Word: acetaminophen
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Less than a decade ago, aspirin seemed to be losing some of its luster. Marketed since the beginning of the century as a uniquely effective pain and fever fighter, it was suddenly forced to compete with two major rivals -- acetaminophen (Tylenol, Anacin-3) and ibuprofen (Advil, Nuprin) -- that had many of aspirin's benefits without some of its side effects. Worse, aspirin had been linked to Reye's syndrome, a rare but sometimes deadly condition that can afflict children after a bout of flu or chickenpox. Doctors immediately ceased to recommend it for most youngsters, and liquid Tylenol replaced orange...
...wonder drug has made a wondrous comeback. In recent years it has been shown to be a powerful inhibitor of heart attacks and strokes -- a virtue neither acetaminophen nor ibuprofen can match. And last week came preliminary evidence of another major benefit: aspirin reduces the risk of death from colon cancer, a disease that kills 50,000 Americans a year. A major study by the American Cancer Society, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that people who took 16 aspirin tablets or more each month (or equivalent doses of related but lesser known anti-inflammatory drugs...
...pain-killer may very well have direct anticancer properties. Unlike acetaminophen, which acts only on the central nervous system, aspirin (chemical name: acetylsalicylic acid) has an extraordinarily broad range of effects. The reason is that it interferes with the production of a diverse class of substances known as prostaglandins, which are found in nearly every body tissue. (Ibuprofen does too, but in a much more limited...
...bacteria. Since the days of Hippocrates, doctors have been relieving pain with salicylic acid, a precursor to aspirin that was derived from willow bark, but only in the past 15 years have they understood that it works by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins. Tylenol (the most common brand of acetaminophen) works much the same way, as do popular prescription analgesics like Clinoril (sulindac), Motrin (ibuprofen) and Dolobid (diflunisal), often used to relieve arthritis and severe menstrual cramps...
...first line of treatment is the "simple analgesics": usually aspirin and acetaminophen. Even cancer patients can sometimes find relief in a bottle of aspirin. A number of other nonnarcotic drugs have proved useful in treating specific kinds of pain. Migraine Sufferer Elaine Anderson, 31, of San Francisco had tried everything from strong doses of codeine to psychic counseling to relieve pain "that felt like someone was tightening my head in a vise." She finally found relief with calcium channel blockers, originally developed for heart patients. Antidepressive drugs like the tricyclics are frequently recommended for shingles and chronic lower-back pain...