| Product: |
Aspirin Enteric Coated |
| Date: |
13/04/01 (117 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Possibly life saving benefits, very cheap
Disadvantages: Some stomach discomfort
Aspirin was for a long time the obvious choice as a pain relief (analgesic) tablet, and this is its main use in medicine today.
Derived from salicylic acid, this occurs naturally in willow bark, though aspirin today is usually synthetically produced. Due to its bitter taste, ther are variations on the market that make aspirin tablets easier to swallow, such as encasing it in a sugar coating. The extreme bitterness of it means that aspirin can cause irritation to the stomach, and there is some links between aspirin and stomach problems.
However, generally aspirin is an excellent choice for the relief of moderate pain, such as headaches (but not migraine), back ache, arthritic complaints and rheumatism. It also reduces the effects of fevers, which means that aspirin is generally as effective and wide-ranging as paracetamol based products.
There are additional advantages which are under some dispute. For instance, there is plenty of evidence that aspirin thins the blood, and is often administered immediately someone suffers a heart-attack to reduce the symptoms and complications arising from this. However, many people believe that taking half a tablet a day will also reduce the risk of cardiac problems in the future, and thus can act as a preventative medicine.
Whether this is true or not is the subject of some debate. However, a docotr friend of mine takes half a tablet a day and believes that aspirin could in fact be the closest thing we have to a miracle medicine, with the possibility of it also reducing the risk of cancer, particularly colon and rectal cancer.
Whilst this is supposition, there are very few side effects to the use of aspirin, meaning that taking half a tablet a day may be worthwhile just in case it really does what some people claim. Given that aspirin is a very cheap medicine to buy, I have now decided to follow my friend's advice, and have started taking the half tablet dose.
It should be
noted that this is only recommended for adults. Indeed, children under 12 should not be given aspirin, as there is some evidence of a link between aspirin in young children and Reye's Syndrome.
Either way, aspirin is a good choice as a safe and tested method of pain relief for moderate pain, such as headaches.
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