Aspirin came a long way
March 3rd, 2008 . by Peter
The little aspirin tablet celebrates its 110th birthday this month. Though it’s been in the market for a very long time, aspirin is still first medicine people with Migraines use when we have episodes. Currently, researchers are still discovering more new things that aspirin can do. Hippocrates, probably the world’s first doctor discovered that certain elements from the willow tree could be used to relieve body aches and pains.
He even recommended to the pregnant women to chew the leaves and bark to ease the pain of giving birth.
Salicylates, compounds found inside the willow tree were used as arthritis medications in the late 1800’s, but was not so popular to to its side effect of irritating the stomach. However, Felix Hoffmann, a researcher at a then small German company named Bayer, came up with a compound that could treat aching muscles or aching heads without the stomach ache. This discovery led to the production of Bayer’s first major drug, which then evolved into a major corporation through their excellent marketing campaign and provided the German population and the world with pain relief without any side effects. Today, Americans ingest an estimated 80 billion tablets of aspirin every year for various sickness ranging from Migraines, headaches and recently, to minimize risk of heart disease.
