Posted on 05/07/2012 4:08:49 AM PDT by neverdem
New research has uncovered how some cox-2 painkillers increase the risk for both heart attacks and stroke.
The once popular cox-2 drugs, Vioxx and Bextra, were pulled off the market in 2004 and 2005, respectively, after research showed that both raised the chances of cardiovascular trouble. Meanwhile, Celebrex, a painkiller in the same drug class that remains on the market, carries a "black box" warning alerting patients to potential heart risks.
Now, a team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia say that, although cox-2 inhibitors are very good at inhibiting the workings of the cox-2 enzyme -- and thereby easing pain -- they also throw off the cardiovascular system's delicate balance by inhibiting an enzyme that relaxes blood vessels and guards against clotting.
"It's really about a rock and a hard place," said Dr. Christopher Cannon, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "There's a balance in the bloodstream of clotting and vasoconstriction, as well as protection against clotting and vasodilation, which means that there's a constant balance of clotting and preventing clotting, and constricting arteries and dilating arteries."
"But with cox-2 inhibitors, they have found that you knock the protective side of that balance off," Cannon said. "And then you're left only with the constrictive part, which means the drugs up the risk for clotting and arterial constriction."
"This problem is bigger than just Vioxx, which no longer exists," he added. "It applies to every single NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug), because with all NSAIDs -- including Celebrex and ibuprofen, which zillions of people take -- the same issue exists. You block out the good stuff and leave the bad stuff unchecked. The one exception is Naproxen, which has an anti-platelet effect that seems to work against stroke and heart attack risk."
"Sometimes you have to take a cox-2 because you have really bad daily pain," said Cannon. "But this is a dose-dependent problem, with the more cox-2 you take the greater the cardiovascular risk. So you have to limit the dose and take the least amount you can get away with, so you can try to control crippling pain but also try not to poison your blood vessels and predispose yourself to clotting and high blood pressure."
The latest research was led by Dr. Garret FitzGerald, chairman of Penn's department of pharmacology and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics. He and his colleagues published their findings in the May 2 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine and the April 9 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Watch for swelling and elevated blood pressure, licorice has a component that acts like the hormone aldosterone.
NOT deglycerrized....
More and more, it’s looking like the good ol’ fashioned pain killers are about the only thing good to take, having the least PHYSICAL side effects. Aside from the chemical dependance, there’s FAR less downside to them(for people that take them responsibly). Of course, the big Pharm companies don’t like the idea of this, because there isn’t much money to be made on that class of medications, because they are so cheaply made and available generic. They would MUCH rather go for big profits and have you take something that will shred your GI tract and or give you a heart attack/stroke than sell something for less profit that actually WORKS.
/rant_off
Necrosis stings a bit, doesn't it?
Level 10 pain. Nothing can describe it except it’s over!
Thank Goodness for that. Yes, level 10, and painkillers have no effect (Can’t get them *inside* the bone where the pain is). And, as you may have guessed, you don’t have to explain it to me. Mine is gone now as well.
The best way I can describe it is like having somebody slowly break your leg over the period of months.
That’s a fairly good description. Mine, try walking on the broken stump of the femur without a hip ball. I felt like throwing in the towel a couple of times and it would have been quite easy except I had a daughter who was turning 16 at the time. Funny how things like that will keep you hanging on. So glad you are better too!
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