These drugs are used mainly for pain relief. You will need to research what Aspirin and Paracetamol is and how it works to reduce pain in the body. Is there a better alternative to pain relief? What are the long term effects of taking either of these medications and do they have any other uses? Use your research to formulate an argument for or against the use of these medicines for pain management.
Part A
ReplyDeleteThere is no better medicine out of both aspirin and paracetamol. They both work in different ways. Aspirin is extracted willow bark. It is known to calm pains, aches, inflammation, reduce fevers and thins the blood. Aspirin helps calm two active chemicals in the human body. The two active chemicals are called Prostaglandins and Thromboxanes. Prostaglandins are when there are pain and fever symptoms from an inflamed tissue/s in the body. Thromboxanes help the things in your blood called platelets by allowing blood to clot by joining the blood together. Aspirin can have side effects that can cause internal bleeding in the stomach and digestive system.
Part A continued
ReplyDeleteParacetamol helps to stop sending pain signals to the brain. Paracetamol might relief pain and high temperature but it does not stop inflammation. There is a risk of liver damage when taking paracetamol and drinking a lot of coffee. This is because they both work in the liver and having too much coffee in the system it does not allow the paracetamol to work properly. Paracetamol in long term use can cause women an increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) and to take an overdose in paracetamol is extremely dangerous. Paracetamol and aspirin are your two best alternatives to pain relief that are cheap and work well. Paracetamol instead of aspirin is recommended by some doctors for general pain relief.
Part B: Ashley Baxter
ReplyDeleteIn this comment I am referring to the points Jessica made. From researching both these 'pain killers' I result that while paracetamol may be a better general pain relief it does not have results and small malfunctions in the body could affect it majorly if paracetamol is in the system. Aspirin however while the side effects could be dangerous, it actually tries to fight the various problems that could occur, unlike the paracetamol which is simply a numbing tablet. If a problem occurs that the body could fix easily, without added help though I too would recommend paracetamol.
Part A: Fizza Mitter
ReplyDeleteBoth aspirin and paracetamol are equally effective analgesic (pain relief) and antipyretic (relief form fever) medications. Aspirin in addition to being an analgesic and antipyretic is also anti- inflammatory and inhibits platelet aggregation which is the cause of blood clots. Thus, aspirin also finds its use for prevention of stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Chemically aspirin is acetosalicylic acid and paracetamol is acetaminophen. Aspirin enters the bloodstream through the stomach lining while paracetamol gets metabolized in the liver.
There are three types of cyclo-oxygenase enzymes produced in the human body known as COX-1, COX-2 and COX -3. Aspirin works by blocking COX-1 and COX-2 while paracetamol works by blocking COX–3. It is found that the action of blocking COX – 1 by aspirin causes unwanted gastrointestinal side effects. COX-3 is found in brain and spinal cord and that explains the effectiveness of paracetamol in relieving pain, headaches and reducing fever without having any gastrointestinal side effects.
A major advantage of paracetamol is that it can be taken by all age groups from small children to elderly. However, aspirin is not suitable for children and people with medical conditions as it may cause irritation of stomach lining, bleeding, ulcers and thinning of the blood. For example, if a person is already using a blood thinner to cure a blood clot, aspirin would be a bad choice for a headache because it might over thin the blood and make one more prone to hemorrhage.
Paracetamol has virtually no side effects when taken at the recommended dosage. Thus, paracetamol is a much safer and better option for pain and fever relief than aspirin for both adults and children.
Chandrasekharan et al. (2002) COX-3, a cyclooxygenase-1 variant inhibited by acetaminophen and other analgesic/antipyretic drugs: cloning, structure, and expression, Proceedings of National Academy of Science . USA, vol. 99, pp. 13926-13931.
Part A: Tessa Bezuidenhout
ReplyDeleteMaybe they both work? I wouldn't know because I have never tried it! I rely on water to get rid of my pain, along with resting and relaxing, it works quite well. As Jessica said before: "Aspirin can have side effects that can cause internal bleeding in the stomach and digestive system." This stuff is dangerous! As for paracetamol:"There is a risk of liver damage when taking paracetamol and drinking a lot of coffee." Obviously, one is taking a risk when using these drugs. And yet, everyone thinks that this is harmless stuff. Like so many other people, Heath Ledger was a victom of a strong headache and died because he had too many headache medicines in 24 hours. A woman died within 17 hours of having too many headache medicines as well! But what urges them to have more? The fact that it is not working for them and they died because of it. And so, as a conclusion, I say that neither are best and both cause damage to the body.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePART B
ReplyDeleteI believe that Fizza has covered the subject with a wide range of points. However, there is one other issue that should be further discussed:
Although a clear link between aspirin and Reye syndrome has not yet been proven, scientists agree that to prevent Reye syndrome, the safest option is NOT to give aspirin or aspirin-containing medicines to children under the age of 12.
Reye syndrome is a rare, life threatening disorder that damages many parts of the body, especially the brain and the liver. It is almost always associated with a previous viral infection, such as influenza, a common cold, or chickenpox. The disease most often harms children between the ages of 3-12.
