First Reader 4/6

After doing the readings for this week, in chapter 19 I found the paragraph about Aspirin to be most interesting. When I think of Aspirin I think of pain killers that I take to cure any symptoms of pain that I am having. I usually take them when I have headaches, while my mom (who has arthritis) takes Aspirin to lower her inflammation or aching back pain. I already knew that you shouldn't be dependent on Aspirin because of the negative effects it has on blood thinning and your liver, but I didn't know that it could have negative effects in the long run on something that it should be fighting. By this, I mean although taking Aspirin can help with chronic diseases, it can be detrimental for acute infectious diseases. The chapter stated how taking Aspirin can block the immune system failing to attack the pathogens, but it is not necessarily a good thing to prevent the immune system and it's persistent pathogens. After reading the article "Why do we age", something that stood out to me was that typically human infants are born earlier than infants in other species because of our large brain development. This is surprising to me, because it just goes to show that brain developments that are different amongst species changes on how long it takes for the baby to grow to full capacity.