentially fatal, condition called Reye's Syndrome which affects the
brain and liver.
In your 20s, take baby aspirin daily if you have problems with
infertility, migraines, miscarriages and preeclampsia. If pregnant, do not
take past your first trimester (90 days) without consulting your doctor.
By your mid 30s,
it is wise to take aspirin if you wish to prevent cancer, heart attacks,
strokes or if you have insulin dependent diabetes or periodontal gum
disease.
By your mid 40s,
it is wise to take aspirin on a regular basis for all the above reasons,
plus for the prevention of colon cancer, prostate cancer, dementia,
alzheimers disease and cataracts.
Investigators from the Women's Health Study have reported important new
findings demonstrating that aspirin reduces the risk of a first stroke in
women.
The study showed a 17% reduction in the risk of a first stroke, and a 24%
reduction in the risk of an ischemic stroke. This finding is particularly
important to women, as each year about 40,000 more women than men
suffer a stroke.
The Women's Health Study (WHS) found that aspirin offered the greatest
benefit in women 65 and older, reducing all major cardiovascular
events including heart attack (MI) and ischemic stroke. However, in the
total population, which comprised a significant number of younger women
(ages 45-55), low-dose aspirin did not demonstrate a significant benefit in
preventing first heart attack or cardiovascular death.
Aspirin is currently approved by the FDA for reducing the risk of heart
attack, stroke and death in both women and men who have experienced a
previous heart attack or stroke, as well as reducing the risk of mortality
in patients with a suspected acute MI.
"The Women's Heath Study is the first large trial to demonstrate a
significant benefit of aspirin in the primary prevention of stroke,
reinforcing what we know of its efficacy from secondary prevention trials,"
said Dr Julie Buring, principal investigator of the WHS.
"Although not widely recognized, women tend to suffer more strokes than
heart attacks as compared to men, and thus these prevention data for
low-dose aspirin have important public health implications," she added.
Additionally, the WHS further supports aspirin's favorable benefit/risk
profile. In fact, while there was a small increase in risk of overall
gastrointestinal (GI) bleeds associated with aspirin use, there were no
significant differences between aspirin and placebo in risk of stomach
upset, fatal GI bleeds or hemorrhagic stroke.
Do not take aspirin if you have 3 or more alcoholic beverages a day, stomach
ulcers or bleeding. Do not take two weeks prior to surgery or dental
extractions. Discontinue if you get nausea or an upset stomach and see your
physician.
Americans safely consume 50 million aspirin tablets everyday - 15 billion a
year. World-wide, 100 billion tablets a year are consumed. Americans swallow
the tablets whole, the British prefer the aspirin dissolved, Italians prefer
them fizzy, and the French prefer their aspirin as suppositories.
Men who regularly took aspirin had a 15 per cent lower risk of developing
prostate cancer than non-users, and those who took two or more pills a day
had 20 per cent less risk.
Many studies suggest that aspirin can prevent colon cancer, but tests of it
against hormone-fuelled cancers such as breast and prostate have been mixed.
The study involved 30,000 men aged 55 to 74 in the Prostate, Lung,
Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, a US National Cancer
Institute funded experiment at 10 US sites.
When given to someone
immediately after a heart attack, aspirin decreases death by 25%.
Heart disease is the Number 1 killer of all American women and men, but a
recent study shows it seems to be even deadlier if you're an
African-American woman.
The American Heart Association study indicates that not only are black women
with heart disease more likely to die, they are also being seriously
undertreated compared with white women. Black men also have higher rates of
prostate cancer.
Nearly 2,700 women with heart disease were followed for four years. The
findings showed African-American women are twice as likely to have heart
attacks or die from the disease because they tend to have more serious heart
disease. They are also less likely to take aspirin or
cholesterol-lowering medicine to prevent heart attacks.
Aspirin worked as well as a prescription drug that costs 10 times as much
for prevention of recurring strokes in blacks, according to a recent study.
This study has been described in detail in a recent issue of the Journal of
the American Medical Association.
March 1999 was the 100th anniversary of the patenting of aspirin, the 20th
century wonder drug whose uses now go far beyond the simple headache cure.
Along the way it has entered works of literature, introduced us to moving
pictures and was taken into space. Now its future becomes more secure
everyday.
The message that aspirin should be used more widely is not new, noted Steve
Weisman, PhD, head of global health care products at Innovative Science
Solutions in Morristown, N.J. "But it doesn't get the attention it
deserves." Dr. Weisman discussed the survey findings at a Feb. 16 session of
the ACPM's Preventive Medicine 2005 conference held in Washington.
In five large randomized trials, aspirin was found to reduce total coronary
heart disease by about 28%, he said. "It's pretty clear there are benefits
for reducing myocardial events."
Aspirin reduces total coronary heart disease by 28%. The U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force three years ago found sufficient evidence for aspirin's
benefit to urge physicians to discuss aspirin therapy with the appropriate
patients.
The American Heart Assn. also recommends aspirin for most patients who have
had a heart attack, unstable angina, ischemic stroke or transient ischemic
attacks.
And new research presented at the Second International Conference on Women,
Heart Disease and Stroke reinforced the survey results by finding fewer than
half of women with cardiovascular disease use aspirin.
Researchers examined data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational
Study, which tracked nearly 100,000 post-menopausal women, singling out
nearly 9,000 who had cardiovascular disease and should be taking aspirin
along with other medications. They found that only 4,101 (46%) of the women
with cardiovascular disease were on low-dose aspirin therapy and, among the
2,230 with documented heart attacks, only 54% reported using aspirin.
"Ideally, the percentage of women with a known history of cardiovascular
disease who take aspirin should be above 90," said lead author Jeffrey S.
Berger, MD, chief resident at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.
Patients taking Coumadin to prevent a stroke might be better off taking
common aspirin, new research suggests. In a study of 569 stroke patients
with narrowing of brain arteries, those on Coumadin suffered a higher death
rate than those who took aspirin. The study was published in a March 2005
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The lead author of the study, Emory University neurologist Marc Chimowitz,
cautioned that patients should check with their physician before they stop
taking Coumadin or add aspirin to their daily regimen. In the study,
patients who had previously suffered a stroke because of fatty deposits in
their arteries were randomly given either Coumadin (warfarin) or high doses
of aspirin.
During the follow-up, about one in five patients died from circulatory
problems, had another stroke or suffered a brain hemorrhage regardless of
which drug they took. But those taking Coumadin were more likely to die.
Nearly 10 percent of the Coumadin patients died, compared with four percent
of those who took aspirin.
The patients who took Coumadin also had a higher risk of major bleeding,
heart attack or sudden death, the researchers said. The aspirin dosage used
in the study -- 1,300 milligrams per day -- is higher than generally
recommended for heart attack and stroke prevention. It was used because
previous studies indicated it was an effective dose for this particular
condition. It's not clear whether other doses would work as well.
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