When heart attack survivors or those with heart disease take certain pain relievers it puts them at higher risk for heart attack or death according to a new study in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.
The CNN “The Chart” blog reports that the study “says that even short-term use of NSAIDs, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, is unsafe.”
HealthDay reported that “Danish researchers analyzed nationwide records of almost 84,000 heart attack survivors and found that those who used certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) for one week faced a 45 percent heightened risk of another heart attack. Three months’ use raised the risk to 55 percent.”
The findings “reinforce a 2007 American Heart Association statement advising doctors about the risk of NSAID use among heart patients and recommending the drugs be used only in the lowest dose and for the shortest duration necessary.”
WebMD reported that “the most commonly prescribed NSAIDs in the study were:

• ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, and others, 23%),
• diclofenac (Cataflam, Voltaren, 13.4%),
• rofecoxib, which was recalled in 2004, (Vioxx, 4.7%), and
• celecoxib (Celebrex, 4.8%).”

If you’ve not had a heart attack, but still are at cardiac risk (obese, smoker, diabetic, hypertensive, family history of heart attack, etc.), are NSAIDs safe?
Possibly NOT!
Learn more about this question in my blog, “Cardiovascular safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).”