THE ASPIRIN JOURNEY

After swallowing an aspirin tablet i twill go on a journey through your digestive system

ABSORPTION

The tablet will travel down the esophagus into the stomach where it is dissolved into much smaller
particles, which will continue their journey into the small intestine where most of them will be absorbed
into the blood. The small intestine wall, lumen, are lined with tiny villi which stick out to provide a large
surface area for the nutrients inside the food to be absorbed. Villi are rich of blood supply and they are
covered in a thin layer of epithelial cells. The aspirin molecules will work their way through the eipthelial
cells and into the bloodstream where they are carried around the body

DISTRIBUTION

Blood plasma contains complex molecules called albumin, is a protein made by the liver which transports
nutrients around the body, also binds drugs that enter the bloodstream. All the aspirin molecules that
have been bound will be filtered out as a class through the liver and only the remaining aspirin molecules
will get through and have any effect on the body. Different drugs bind with albumin in different ways
depending on their affinity.
The next stop of the journey is the liver, the blood that contains aspirin will enter the liver through
hepatic portal vein at the bottom and i twill exit at the top via the hepatic
vein. At this stage even more of the aspirin will be removed through a
process called first pass metabolism. The liver’s job is to act like a filter, i
twill metabolize drugs before they reach the rest of the body it does this in
few steps:

P HASE 1 METABOL ISM

First the aspirin is hydrolyzed breaking off ethanoic acid and leaving behind
salicylic acid, that isn’t water-soluble so it can’t be excreted in urine yet

P HASE 2 METABOL ISM

An ionized group is added to the salicylic acid forming glucoronide which is

water-soluble and can be excreted in the urine. A lot less of the aspirin will
continue its journey onto the rest of the body including the site of the
pain.

Only the 68% of orally taking aspirin will have any effect at all bacause of all filterinh that the body has
done. This percentage is called the drugs oral bioavailability. If drugs are not administred orally,
intravenously or bucoli, they can bypass the small intestine and liver so none of this phases takes place
and they are 100% bioavailability.

We are now at the site of the pain (in this case is a skin tissue damage). Tissues in the skin are creating
prostaglandis which are causing inflammation, they send messages to the nerves in the skin responsible for
the sensation of pain. Once the aspirin arrives in the blood supply at the site it prevents the production of
prostaglandins and the tissue which will reduce the swelling and stop the messages being sent to the
nerves that perceive the pain.

EXCRETION

Any remaining aspirin in the blood will go around and around the blood supply going back to the liver
seversl times until it is all used up or filtered out of the body. It travelled into the kidneys and then into
the bladder for excretion