The German writer Ludwig Börne once said more than a century ago "Pain is the joy of the blessed". You would probably be quite happy to do without this very dubious kind of joy. Nevertheless, you should be glad that there is such a thing as pain. It is namely the most important guardian of our health. Pain is nothing less than warning signals from our body which aim to draw our attention to a bodily dysfunction or even an illness.

For this purpose, our body has created an alarm system with more than three million "pain antennae" spread all over the body to report every abnormality, such as an inflammation or injury, immediately to the brain. Our control centre then decides whether and how severely we are to feel pain. However, the body does not rely merely on its pain antennae. Two other safety devices are built into the alarm system to ensure that all damage is actually detected and corresponding counter-measures introduced.

Safety device no.1: If cells are damaged or even destroyed, special chemical substances are immediately released at this point, whose job it is to sensitise the pain antennae in such a way that they send pain signals to the brain. This is why physicians refer to these hormone-like signalling substances as pain mediatores or messengers.

In order to relieve pain effectively or block it out completely, the aim must be to stop the production of these "pain amplifiers". The active ingredient in Aspirin® - acetylsalicylic acid - can do just that. It inhibits the synthesis of prostaglandins in the body and its effects are such that the numer and strength of the stimuli sent to the brain are drastically reduced - there is a comforting easing of the pain.

Salicylic acid is one of the oldest pain-relieving medicines known to man. Its better tolerated substitute, acetylsalicylic acid, was first synthesized in a stable form over 100 years ago (1897). Only a short time later this substance was marketed under the name of Aspirin®. Incidentally, it was the first important drug to be supplied in tablet form. Under the trade name Aspirin® acetylsalicylic acid developed very quickly into the standard medication for the treatment of fever, pain and inflammation. Even highly critical reviews refer to Aspirin®, that is a registered trademark of Bayer AG in Germany and more than 80 countries, as the drug of choice for pain relief.