h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A560431

This is a short overview of how one of the oldest pain relievers still in use, works on the body to reduce or relieve pain. This is the first entry which I have written when neither suffering from lack of sleep or not sleeping, so is near enough to a well thought out entry.

I forgot to add that I would love some thoughts on the entry....as soon as I hit the post button I realised that was what I really should have put down...

Hi WittyDitty!
Spellcheck first - 'responce' needs another 's' instead of the 'c'

In general you've come up with a fair overview of what aspirin does for the body. Speaking as an asthmatic who's been told that aspirin conflicts with my asthma and I should stick to paracetamol, perhaps you could include a paragraph on contra-indications for asthmatics. I'd love to be reminded why I'm supposed to avoid it.

Also with all the talk about risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis on cramped long-haul flights, perhaps a mention of aspirin's positive effects on the circulation would be in order given the vague recommendation to worried passengers to take an aspirin some time before they get on their plane.

Otherwise, it's coming along nicely.

Thanks! The DVT subject totally slipped my mind-will add that soon. Also a bit on asthma and contra-indications will appear as soon as possible....

Right, the new, revised entry is up, and now includes:

>other effects of aspirin concerning blood
>occasions why some people shouldn't take aspirin
>stressing that the entry is information only, and medical advice should be taken from you doctor.

Your thoughts on this please!

Great stuff, now I finally understand what my doctor told me.

I'm wondering about readability now you've added lots more (ahem, even if it was at my suggestion). I don't know if you've tried your hand at GuideML yet but one of the things you can do with it very easily is to add subheadings to help break things up into bite-size chunks. It might well be worth investigating that approach here.

At your (quite correct) suggestion, I have tried my hand at GuideMl-ing for the first time!

Your thoughts please (gratefully recieved with much thanks!)

Hi Witty Ditty, a nice article, should be good for the guide.

As a chemist though I would question the comments about paracetamol and ibuprofen being closely related. Whilst I cannot recall the exact structure of the latter two, I don't remember them being at all related to aspirin. What is their connection other than that they are mild analgaesics?

Also, prostaglandins are synthesised *from* arachadinoic acids so your statement about that is the wrong way round.

Specifically aspirin acts on a cyclooxygenase enzyme that makes prostaglandins from arachadinoate.

OK, sorry, I withdraw my first comment - I looked it up and all three drugs have the same mode of action

Thanks for the compliment This is one of my first attempts at writing a good entry for the Guide, writing about what I know etc., etc...

True, structurally I'm not sure how they are related, being a med student, structure never really was one of my strong points...

On the biochemical note, as structure goes, (I apologise now if I am wrong-please correct me) aspirin, paracetemol and ibuprofen all have that hexagonal ring with the double bonds (struggling to remember the name from 'A' level chemistry) and are all acids, aspirin containing a COOH (carboxylic acid) group, ibuprofen containing a CHCOOH (I think, not sure again) group, and paracetamol containing a variation of phenol, I think a weak acid.

But I think that the real connection between them is that they are NSAIDs and analgesics as you quite rightly say-the clinical aspect more than the chemical. But they must have some chemical similarities in order to have such similar effects.

Which bit is it in?

A benzene ring As I said, I looked it up and they are related in that they are recognised by the same enzyme and as such are *definitely* closely related.

You should correct the prostaglandin stuff though as that is definitely the wrong way around.

If you are a medic, please have a look at my antibiotic drug resistance article. Its already been accetped into the guide but I'd love to hear your comments anyway... http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A535592

It should be corrected now; proofreading hurts my eyes , but you're right, necessary. It was the wrong way round....is that really the time?!?

Since you're GuideMLing, there's a list at the end laid out in plain text that would be far better done as a bulleted or numbered list like this:


An item
Another item


Muchas layout improvement!

This is a good article, although it had a lot of big words in it. Any asthmatic will be lucky if their GP or even specialist tells them not to take Aspirin. Most people with asthma that I know who know about it have learnt through ending up in hospital with it. Our inhalers cannot cope with aspirin induced attacks. Apparently it's something to do wth salicylates in the aspirin, which is naturally occurring in a lot of plants that we eat, but it more concentrated as it's manufactured in Aspirin. I wear an emergency necklace that states No Aspirin on it.

Ok WittyDitty, maybe I should make myself clearer.

In the Second Paragraph of 1. How it works you state that the response is the break down of arachadinoic acids to prostaglandins...

This is incorrect as there is no 'breakdown' - prostaglandins are made from arachadinoic acid.
Your statement is the equivalent of saying a house is built by breaking down the walls.

Hope that helps a bit more

Ok...new bits added:
>bullet points in the GuideML stuff
>corrected the prostaglandins/arachidonic acid confusion (I think, comments please on that)
>stressing how bad an asthmatic's reaction to aspirin might get

Your thoughts please!

Perfect in that respect now .

Only one other thing occurs to me and that is that reccomended guide entries are generally required to be in the third person except under special circumstances so I would reword bits that say "I would say.." etc.

Apart from that I can't see a problem with this proceeding swiftly to reccomendation for the edited guide

Thanks
Third person aspect should be up now...More thoughts please!