Joseph Akiki
Intro to Chemistry
Dr. Cross
4/1/14
Aspirin: Healthy or Not? Whenever pain or a headache is felt people will immediately reach for the bottle of Aspirin they have in their medicine cabinet. For many years this has been the solution to any pain a person feels. As much as Aspirin will help to cure symptoms of pain it may also being doing the body harm. More and more studies have brought many harmful side effects to the surface. The question now comes into play of if Aspirin is actually doing more harm than good.
Aspirin contains the substance acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), which can relieve inflammation, fever, pain, and known as a “blood thinner”. Aspirin was not officially trademarked until March 6, 1899 when the Imperial Office
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Before using Aspirin or any other type of medication a physician should be contacted. If not diagnosed with heart, blood vessel disease, or lack of blood to the brain the benefits of aspirin can decrease and cause more harm than good. As individuals we know that in life anything we do has benefits and risk. This is the case with all types of medicine, aspirin may prevent a heart attack or stroke but can cause stomach bleeding, bleeding in the brain, and kidney failure. Also in some cases using aspirin has caused strokes. As with most medicines taking Aspirin with alcohol can severely increase the risk of experiencing side effects. Taking aspirin as a combination with any other medications being taking should not occur unless cleared with a doctor. For example if taking a drug for dietary purposes you shouldn’t mix with aspirin …show more content…
Taking aspirin fights against inflammation by blocking an enzyme called cyclooxygenase. Doing so obstruct the pathway for prostaglandins to produce which cause the inflammation. This can decrease the amount of pain that someone is facing immensely and may even cure the problem entirely. It is seen that aspirin effects formation of blood clots in major arteries within heart and brain muscle. A doctor may prescribe aspirin as a way to allow more blood flow throughout the body. The pros and cons of using aspirin must be weighed before taking it. There may be many more risks when taking aspirin. These risks can be caused by family history, other medications being taken, and past medical
In medical school/pharmacology school, medical professionals are taught to treat severe pain with opioids. However, opioids should be prescribed with the possibility of future dependency in mind. Physicians often struggle with whether they should prescribe opioids or seek alternative methodologies. This ethical impasse has led may medical professionals to prescribe opioids out of sympathy, without regard for the possibility of addiction (Clarke). As previously stated, a way to address this is use alternative methods so that physicians will become more acquainted to not not treating pain by means of opioid
Aspirin is much more than just a pill to take for aches, it has changed life for the better. It is used for medical purposes as well as everyday household needs. If people did not know about this simple yet life-changing molecule, the world would not be the same.
Ischemic Stroke is caused due to a blood clot in an area of the brain, leading to loss of neural function if last for more than 24 hours. In the United States, ischemic stroke affects 2.7% of men and 2.5% of women of age range 18 years and older. In addition, it has reported that annually about 610,000 and 185,000 of new strokes and recurrent strokes cases occur in US1. Moreover, it has reported that patients who have suffered from a stroke have more chances of recurrent stroke, Myocardial infarction, and death from vascular causes2. One of the risk factor of ischemic stroke is formation of plaque in the blood vessels causing blood clot3. Several randomized trials have also reported that antiplatelet medications are efficient in preventing recurrences of stroke in patients who had an incident of ischemic stroke. Antiplatelet medications for preventing recurrences of stroke are aspirin, combination of aspirin and extended-release dipyridamole, and clopidogrel alone4. It ha...
It goes without saying that everyone’s health is important and should be taken care carefully. Everyone has heard of strokes before but many people do not really know its meaning, types, and the number of individuals of that dies due to this issue. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), strokes kills an average of 130,000 people a year and it is one of the most common deaths that happen in the United States. An average of 800,000 of people die from cardiovascular disease and strokes and it is also a reason of long-term disability (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Strokes, which can also be called cerebrovascular accident or CVA happen when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted or the blood vessel going towards the brain burst. Then part of the brain dies or become seriously injured because the brain cells do not receive oxygen and they eventually die. People’s lifestyle may also impact seriously on their health and increase the possibility of having a stroke. Some of the risk that can severely increase the cause of stroke would be high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cigarette smoking, as well as strokes that
There are many causes of strokes and risk factors that can increase likelihood of stroke. Causes include conditions such as atherosclerosis, also known as plaque build...
