Originally published March 13 2005
Safety questions about Vioxx, similar drugs leave arthritis patients in a bind
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Arthritis patients should be forgiven for being confused and concerned these days. Just months after taking the pain pill Vioxx off the market because it has been linked to heart attacks, the Food and Drug Administration has now said Vioxx can come back to drug stores. But the agency has stopped short of saying Vioxx, and other similar drugs are safe. Instead, the agency now requires the drugs to come with confusing, and possibly frightening, warning labels.
- For 66 million people with arthritis or joint pain, treatment has never been more confusing.
- A few years ago, they were told that a new generation of medications (COX-2 inhibitors) would be safer than the drugs they used to take.
- Then Merck, the maker of Vioxx, pulled this popular pain reliever off the market because it was found to cause heart attacks and strokes.
- · More information is available in the Graedons' Guide to Alternatives for Arthritis newsletter.
- For a copy, send $3 by check or money order with a long (No. 10) self-addressed and stamped (60 cents) envelope to: Graedons' People's Pharmacy, No. B-67, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, N.C. 27717-2027.
- Rather, the panel noted that the entire category, including Celebrex and Bextra, should come with strong warnings about heart attacks and strokes.
- FDA safety officer David Graham, M.D., has estimated that as many as 140,000 people may have suffered heart attacks while taking Vioxx.
- The new guidelines will probably suggest that these COX-2 inhibitors are most appropriate when people take them at the lowest possible dose for the shortest period of time.
- And those with heart-disease risk factors may be encouraged to avoid them completely.
- Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (60 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons' People's Pharmacy, No. AA-2, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.
- For those who need NSAIDs, it might be possible to protect the stomach from damage.
- For decades we encouraged people to save money by requesting generics whenever possible.
- I was unable to do so, and as a result my breasts became swollen and extremely painful.
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