Researchers believe that sometimes it is caused by an abnormal response to aspirin, which could be used to treat the symptoms of the virus. (1)
Paracetamol is definitely the drug to give to children.
I agree that you should take these pain reliefs but not to much and these are the reasons why you should take only A LITTLE bit of these medicines. There is really no difference between Aspirin and Paracetamol when they are compared to Pain relief and Fevers. There is also another pain relief that works in the same way as Aspirin and Paracetamol. This antidote is called Ibuprofen and has the same effect as the other pain killers. Aspirin has other uses like it can help fight heart disease and strokes. Aspirin can also prevent blood clots because when you take aspirin it thins out your blood and because heart problems are sometimes caused by blood clots aspirin prevents and strokes are caused by blood clots in the brain area aspirin also prevents that because of the same reason that it prevents heart problems. Aspirin also reduces inflammation. Even though aspirin is very safe there are a few people who have allergies and for different medical problems there is a higher percent of the people who have aspirin allergy is higher. For example there are 1% of people who don’t have medical problems have aspirin allergies, 30% of people with ongoing hives/ urticaria have aspirin allergies, 10% of people who have inactive hives have aspirin allergies, 20% of people with asthma have aspirin allergies and 30% of people with Asthma /sinus disease/ polyps have aspirin allergies. The reactions that people get from this allergy are stomach irritation ulceration and bleeding at high doses, easy bruising and Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) which is rare. It could also damage your kidneys if you take a large dose. (http://www.allergycapital.com.au/Pages/aspirin.htm.) Even tough there are some other uses for aspirin there isn’t any for paracetamol. There are some side effects from paracetamol and those are a skin rash and if you take a large dose it could course you kidney damage. (http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Pain_killing_drugs?OpenDocument)
ReplyDeletePart A
ReplyDeleteBoth Aspirin and Paracetamol are effective to relieve coughs, headaches, colds and flu symptoms.
Aspirin is made from willow bark and is known to ease aches and pains as well as reducing fever. Aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid) is a type of non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It decreases the rate of action of the production of two types of active chemicals in the body, Prostaglandins and Thromboxanes. Prostaglandins are created if your body tissue becomes inflamed or swollen and they are the cause for fever and pain. Taking aspirin stops prostaglandins from being made, this helps ease aches, pains and fever.
The other effect of aspirin can be either a good or bad thing. Thromboxanes help the platelets in your blood to join together and this helps blood to clot. Stopping Thromboxanes from being made can stop clots forming in your blood that might lead to heart attacks or strokes. The bad effect of aspirin is that it can cause bleeding in the stomach and digestive system.
Paracetamol acts by blocking the way that pain signals are processed in the brain. Although paracetamol relieves the pain, it does not reduce the inflammation. Paracetamol, like aspirin, can also lower body temperature if you have a high temperature or fever. Even though too much paracetamol can cause liver damage, you will probably find that your doctor recommends paracetamol rather than aspirin for general pain relief.
There are other ways for pain relief but generally Aspirin and Paracetamol are the fast effective ways for pain relief. Both Aspirin and Paracetamol can help pain in a matter of time so it would be recommended that they are you first choice for pain relief.
http://www2.hud.ac.uk/sas/comment/pab071107.php
Part B
ReplyDeleteAdding on to the discussion thread by Sarah (May 23, 2009 5:17 PM) on the risk of developing Reye’s syndrome due to aspirin, it needs to be stressed that any medication containing salicylates may be harmful for children suffering from flu or chicken pox. Some medication labels may use the words ‘acetylsalicylate, acetylsalicylic acid, salicylic, salicylamide, phenyl salicylates, etc., instead of the word aspirin’ (National Reye's Syndrome Foundation Inc, 2009). Research has not yet proven any association between Reye’s syndrome and other forms of salicylates. However, caution must be observed when consuming any medicine with these chemicals. This again emphasizes the fact that paracetamol is definitely a safer option than aspirin.
National Reye's Syndrome Foundation (2009) Viewed on 28 May 2009, http://www.reyessyndrome.org/aspirin.html
Part A by Evie Bingham
ReplyDeleteBoth Aspirin and Paracetamol are pain reliefs. Both drugs (Aspirin & Paracetamol) are equal as they relieve pain slowly. Although taking Aspirin or other blood-thinning medication has a dissagevantage to elderly people because it may cause minute long bleeding in the brain. This was proven by a Doctor & Sciencest in Switzerland. Whereas Paracetamol has no side affect that causes internal bleeding like Aspirin. Yes, Asipirn has another use that is very helpful to people suffering for heart attacks because it can help prevent another heart attack, it can also help relieve the pain while suffering a from a heart attack.
Aspirin helps:
• are in the process of having a heart attack
• have had an attack and want to prevent another
• have angina (chest pain from poor blood supply to the heart)
• have had bypass +graft surgery for diseased heart arteries
• have had angioplasty
Paracetamol helps:
• Mild to moderate pain
• Fever
• Migraine
• Tension headaches