Word: aspirins
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...month the agency will assess a promising blood-filtration device that clears the body of arthritis-promoting substances the same way kidney dialysis cleans the blood of toxins. Within a few months the FDA will also consider a new class of anti-inflammatories called COX-2 inhibitors (a.k.a. "super aspirin") that will attack arthritis pain. Says Steven Abramson, an FDA adviser and chief of rheumatology at New York University's Hospital for Joint Diseases: "This is the most exciting time I've witnessed...
...backfire in my own life. I worked extensively this summer with a support network for battered women--so I do have experience in dealing with difficult relationships-but this column isn't about the clinical counseling answers you can get for free, along with a strong dose of aspirin...
...drugs work pretty much the way the old ones do. Aspirin and other NSAIDs block production of substances called prostaglandins, which are among the most versatile molecules in the body. Among other things, prostaglandins trigger uterine contractions during birth; generate a layer of mucus that protects the stomach from its acids; and cause blood particles called platelets to form clots--a mixed blessing, since the clots that help a wound heal can also lead to a heart attack...
...1970s, researchers discovered that aspirin reduces that pain and inflammation by lowering prostaglandin levels. It does so by blocking an enzyme called cyclooxygenase, or COX, that's involved in the manufacture of prostaglandins. What scientists didn't know until the early 1990s, however, was that cyclooxygenase comes in at least two versions: COX-1, ultimately responsible for protecting the stomach and making platelets sticky; and COX-2, which triggers pain and inflammation. The obvious goal, at least as far as pain relief is concerned: develop a drug that blocks...
...there anything superaspirins can't do? Unfortunately, COX-2 inhibitors, unlike aspirin, have little or no effect on heart disease, since it's the COX-1 enzymes that cause blood clotting. But so far, no one knows how to block the COX-1 enzymes in the bloodstream without also affecting the ones that help protect the stomach...