We’ve written before about the risks of NSAID pain relievers (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs). And by now you may have heard that taking them can increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.

NSAIDS include:

Ibuprofen (Midol, Advil, Motrin)

Naproxen (Midol and Aleve)

Diclofenac (Voltaren, Cambia, and

Solaraze)

Celecoxib (Celebrex), and

Rofecoxib (Vioxx)

A study that included health data from 446,763 people (61,460 of whom had a heart attack) concluded with a 90% degree of probability that taking NSAIDs was “very much associated with heart attack risk”. In fact the study calculated that the use of NSAIDs increased heart attack risk by as much as 20% to 50%.

And you don’t have to take NSAIDs for a long time for the risk to develop. In fact, the increased risk of having a heart attack begins within the first week of taking NSAIDs and remains the highest for the first month of a person’s NSAID use. Researchers don’t believe that the risk continues to increase the longer you use them, but they don’t know for certain.

Not surprisingly, the researchers did find that higher doses of NSAIDs puts you at a higher heart attack risk.

All of the NSAIDs listed above were linked to a higher risk of heart attack. Rofecoxib (known as Vioxx) increased the risk the most. The three traditional NSAIDs — diclofenac, ibuprofen, and naproxen — had the lowest level of risk. The researchers found that these NSAIDs attack your mitochondria (the powerhouses of your cells) and prevent them from providing your body the energy it needs to keep your heart pumping.  

The health databases used in the study came from Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom.

Most people assume there’s nothing to lose by trying those common pain relief medications to see if they can get relief from their headaches or arthritis or a sprain of some sort, etc, … but increasing one’s risk of a heart attack by 20% to 50% doesn’t seem like “nothing to lose”. But, you sure can’t live as productive or as high a quality of life if you are forced to just “live with it”… the pain of arthritis, migraines, sprains, etc, so what to do?

There are a lot of natural options that have very good track records of providing very good pain relief, without nearly as big a risk of serious side effects.

Such natural options include, but aren’t limited to:

¨ Acupuncture

¨ Chiropractic care

¨ Massage

¨ Physical Therapy

¨ Turmeric or Curcumin

¨ White Willow Bark

We hope this information is helpful.