THE HISTORY OF ASPIRIN
I just found this interestng; we all use it at some time or other, and apparently it's use is universal...and has been for quite some time:
"If you take aspirin, you've got a pain reliever, heart attack preventer and possible cancer preventer rolled into one tablet. You might think that whoever invented aspirin is a genius, but the truth is humans have been using its natural equivalent for thousands of years.  "Aspirin is one of those things that, long before there were ever clinical trials or any kind of scientific knowledge, people figured out, 'Hey, I feel better when I take this substance,' " said Dr. Karol Watson, assistant professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.  The drug has been making headlines because a study in the Lancet recently found that a daily aspirin appeared to lower the risk of cancer by at least 20% during a 20-year period. That's based on data from more than 25,000 patients and builds on earlier findings that aspirin may lower the risk of colon and rectal cancer. The research has limitations and is not definitive proof, but it does add another benefit to an ancient remedy that has been called a miracle drug.  "There are no countries in which it is unknown, unappreciated, or unavailable," the late medical writer Berton Roueché wrote in 1955, in an article later published in the anthology "The Medical Detectives.  "The word "aspirin" wasn't a coincidence. It comes from Spiraea, a biological genus of shrubs that includes natural sources of the drug's key ingredient: salicylic acid. This acid, resembling what's in modern-day aspirin, can be found in jasmine, beans, peas, clover and certain grasses and trees.  The ancient Egyptians used willow bark as a remedy for aches and pains, said Diarmuid Jeffreys, author of "Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug." They didn't know that what was reducing body temperature and inflammation was the salicylic acid.  Hippocrates, the Greek physician who lived from about 460 to 377  B.C., wrote that willow leaves and bark relieved pain and fevers."


GET THOSE CHECKUPS
I probably don't have to remind people reading this blog about this kind of thing, but in any case you might find this interesting:
"Sadly, the nationwide survey (conducted Sept. 8 through 12 by Harris Interactive) showed that only a small minority of those most at risk get the yearly eye exams that could detect a vision problem and prevent, delay or even reverse its progression. Fully 86 percent of those who already have an eye disease do not get routine exams, the telephone survey of 1,004 adults revealed."