Are NSAID painkillers killing us? Are we to be warned?

The history of painkillers have demonstrated three important things about pharmaceutical drugs. The first is that they are important element in the credibility of conventional medicine. The second is that many millions of people take them routinely and regularly on the basis that they are (at least relatively) safe. The third is that painkilling drugs are a profitable product for the drug companies.

It is the second element, the safety of these painkilling drugs that is the issue. I have written about the dangers of NSAID painkillers regularly, this article putting together information about the harm they do to patients, mainly information that has been known for decades.

Other websites have done the same on a regular basis. In 2011, Agora Health's 'Daily Health' bulletin outlined how widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen, naproxen and fenoprofen were, and that they increased our risk of a second heart attack by as much as 45%. More recently Agora Health have said this.

"These popular painkillers have also been associated with a 66 % chance of developing dementia, and a 57% chance of developing Alzheimer's disease. Last year (2014) another study found using NSAID pain relievers increase your risk of atrial fibrillation, a potentially deadly heart rhythm, by a whopping 84%. 

Yet despite the increasing evidence against these painkillers, which has built up over the years, patients have not been informed. Instead there has been a deafening silence from the conventional medical establishment, seemingly content to maintain their credibility with the public against the growing evidence of harm they were causing, and to maintain their profitability regardless of the damage they must have known it was doing to patients.

Now, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally admitted that the evidence against NSAIDs is too overwhelming to ignore, and is now demanding that these painkillers carry a label warning about their heart attack and stroke risks. (But presumably, no mention of the risk of dementia). Moreover, the idea that you had to take lots of painkillers, over a long period before suffering the dreadful, disease-inducing consequences has been laid to rest. The FDA has admitted, at last, the NSAID painkillers increase the risk of heart disease and stroke from the very first dose.

• Remember, NSAID drugs, like Paracetamol and Ibuprofen, are readily available, over-the-counter drugs, that can be purchased without prescription, and without any medical oversight.
• Remember that these same NSAID drugs will still be available in the USA, but with a warning on the label.
• Remember that these same painkilling drugs will still be available in India, Britain, and the rest of Europe, Australia, Canada, and elsewhere, even without a warning label.

And listen. Can you hear anything from our mainstream media about this? Is the BBC, our 'public services broadcaster' informing us? No! The deafening silence continues.

Instead, listen to Agora Health, who tell us that after years of ignoring adverse reports about NSAID painkillers that the FDA finally agreed to look again at the science behind these drugs, and what they discovered.

• NSAID drugs can increase your risk of heart failure
• Our chance of having a heart attack or stroke increases quickly from the first time we take them
• But the longer we take them, and the higher the dose, the greater the danger becomes
• Even occasional users have an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, even people with healthy hearts
• And patients given NSAID's following a first heart attack were more likely to die within a year compared to those who did not take them

The conventional medical establishment must be the last industry that runs its industry on the basis that safety is secondary, that harm has to be proven, beyond all reasonable doubt, before any action is taken to protect the public. There is a pattern that seems to fit all conventional pharmaceutical drugs, including not just painkillers, but Statins, Anti-depressants, Beta Blockers, Anti-biotics - the list is endless!

     * Unsafe drugs come on to the market.
          * People take them, with doctors telling us that they are safe.
               * Only then, as we get ill, do serious side effects become clear.
                    * The reported dangers, (heart disease, dementia), are ignored, often for decades.
                         * Increasing numbers of people, usually many millions, are harmed by the drug.
                              * Drug Regulators do nothing, for as long as they can.
                                  * Warnings may then be placed on the drug labels, that few people read.
                                      * But the Media remains quiet, the public largely uninformed.
                                 
AND THE DRUGS, HOWEVER DANGEROUS THEY MIGHT BE, CONTINUE TO BE SOLD, READILY AVAILABLE FOR ANY UNSUSPECTING PERSON TO TAKE.

AND THE PUBLIC REMAIN LARGELY UNINFORMED, CONTINUING TO BELIEVE THAT THE DRUGS THEY BUY ARE 'SAFE', JUST AS THEY WERE TOLD, MANY YEARS EARLIER.

What other industry is, or would be allowed to carry on in this way? And why is it that the conventional health industry is allowed to continue to do so?

Failure of Painkilling Drugs

Painkillers have been one of conventional medicine's most lauded triumphs over the last century and more. But alongside most of conventional medical treatment they are failing. Even our doctor's are now beginning to realise that painkilling drugs are failing!

In the GP e-magazine, Pulse, a doctor asked the question "...what GP's have been left with to treat patients with chronic pain?" The article states that

          "... GP options for managing persistent pain in their patients have declined markedly over the past decade, but it seems we may have finally reached crisis point".

