The Epoch Times    June 8-14, 2006

 High Doses of NSAIDs Raise Heart Risk

 LONDON - High doses of some older painkillers as
 well as newer drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors
 raise the risk of a heart attack, scietists said
 last Friday.
 "COX-2 inhibitors and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-
 inflammatory drugs), particularly ibuprofen and
 diclofenac, increase the risk of heart attacks,"
 said Dr. Colin Baigent, an epidemiologist at the
 University of Oxford in England.
 Baigent and researchers in Italy analyzed
 previous studies into the use of COX-2 inhibitors
 and NSAIDs in a meta-analysis, which included data
 from 138 trials and 140,000 patients.
 As expected, they found that COX-2 inhibitors were
 linked with a moderate increase in the risk of
 heart attacks.  But the research also showed that
 high does of some NSAIDs carried similar odds.
 "We have put together all the randomized trials
 that have been conducted using COX-2 inhibitors
 and NSAIDs and come up with a synthesis of the
 overall evidence - everything that is available,"
 Baigent explained in an interview.
 "It gives us a uniquely reliable result."
 The increased risk means that for every 1,000
 persons taking an NSAID or COX-2 inhibitor, about
 3 people a year would have a heart attack.
 Vioxx, a COX-2 inhibitor made by Merck and Co.,
 was pulled from the market in 2004 after research
 showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and
 stroke in people who took it for at least 18
 months.  The company is facing more than 11,500
 lawsuits.
 Baigent, who reported the findings in the British
 Medical Journal, said the drugs eased chronic
 pain in people who cannot manage to go about
 their daily lives without some relief.
 Patients with pain from arthritis or other
 conditions are advised to take the lowest
 possible dose of the drug that relieves their
 symptoms, and take that does for the shortest
 possible time.

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