There's new research showing that taking commonly used over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs could keep heart attacks at bay. The downside - abruptly stopping the therapy greatly increases heart attack risks.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, examined the British General Practice Research Database over a six year period, finding that an increase in heart attacks could be traced to patients' stopping use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a category of common medicines including ibuprofen, naproxen, ketoprofen and diclofenac.
According to the researchers, risk of heart attack increased 50% for patients who stopped taking the medicines up to 29 days before their first attack, compared with non-users. It said risk of heart attack in long-term NSAID users rose by more than 50% after they discontinued the drugs. Patients with inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus had three times the risk.
The study said that if subjects went 60 days after the stoppage with no event, the risk of heart failure was much less. It said NSAID medicines could help decrease heart attack risk by reducing inflammation, which is linked to heart attacks.
"The risk of AMI was not elevated for current NSAID users, suggesting that NSAIDs may counterbalance an increased risk caused by inflammation," according to the study.
The study looked at 8,688 cases of heart attack between 1995 and 2001, Nearly 34,000 control cases were also part of the study. It explored the over-the-counter drugs' effect on heart attack risk. Ibuprofen is sold under the brand-name Advil and naproxen as Aleve.
"Our results suggest that abrupt discontinuation of NSAID therapy may have to be avoided and that physicians should carefully review the disease status and the current medication profile before terminating a therapy with NSAIDs," the study concluded.