The GP goes on to talk about the rise of fall of co-proxamol, selective Cox-2 inhibitors, and traditional NSAIDs. And now, she bemoaned "the safety of yet another analgesic called into question, especially the one most often prescribed". She refers, of course, to Paracetamol.

"So what exactly is left?" is the question asked. What can doctors recommend to patients with osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, or back pain? It would appear that the conventional medical cupboard is, indeed, quite bear!

This blog looked at the dangers of Aspirin (August 2013) and found that it is not the safe painkiller it has been made out to be for over 100 years. But it is certainly not alone, and now Paracetamol (known as Tylonol in the USA), and lots of other NSAIDs, or 'Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs', have come into sharp focus over their safety record.

I have also written here about the dangers of Diclofenac (July 2013), a NSAID painkiller introduced in 1993, and now banned (although only in the UK abd Europe) for people with heart problems.

I have also written about the banned painkiller, Darvon, or Co-Proxamol, a drug introduced in the 1950's, and although causing heart problems for decades, was not banned in the UK until 2006.

Ibuprofen is another 'popular' painkiller whose safety record needs to be seriously considered. This article outlines just some of the DIEs of this drug. And this article talks of Ibuprofen as a painkiller popular with athletes, and outlines the dangers they can cause - to even the fittest amongst us.

Many people believe that the dangers of these painkilling drugs is that they are overused, they are subject to overdose. So can these dangers be avoided by avoiding 'overdosing' on painkillers? Yet it is becoming clear that another problem arises here - that to 'overdose' on painkillers is far easier than had been realised (or admitted). This WDDTY article suggests that an overdose possible with just a couple of additional pills. And as outlined here, just a tiny 'overdose' of Paracetamol can become a killer

So what is becoming clear is that all painkillers, even a 'low' or 'recommended' doses are equally damaging to our health. 

If we look more closely at Paracetamol (Tylenol) it has long been admitted that this drug causes nausea, upper stomach pain, itching, loss of appetite, and jaundice, and that emergency medical help is recommended if hives, difficult breathing, face swelling occur. On a Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) I saw recently there are many reasons for NOT taking Paracetamol given:
* if the patient has a list of existing illnesses;
* if the patient is taking a long list of drugs that might interact with it;
* several reasons for 'informing your doctor' if and when a patient experiences certain side-effects;
* and a significant list of 'serious' and 'other' side effects are also mentioned.

Yet this PIL list, as usual, consists only of the the disease inducing effects (DIEs) admitted by Big Pharma, and the Conventional Medical Establishment.

These dangers of Paracetamol - which include liver damage, pancreatitis, even death have been known and accepted for many years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8907129/A-few-extra-tablets-can-cause-cumulative-paracetamol-overdose.html
Yet most people believe that Paracetamol is essentially a safe one, if taken properly.

Yet there are many conditions that are now linked with Paracetamol that are not included in any PIL, or in any information given to us by the conventional medical establishment. These have not yet been acknowledge, recognised or admitted. For instance, in this article published in a national newspaper, the links between Paracetamol and Asthma in children is discussed.

This article goes further, and says that all NSAID painkillers, such as Paracetomol, are known to cause Asthma is children, and particularly in children who have been given the drug during the first year of their life.

This becomes extremely disturbing when we realise that, as parents, most of us have given our children the drug Calpol, the painkiller made especially for very young children, and that this drug mainly comprises of Paracetamol.

Then in this article, acetaminophen (that is, the active ingredient in Paracetamol, Tylenol) is associated with the risk of the rare, but serious skin condition, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which can apparently be fatal. Nor, as the article makes clear, is this the result of an overdose of the drug as "These reactions can occur with first-time use of acetaminophen, or at any time while it is being taken".

More recently, NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK) has warned doctors against prescribing paracetamol for people suffering from osteoarthritis.

However, as usual, the conventional medical establishment are divided over this advice. There is always lengthy discussion when there is a suggestion that runs counter to Big Pharma's financial interests! So, the MHRA (the UK's drug regulator) has announced that it is not in agreement with, and is not supporting this advice!

So we patients, especially the millions of osteoarthritis sufferers who are taking these painkillers, and presumably their doctors too, are now left to guess who is right. The decision will eventually have to be made by the conventional medical establishment! And that may be many years ahead, during which time many more patients will suffer the DIEs of these painkillers.

What is also frightening is that Paracetamol (Tylenol), and many other painkillers, are drugs readily available as an OTC (over-the-counter) drug, so requires no doctor's prescription. Most families will have paracetamol or some other NSAID painkiller in their homes, and consider it to be a 'safe' drug. Few will read the Patient Information leaflets, albeit with its limited information. I found my copy in a thrown-away package; the drugs had been taken, the PIL was clearly left unopened, and unread.

