Painkillers may raise risk of heart attack by 100%

[dlevere]

Common painkillers such as Ibuprofen and Naproxen are already known to raise people's risk of a heart attack. Now a new study shows the risk comes within the first week of using the drugs. The study does not show how the drugs may cause heart attacks. There are several theories on how that might happen.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health...-study-n756991

[Combusto Dragon]

then don't take those pills everyday only take if you feel a pain like toothache or backache

[bungholio]

I never understand those percentages they give with these risks. If I have a 100% increased risk, my brain translates that into "It's 100% guaranteed you will have a heart attack.". Almost nobody ever has the heart attack, so it shouldn't be 100% in my brain. What do they even mean with these percentages?

[Pyriel]

I can't find a claim of percentages in the article, just that it's "significant", which in scientific terms generally means that it's a result that can't be explained by chance, and isn't small enough to be negligible.

As far as the 100% increase, it's just double. The background level for heart attacks is X out of some number over some time frame. If I recall correctly, the control group risk for comparison with Vioxx was something like 5/400 for the term of the main study, if you scale up to whole numbers, and the drug was found to increase the risk to about 8/400. It's the same shit you get into with reporting on anything. Your chance going from 0.0005% to 0.0010% isn't especially interesting, but it did double, so let's get some clicks.

Not saying Vioxx wasn't a flub. It had a fairly minor effect overall, but because of the marketing blitz and how much of an improvement narrower COX inhibition is, it was over-prescribed. And prescribed to people with other risk factors that should have stuck with other pain-killers despite their own side effects.