Atherosclerosis is the culprit behind coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, which is the most common cause of death worldwide and in the United States10. Among the modifiable risk factors of CHD and stroke is the serum low density lipoprotein level (LDL)8, 11. Several randomized clinical trials have established that reducing the serum LDL level results in a reduction in the future risk of CHD and stroke in a linear relationship, in one study it was estimated that reducing the LDL by 1 % would reduce the risk by 1.7 %.1-4, 7, 9, 13
In the late 1800’s it was discovered that papa-amino-phenol, could reduce fever, but the drug was too toxic to use. A less toxic extract called phenacetin was later found to be just as effective but also had pain-relieving properties. In 1949, it was learned that phenacetin was metabolized into an active but also less toxic drug, acetaminophen. Since then, acetaminophen has been sold under many over the counter brand names, most popular being Tylenol.
Davies NM, Reynolds JK, Undeberg MR, Gates BJ, Ohgami Y, Vega-Villa KR. Minimizing risks of NSAIDs: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and renal. Expert Rev Neurother. 2006 Nov;6(11):1643-55.
One of the leading causes of death in the United States is heart disease. “Approximately every 29 seconds one American will have a heart attack, and once a minute one American will die from a heart attack” (Ford-Martin and Odle, 915). According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine men over the age of 45 and women over the age of 55 are considered at risk for heart disease. Heart disease is a major cause of death. It is beneficial to individuals who seek to prevent heart disease to recognize the risks leading to heart attacks as they are one of the primary indications of developing heart disease; especially those that fall into the at risk age groups. These risks consist of some that cannot be changed such as heredity risks, or those that can change such as smoking habits. It is very important to know these specific risks for prevention and to understand the symptoms of heart attacks, such as sweating or the feeling of weakness so if these or other symptoms occur people are aware. Finally heart disease treatment is of vital importance if you experience a heart attack so you can learn how to prevent another one from occurring.
Recently stroke in young people who had been considered to have a lower risk of stroke has been reported and the number is increasing. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is known as a major risk of stroke and anticoagulation therapy is recommended. Particularly non-valvular AF (NVAF) patients can be treated with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) recently approved. It is reported that clinical introduction of DOACs were advancing, and factors affected on DOACs prescription were studied using everyday practice data in other countries. Although several registry are beginning to be conducted, there is no study focused on anticoagulant therapy in everyday clinical practice which consisted with physician office in Japan. Furthermore, there
According to the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association’s About Stroke (2014) “stroke is the number four cause of death and the leading cause of adult disability in the United States” (para.1). On average, a stroke happens every 40 seconds in the United States (Impact of Stroke, para. 1) About 4% to 17% of all patients with stroke experience symptom onset while hospitalized (Cumbler, et al., 2014). This amounts to about 35,000-75,000 in-hospital strokes in the United States annually.
Opium, the first opioid, is derived from the sap of opium poppies, whose growth and cultivation dates back to the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia around 3400 BC. Egyptians and Persians initially used opium. Eventually spreading to various parts of Europe, India, China, and the Middle East. During the 18th century, physicians in the U.S. used opium as a therapeutic agent for multiple purposes, including relieving pain in cancer, spasms from tetanus, and pain attendant to menstruation and childbirth. It was merely towards the end of the 18th century that some physicians came to recognize the addictive quality of opium.
... you should take baby aspirin (81 mg). The earlier a patient takes preventative measures the less a patient has to worry about taking other medication such Warfarin which have many adverse side effects such as excessive bleeding. Patients need to continuously check legs for any signs and symptoms of DVT.
Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the United States and it is estimated that 795,000 people in the United States every year suffer from a stroke (Zomorodi, 2011). Strokes occur when there is inadequate blood flow to a part of the brain and this alters functions such as movement, sensation, or emotions that were controlled by that specific part of the brain. According to this patient’s health history some nonmodifiable and modifiable risk factors for a stroke include “the previous transient ischemic stroke (TIA), high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, poor diet, obesity, and physical inactivity” (American Stroke Association, 2012, para. 1).
Background Information Aspirin is an analgesic (pain relieving) and an antipyretic drug (a drug that lowers body temperature). The main constituent of aspirin is 2 - ethanoythydroxybenzoic acid, also known as acetylsalicyclic acid (shown below right). It was originally made from just salicylic acid (which is found in the bark of a willow tree) when used by the Ancient Greeks to counter fever and pain, but its bitterness and tendency to irritate the stomach caused problems. These were resolved by the German chemist Felix Hoffman, who made the acetyl derivative of salicylic acid in the