NSAIDs painkillers increase risk of heart attack and stroke for heart disease patients

Study: Certain painkillers may raise odds of stroke, heart attack
Heart disease patients with high blood pressure who take a class of painkillers called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are at greater risk for heart attack, stroke or even death, new research shows. NSAIDs include popular medications such as such as aspirin, Celebrex, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve).
Read article on the USA Today website

Parents too readily give children paracetamol and ibuprofen for mild fever

Parents too readily give children paracetamol and ibuprofen for mild fever, the Telegraph reports. There are problems with dosage and over-dosage for children, and with combining the use of each of these drugs in turn, and with the very decision to try to lower the fever anyway, since fever is one of the ways in which the body seeks to fight infection.

Personally I deplore giving these painkiller drugs to children at all. Children should be protected from pharmaceutical drugs and their many potential and actual adverse side-effects. But parents are assailed by frequent advertisements for painkillers, and doctors' training is laced with over-reliance on the prescribing of drugs, i.e. the treatment of illness rather than the promotion and maintenance of health. Painkillers for children were unheard of when I was a child and we were all the better for not being given them. I'm sure we are all better off without most drugs and without their harmful side-effects.

Making sure we eat nutritious meals and get sufficient vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D and calcium, the vitamin and mineral most often deficient or depleted in people's diets, is the best protection from infection, and prevention is always far better than cure.

Painkillers Double Risk of Second Heart Attack or Death in Study

Heart attack and heart failure patients have a higher risk of a second heart attack or death if they take painkillers including the generic drug ibuprofen and Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex, a Danish study found. The risk doubled within the first 90 days on the painkillers Celebrex or Merck & Co.'s withdrawn Vioxx in those who had survived a heart attack or heart failure, compared with those who didn't take the medications, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans. Other common painkillers, such as the generics diclofenac and ibuprofen, increased the risk between 2.1 and 1.3 times.
Read article at bloomberg.com

Food Commission warns about additives in children's medicines

Warning on additives in children's medicines

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Additives linked to hyperactivity in children are still used as ingredients in some medicines used by youngsters, a report out today warns.

The Food Commission found that 28 of 70 medicines suitable for under-12s contained one or more of the additives."

"The seven E numbers included in the report were part of a Food Standards Agency study carried out by Southampton University.

Its research found that 17 paracetamol products contained one or more of the additives.

Four medicated throat syrups, two ibuprofen products and five brands of two different antibiotics also contained at least one of the seven E numbers each."

Arthritis? Osteoarthritis? Worried about using painkillers?

You may have become a concerned because there has been a lot of bad publicity about painkillers used for arthritis - Vioxx, for instance, or Prexige, or Ibuprofen or Aspirin.

If you are in pain from arthritis and would prefer not to risk adverse side-effects from painkillers, or if, like me, you have a philosophical or a rational objection to taking painkillers because you have found them useless and would prefer to try to address the cause of the pain rather than the symptom, then you may like to try cutting down on your salt/sodium intake. - This is not a frivolous suggestion; eating less salt reduces a lot of - possibly most - pain. - See Pain and other conditions that can be improved by cutting down on salt

Cutting down on salt also reduces fluid retention, and therefore reduces excess weight. This in itself could make your arthritis easier to cope with.

Slow down the aging process and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Risk of heart attack is raised by painkillers. Cut down on salt.

High doses of ibuprofen raise heart attack risk - Telegraph

Extract:

"The common pain killer ibuprofen has been found to increase an existing risk of having a heart attack or a stroke in people who suffer from arthritis, research shows today.
For some the risk was nine times higher.

The findings bring more anxiety to the millions of arthritis sufferers in Britain as they follow a series of research studies that have shown increased risk of heart disease from the pain killers they take to ease the condition.

The latest evidence comes from a study of more than 18,000 people who took one of three pain killers for their arthritis.

One patient in 10 was also at high risk of heart attack or stroke and some of these patients took low dose aspirin as well as one of the pain killers for arthritis. For high risk patients taking both aspirin and ibuprofen the risk of a heart attack or stroke was nine times greater, over one year, when compared with those who were taking one of the other arthritis painkillers, lumiracoxib, alone."

Well I've been advising for years, both on my website and when people contact me as individuals, that taking drugs is hazardous. The NSAIDs painkillers are among the drugs I specify. Avoid taking drugs if you possibly can.

Painkillers are pretty ineffective for severe pain anyway. - The safest way to reduce or prevent many kinds of pain, including the pain of osteoarthritis, is to reduce salt/sodium intake permanently. - Either cut down on salt and salty food or, preferably, give it up completely. This is also the best way to avoid headaches or migraines. Cutting out salt will also lower your blood pressure and lower your risk of heart attack or stroke and a host of other diverse health problems, including diabetes. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Leading headache pills 'put strain on the heart' and up risk of high blood pressure, stroke, kidney failure: - NSAIDs, ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin

Leading headache pills 'put strain on the heart'

Extracts:

"Regularly taking some of the most popular painkillers on the market is linked to a much greater risk of stroke and heart attack from higher blood pressure, according to research published yesterday."

"Graham MacGregor, the professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital, London, and chairman of the Blood Pressure Association, said last night: "High blood pressure is the biggest cause of death and disability in the UK."

There should have been warnings about these drugs years ago! - It's good to know that medical advice is catching up with the advice on my website! - My website has long had the following information (on page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html):

A Note about Pain-killers.
The class of drugs known as NSAIDs - Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs - is listed as causing Sodium Retention and in particular causing swelling in the lower legs and ankles. These include commonly used pain-killers, which are available both as prescription drugs and over the counter drugs. Examples are Ibuprofen (Brufen), Aspirin, Diclofenic and many others.
Also remember that effervescent tablets may contain a high proportion of sodium, so you may prefer to change from taking effervescent tablets to taking the non-effervescent type.

And throughout my website (and in this blog) it is made clear that sodium retention is the main cause of fluid retention and obesity, which in turn causes many other health problems, the most significant of which is high blood pressure.

To avoid/reduce high blood pressure, try to avoid unnecessary medication. - If you have to take drugs it is usually a wise precaution to minimise salt intake because so many drugs cause sodium retention.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)