How much is the specific anti-inflammatory you’re taking increasing your heart attack risk?

Motrin side effects? It’s been known for awhile that all anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s) increase stroke and sudden death risk from heart attack. I’ve blogged on these NSAID side effects before and this week an even larger analysis of many studies continues to paint the same picture. These are potentially dangerous drugs. It’s funny how the news media will scream about a single observational study on supplement use in older womenthat seemed to show (the study wasn’t designed to determine cause and effect) about a 5-10% increase in the risk of dying among multi-vitamin and supplement users when that risk can go up 300% by taking over the counter NSAID drugs like Motrin! The supplement study was single study, but the new data published this week on NSAID’s like Motrin came from 26 studies! Why haven’t these NSAID drugs been yanked off the market? Unknown. How much can individual NASID’s increase your risk of dying based on this new study?

Your increased risk of having a stroke based on 26 studies that followed 377 strokes:

• Naproxen, 176% (Naprosyn)
• Ibuprofen, 336% (Motrin, Advil)
• Diclofenac, 286% (Cataflam, Voltaren)
• Etoricoxib (Arcoxia), 267%
• Lumiracoxib (Prexige), 281%

Your increased risk of dying from a heart attack  based on 26 studies that followed 676 heart attacks:

• Ibuprofen, 239% (Motrin, Advil)
• Diclofenac, 398 (Cataflam, Voltaren)
• Celecoxib (Celebrex), 207%
• Etoricoxib, 407% (Arcoxia)
• Rofecoxib, 158% (Vioxx)
• Lumiracoxib, 189% (Prexige)

Only naproxen (Alleve) showed no increase in risk for a heart attack. Note that all of the NSAID drugs were associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality (dying from any cause). In addition, notice that the one that was yanked from the market (Vioxx) is actually safer than Motrin/Advil and other common prescription NSAIDs like Celebrex and Voltaren.

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Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile