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Aspirin promotes weight loss
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Salicylic acid, which is formed as a result of the breakdown of aspirin, activates the breakdown of fat cells.
For aspirin to become a truly magical medical drug, it remains to be verified that it helps against AIDS.
At first glance, it may seem that the human race has been living with a cure-all drug for over 150 years, unaware of its omnipotence. Not long ago, scientists announced that acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) can be used to prevent cancer; its beneficial effects on cardiovascular diseases are being studied in full swing. And now scientists from the Dundee Institute (England) report in the journal Science that acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) can also be used as a drug for obesity.
Acetylsalicylic acid originates from salicylic acid, which was used by the ancient Egyptians. In the second half of the 19th century, it was modified so that it would not harm the digestive system too much, and aspirin, which was released into mass production. Later, scientists established the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. At this time, researchers describe how aspirin has a major impact on cellular metabolism. Once in the body, aspirin is converted back into salicylic acid. Scientists have suggested that salicylic acid interacts with one of the main enzymes of metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase.
This protein kinase is activated by the accumulation of adenosine monophosphate, AMP, which is formed during the breakdown of high-energy ATP. In other words, the accumulation of AMP indicates an energy overrun in the cell, and the enzyme switches its metabolism to the required mode (including promoting the breakdown of fatty acids and preventing their synthesis). Scientists obtained mice in which one of the sections of AMP-activated protein kinase was mutated, after which the mice were injected with salicylic acid and observed what would happen to their fat deposits. It turns out that in the case of normal mice, salicylic acid promoted several times more active breakdown of fat cells than in mice with a mutated enzyme. Thus, salicylic acid can actually affect metabolism and reduce the number of fat cells.
Scientists believe that aspirin also exerts its anti-cancer effect through AMP-activated protein kinase. However, anti-diabetic drugs that also target this enzyme, statistically reduce the likelihood of developing a malignant tumor. It should be noted that the current work is based not on statistical results, but on the molecular mechanisms of the drug's action, and, probably, acetylsalicylic acid is not as simple as it is commonly thought.
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