The consequences of our doctor-induced love affair with painkilling drugs are many. The Guardian newspaper reported that 1 million Britains suffered constant and crippling headaches by the overuse of painkillers. And as the Daily Mail reported about the same evidence:

          "As many as one in 50 of the population regularly has headaches triggered by the very drugs meant to be numbing their pain".

High Blood Pressure has been linked to OTC painkillers. Evidence for this has been reported in this article by WDDTY, and of course, anyone with high blood pressure as a result of taking painkillers are then likely to be given Antihypotensive drugs, and thus subject to all the adverse effects of these drugs too.

Yet the problems identified with painkilling drugs continue.

* This research found that when a patient was given NSAID painkillers after a heart attack, it made them more susceptible to another.

* This research linked popular painkillers to hearing loss in women.

* This article links NSAID painkillers with 'wreaking havoc with the small intestine.

* And for men, even our manhood is threatened by painkillers - they have been found to dramatically lower testosterone levels.

The painkilling 'crisis' could have been foreseen - but only if conventional medics had been willing to admit that a patient's pain was only temporarily relieved by painkillers, and that regular use of painkillers increased toxicity within the body, which in many cases merely further exacerbated the pain, and the condition that caused the pain.

Moreover, in isolating and dealing with just the pain these drugs were not addressing the origins or the cause of the pain.

Fortunately, alternative medical therapies have never fallen into this trap. They may not be able to offer a simple, single 'solution' to pain. CAM therapies, after all, recognised that pain has a complicated, and individual aetiology which needed to be understood. So amidst the gloom and despair, and the ultimate failure of the conventional medical establishment, I finish this article with three pieces I have come across recently - about pain management using alternative methods.

This article suggests that we forget conventional painkilling drugs, and instead look to natural remedies and herbs to ease our pain.

This articles suggests natural pain killers beat Big Pharma painkilling drugs - which of course they do - but much more safely.

And this article states that Homeopathy can reduce painkiller usage by over 50%.

And with the failure of painkilling drugs, it will probably have to do much better than that! 

Common Pain Killing drugs lead to Heart problems

It is interesting to compare what the Conventional Medical Establishment tells us about pharmaceutical drugs, and what they refuse to tell us. The Health Sciences Institute has done just this in a recent newsletter (to receive their newsletter, well worthwhile, go to their website at http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/.

          "Higher daily dose of aspirin could play key role in preventing heart attacks for those with diabetes."

That is the kind of 'good' news we so often hear from the NHS, which is so readily peddled in the mainstream media.

          Higher daily dose of aspirin could play key role in preventing heart attacks for those with diabetes" University of Alberta press release, 7/5/11, eurekalert.org 


What you won't hear is any 'news' to the contrary. For instance, this research will almost certainly not be taken up by GPs, the NHS, or the mainstream media.


"Common Painkillers May Increase Risk of Irregular Heart Rhythm" MyHealthNewsDaily, 7/5/11, myhealthnewsdaily.com 

The drugs implicated in this research is not just aspirin, but that whole group of commonly available painkillers called NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

     "... Danish researchers compared medical records for about 32,000 atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with medical records for more than 320,000 healthy subjects. Results showed that 60 days or more of NSAID use increased AF risk by 40 per cent, and the same amount of COX-2 inhibitor use increased risk by 70 per cent.

     AF is associated with the long-term risk of stroke and heart failure - and therefore death. But there are more well-known risk with taking NSAIDs - stomach bleeding - which the American Gastroenterological Association says results in more than 100,000 admissions to hospital each year (and I believe that figure in just the USA).

Nonsteriodal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)" American Gastroenterological Association, 4/24/10, gastro.org 

There are no safe pharmaceutical drugs. The best thing anyone can do is to avoid them - and look for a safer medical therapy.

Common painkillers triple risk of stroke

The British Medical Journal has published evidence that common painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen double the risk of a heart attack, and triple the chance of stroke. The researchers were alerted to the potential dangers of anti-inflammatory painkillers following the withdrawal of Vioxx (rofecoxib) after it was found to cause heart disease and death.

Vioxx was a COX-2 inhibitor, a ‘new generation’ anti-inflammatory supposedly safer than the older NSAIDs (non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs), such as aspirin.  But the researchers found that the risk exists across the entire family of drugs when they analysed the results of 31 drug trials, involving 116,429 participants.

The researchers conclude that the drugs – many of which can be purchased without a prescription in pharmacies – are not safe, and should be taken with great care.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2011; 342: c7086).

Thanks to WDDTY for this story:
http://www.wddty.com/common-painkillers-triple-risk-of-stroke.html