Do Fever-Reducing Drugs Prolong Illness?

We've all heard the old saw: "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."

Primary-care doctors such as Israel Alvarez still dispense that advice when their patients fall victim to the flu. Aspirin is what pharmacists call an "antipyretic," a class of drugs including acetaminophen, ibuprofin and naproxen sodium, that have the ability to lower fever.

Aspirin Continues to Amaze

FOR thousands of years aspirin has been humanity’s wonder drug. Extracts from the willow tree have been used for pain relief in folk medicine since the time of the ancient Greeks. By 1897 a synthetic derivative (acetyl salicylic acid) of the plant’s active ingredient (salicin) was created. This allowed aspirin to become the most widely used medicine in the world.

In recent years its benefits as a blood-thinning drug have led to it being prescribed in low doses of around 50mg to reduce deaths from stroke and heart attack. There were also hints that aspirin may help prevent some cancers. But these were mostly based on observational studies, which can be misleading.