Common Painkillers Raise Heart Risk

Over-the-counter painkillers including aspirin, ibuprofen and particularly acetaminophen, can raise blood pressure and thus the risk of heart disease among men, according to an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The new research, which covered four years among more than 16,000 healthy men, reinforces an earlier 2002 study that found the same commonly used non-narcotic analgesics raised blood pressure in women.
Men who used analgesics 6 to 7 days per week were compared with nonusers. The study also observed similar results when the number of pills per week was analyzed rather than frequency of use in days per week.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen, created a 38 percent greater risk of hypertension (raised blood pressure) among the participants than among men who did not take analgesics.
Those taking similar amounts of acetaminophen, which is sold generically, and as Tylenol TM, were 34 percent more likely to develop hypertension. Similar dosages of aspirin caused a 26 percent greater incidence of raised blood pressure.
More NSAIDs, even more hypertension Men who took 15 or more NSAID pills a week were 48 percent more likely than nonusers to have high blood pressure. The drugs can affect the ability of blood vessels to expand, and may also cause sodium retention –– two factors that can both raise blood
pressure.
Being overweight reduced the risk from acetaminophen, but raised the risk from NSAIDS, the researchers found.
“This is a potentially preventable cause of high blood pressure,” Dr. John Forman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.
Men who are advised by a doctor to take an aspirin a day to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke should not stop taking them without first discussing the risks and benefits with their doctor.
SOURCE: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/4/394

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