More Pain for Pain Killers

The heart risks associated with taking over the counter pain killers for daily aches and pains is becoming a major debate. Some of the popular pills out there are Celebrex, Diclofenac, Motrin, Advil, Aleve, and Aspirin. The search for a good pain killer has always been frustrating. Opioids like Vicodin work great—except they’re addictive.  Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is powerful—but it can wreck your liver. Even aspirin with all of its known heart benefits, can lead to internal bleeding. Now there’s more painful news for people suffering from conditions like severe arthritis: researchers have confirmed heart risks for those taking large doses of two popular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS).

A University of Oxford study reports that the NSAIDs diclofenac and ibuprofen have heart risks similar to those NSAIDS that have already been banned. The study made clear that the danger increases significantly if a patient already has heart problems. The Oxford study found that for every 1,000 patients taking high-dose prescription declofenac or ibuprofen there are three additional heart attacks, four heart-failure events and one death. That difference might seem small, but it becomes significant in proportion to a person’s existing underlying heart-attack risk without the drugs.