HOW DOES ASA WORK?

More About Aspirin and its anti-Cox effect....

Known already in Roman times and before in Egypt, acetyl salicylic acid, ASA plays a key role in relieving pain, but in our times, ASA has rather  a prevention function which consists of protecting vital organs a such as the heart and the brain.  According to Eric Metcaff, who wrote an interesting book on ASA, Mayo Clinic advices us to take 162 milligrams of ASA if we think we’re having a heart attack before calling 911. The same goes for the cerebral vascular accidents and ongoing  ischemic attacks .  In   post MI recovery, ASA participates as a  sentinel  among other  prescriptions .

  The American College of  Cardiologists  and the American Heart Association recommend 80 and 325 mg of ASA before and after surgery to prevent  blood clots formation. In a more empirically way, people are advised to have ASA ,even if they think they  are fine, to prevent heart and ischemic coronary disease.  From there, we can conclude that ASA have something to do with  blood circulation.

If you think so, you’re right. The main mechanism of ASA action is to improve and increase blood delivery where oxygen is in demand. To do so, ASA has the so-called anti-Cox effect, which stops arachidonic acid from  synthesizing  prostaglandins through an enzyme named cyclooxygenase. Prostaglandins, in the following step, would react with  platelets, those types of blood cells specialized in coagulation. Prostaglandins maybe   help  by raising our temperature in case of infection and generating pain to let us know something wrong is happening. But they  also favor the clustering of  these platelets aimed at  occluding  veins and arteries, hampering our circulation and reducing blood feeding in  some organs. It is there  that ASA acts. In keeping cyclooxygenase away, ASA   breaks the chain by reducing the amount of  prostaglandins, reducing thus the possibility of  clots formation. Blood keeps flowing free through   would be at risk organs.  Once Cox blocked,  prostaglandin is no longer synthesized .  This is the anti-Cox effect. Some authors add that ASA dilates vessels instead of constricting them, the way the platelets do. 

Footnotes:
According to MNT, Aspirin has also become increasingly popular as an antiplatelet - used to prevent blood clot formation - in long-term low doses to prevent heart attacks and strokes in high risk patients. Nowadays, aspirin is often given to patients immediately after a heart attack to prevent recurrence or cardiac tissue death