Taking Clopidogrel with Aspirin is a Deadly Combination.

By Dr Deepu

Taking Clopidogrel along with an aspirin a day to reduce your risk of a stroke or heart attack?

 

That Clopidogrel-aspirin combination almost doubled the mortality risks of patients who had diabetes and high blood pressure but had not suffered a heart attack, according to a study of some 15,000 patients.

Adding Clopidogrel is generally no more effective than taking an aspirin, a result that surprised researchers. No doubt, it shocked drug makers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis too!

Researchers should have expected these kinds of health-harming results, considering Clopidogrel elevated a patient’s risk of developing ulcers by a factor of 12 versus aspirin and Nexium. Just remember, aspirin isn’t a safe, cure-all drug either and, according to one Harvard pharmacist, probably wouldn’t have been approved by the FDA for over-the-counter use had it debuted today.

Best alternatives to taking a drug to protect the heart are
Take a high quality fish or cod liver oil daily.
Get moving on an exercise program.

New England Journal of Medicine, March 12, 2006
USA Today, March 13, 2006.

FDA Strengthens Warning Of Heart Attack, Stroke Risk for NSAIDs.

By Dr Deepu

FDA Strengthens Warning Of Heart Attack, Stroke Risk for NSAIDs.

ABC World News (7/9, story 11, 1:15, Muir) reported that the Food and Drug Administration strengthened its warning about risks associated with popular pain medicines Advil (ibuprofen), Motrin (ibuprofen), and Aleve (naproxen).

        NBC Nightly News (7/9, story 3, 2:00, Holt) reported that FDA officials now believe that the evidence is “conclusive” that non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) “can increase the chance of heart attack and stroke.”

        The CBS Evening News (7/9, story 10, 0:25, Pelley) reported that the risks are present even with short-term use of 10 days or less.

        According to New York Times (7/10, A20, Tavernise, Subscription Publication), current labels for these over-the-counter drugs indicate they “may cause” an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. However, the FDA believes that “new data from a recent analysis provided stronger evidence of the increased risk of heart failure from such drugs.”

        The Wall Street Journal (7/10, A4, Burton, Subscription Publication) reports that the agency will request the manufacturers change the safety labels on the drugs to indicate the drugs cause increased risk of heart failure within the coming months.

        The Los Angeles Times (7/10, Healy) reports in “Science Now” that the warnings will also point out that “the higher risk of stroke or heart attack is evident in the first weeks a patient starts taking such drugs, that the risk appears to escalate at higher doses and with longer use, and that even people with no other cardiovascular risk factors are more likely to suffer heart attack or stroke when taking the medications.”

        The AP (7/10, Perrone) reports that “the labeling change is the latest step in the FDA’s ongoing safety review of the drugs, which stretches back to 2004,” when “Merck & Co Inc. pulled its blockbuster pain reliever Vioxx [rofecoxib] off the market because of links to heart attack and stroke.”

        Also covering the story are the NBC News(7/10, Fox) website, HealthDay (7/10, Thompson),MedPage Today (7/10, Brown), and Medscape(7/10, Brown).

Survey: Majority Of Americans, Including Smokers, Say Age Limit For Tobacco Sales Should Be 21

By Dr Deepu

Survey: Majority Of Americans, Including Smokers, Say Age Limit For Tobacco Sales Should Be 21

The Washington Post (7/8, Dennis) “To Your Health” blog reports the findings of an online survey of over 4,000 US adults published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found 75 percent of adults, including nearly 70 percent of smokers, favor putting the age limit for tobacco sales on par with those of alcohol. The poll was conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists in the study said setting the legal minimum age at 21 instead of 19 would have a “substantially greater impact” because teenagers can pick up smoking from friends or relatives around the same age. Brian King, a co-author of the report and an acting deputy director for CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement about the findings: “Raising the minimum age of sale to 21 could benefit the health of Americans in several ways.”

        The Los Angeles Times (7/8, Kaplan) adds that that poll shows that 50 percent of US adults “strongly favor” increasing the age to 21, while 25 percent said they “somewhat favor” the increase. Only 11 percent said they “strongly oppose” the move, while 14 percent said they would “somewhat oppose” it. The poll also shows 77 percent of people who had never been smokers support raising the minimum age to 21.

        TIME (7/8) reports that Hawaii recently became the first state to increase its legal smoking age to 21. Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah have set the minimum age as 19.

        The Hill (7/8, Wheeler) reports American Heart Association (AHA) CEO Nancy Brown said in a statement, “If we can keep young Americans from buying tobacco until they turn 21, we could prevent 223,000 premature deaths among those born between 2000 and 2019,” citing numbers from the Institute of Medicine.

        The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal (7/8, Craver), HealthDay (7/8), and Washington Examiner (7/8, Cunningham) also report on this story.

Mouse Study: Just One Added Gene Needed To Turn Yersinia Pestis Bacterium Into A Killer

By Dr Deepu

Mouse Study: Just One Added Gene Needed To Turn Yersinia Pestis Bacterium Into A Killer

The New York Times (7/7, D3, McNeil, Subscription Publication) reports that a genetic study involving mice and published last week in Nature Communications suggests that the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which was “responsible for the Black Death, probably caused small outbreaks of lung disease for many years before it evolved its better-known bubonic form.” The study also found that just “one added gene was needed to turn the Yersinia pestis bacterium into a killer, and only one tiny mutation in that gene was needed to give it two ways of spreading – by cough or by flea bite.

Gene Therapy May Benefit Patients With Cystic Fibrosis

By Dr Deepu

Gene Therapy May Benefit Patients With Cystic Fibrosis

The AP (7/3, Cheng) reported that physicians “who gave children with cystic fibrosis a replacement copy of a defective gene say it appeared to slow the expected decline of some patients’ lungs.” However, they “called the results ‘modest’ and say there must be major improvements before offering the treatment more widely.” The findings (pdf) were published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

        Bloomberg News (7/3, Kitamura) reports that although “the therapy yielded a modest benefit in some patients, there was wide variability among the 136 people at least 12 years old who received monthly doses or a placebo for a year.” Investigators found that after one “year of treatment, in the 62 patients who received the gene therapy, lung function was an average of 3.7 percent greater than in” those given a placebo.

        Also covering the story were Reuters (7/3, Kelland), BBC News (7/4, Ghosh), HealthDay (7/3, Dallas), MedPage Today (7/3, Walker), theHuffington Post (UK) (7/3), the Telegraph (UK)(7/4, Knapton), and The Guardian (UK) (7/3)