Salivary Amylase. Salivary amylase initiates the digestion of starches, one of the more complex forms of carbohydrate. Secreted in the saliva, salivary amylase breaks down long-chain and branched carbohydrates, known as amylose and amylopectin, into two- and three-molecule sugars called maltose. The individual subunits that make up maltose are glucose, your bodyâs primary fuel source.
Aspirin has many effects because it reduces the bodyâs production of prostaglandins, a hormone-like substance that acts in numerous ways. Reducing prostaglandins diminishes pain and fever and weakens plateletsâ ability to stick together and form clots.
It took some 40 years, but in 1989 Harvard's Physicians' Health Study provided impressive evidence that aspirin can indeed protect a man's heart. More than 22,000 men between the ages of 40 and 84 volunteered to take either a standard 325-milligram (mg) aspirin tablet or a placebo every other day.Over the next five years, the men taking aspirin suffered 44% fewer heart attacks than their peers taking placebo.spirin is 170 times more active against COX-1 than COX-2. That's why tiny doses can protect the heart and why they can also increase the risk of bleeding. Most experts now recommend 81 mg (a baby aspirin) a day for prevention. Much higher doses are needed to inhibit COX-2 and treat pain and fever.