Paracetamol can prevent heart atack

6:10 PM / Posted by Aiman /

Paracetamol can prevent heart attack

MOVE over aspirin: Australian researchers may be about to pull off the next medicinal makeover, after finding "very promising" evidence that paracetamol can protect against heart disease.

The preliminary findings by a Sydney-based team suggest paracetamol, first marketed for pain relief in the 1950s, could help save lives by inhibiting an enzyme already used as a sign of a patient's heart attack risk.

Although the enzyme, called myeloperoxidase, plays an important role in the body's immune system, it produces hypochlorous acid, a free radical that damages tissues when produced in excess and is strongly associated with heart attacks.

Searching for compounds that could block the enzyme, the researchers found that paracetamol worked remarkably well, at least when mixed with human cells in test tubes.

They now plan clinical trials on patients to see if those taking paracetamol also show reduced levels of hypochlorous acid, and have better health outcomes.

If the research confirms a protective effect for paracetamol, it would repeat the remarkable reinvention of aspirin, which reclaimed its place in the limelight following evidence it cut the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

Since then, further research has suggested other benefits, including protection against colorectal cancer, breast cancer and Parkinson's disease.

However, doubts have since resurfaced over whether the benefits of healthy people taking aspirin to prevent heart disease outweigh the risks. Aspirin has been linked to stomach bleeding and the aggravation of ulcers.

Paracetamol has risks of its own, notably kidney and liver damage, if taken in overdose.

Heart Research Institute deputy director Michael Davies, who led the new research, said the results were "very promising" and paracetamol had "enormous potential".

National Heart Foundation chief medical adviser James Tatoulis said the research was "new and is very convincing".

"There is great promise and potential for this safe, cheap and widely available medicine to contribute to the reduction of coronary heart disease in the community," he said.

Summary and Critique:

This article is mainly about the medical development in the country. The research of the paracetamol is been made. They found the benefit and potential of it. Paracetamol can prevent heart attack by preventing the overproduce of hypochlorous acids. It is the major factor that lead to heart attack. This article also explained how the medicine work in human body. Further research has found that it can give protection to us from many other dangerous diseases. Onthe other side,it also has it own side effect when we take it overdose.

Based on my opinion,the introduction and the review of the medicine is straight to the point and easy to understand. The explaination of the reaction in human body is very specific and can be understand easily by a non-medic person.

5 comments:

Anonymous on February 22, 2010 at 9:07 PM

cheap way to reduce cases of death due to heart attack. interesting.

Comment by Jimmy on February 22, 2010 at 9:44 PM

Great~another new discovery in medical field which enable more drudgery to afford the medicine expense with a lower price

Comment by MDMUAZZAM on February 22, 2010 at 9:46 PM

paracetamol can prevent heart attack, good article, provides useful information.

Comment by Aiman on February 22, 2010 at 9:59 PM

wow!!!

Comment by Afif IZa on February 22, 2010 at 10:09 PM

Afif : brilliant!!!!

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