Popular Over The Counter Pain Relievers Linked To Increased Risk of Hypertension

The REAL Story Behind Health News Headlines
by Russell J. Martino, Ph.D.  The Voice Of Health
www.Dr.RussellsHealthAndWeightLossBlog.com

NSAIDs, non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, hypertension, prostoglandins, inflammation, blood pressure, high stress,  and how it all relates to hypertension.    

The REAL Story Behind the Health News Headlines gives you a practical insight on important medical studies and health-related news stories.  This Is Health News You Can Use

Popular Over The Counter Pain Relievers Linked To Increased Risk of Hypertension

THE VOICE OF HEALTH SPEAKS

This story behind this headline comes from a study reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study involved just over 80,000 women age 31 to 50.  The purpose of the study was to determine if there is a link between increased risk of hypertension, (high blood pressure), and the regular use of NonSteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, (NSAIDs), and acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol. 

In addition to nearly 70 million prescriptions written each year for products containing NSAIDs and acetaminophen, there are numerous over the counter products containing these substances, including Motrin, Advil, any product containing ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aleve, and many, many others.

The authors’ conclusions are startling!

“The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and acetaminophen are significantly associated with increased risk of hypertension.” 

They went on to say,

“A substantial proportion of hypertension in the United States, and the associated morbidity and mortality, may be due to the use of these medications.”

Discussion

NSAIDs work by interfering with your body’s ability to make prostaglandins, which are an important class of bio-chemical that regulates hundreds of things throughout your body. 

Your body has two primary types of prostaglandins, ones that produce an INFLAMMATORY response and ones that produce an ANTI-INFLAMMATORY response.  Both are extremely important and a shortage or imbalance in either leads to problems.

Unfortunately, most people are way out of balance with their prostaglandins.  

Most have way too much of the inflammatory prostaglandins and way to few of the anti-inflammatory ones.  As a result, they are forced to live with a great deal of pain and inflammation and frequently take pain relievers to help them feel better. 

On the surface, inhibiting the ability to make inflammation-producing prostaglandins sounds like a good way to stop the pain, and it works.  These drugs are very effective pain relievers.  But there’s a problem and it’s a BIG one.

No doubt you have heard at least some of the hoopla in the news about how important the Omega 3 essential fatty acids are.  Every week there is a new story on the news wire explaining how these essential fatty acids prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure, protect you against cancer and so on.

Omega 3 essential fatty acids are so powerful is because . . .

OMEGA 3 ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS FACILITATE THE PRODUCTION OF THE ANTI-INFLAMMATORY CLASS OF PROSTAGLANDINS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE EXCELLENT RESULTS.  
 
Since the drugs INTENTIONALLY INHIBIT your ability to produce ALL prostaglandins, inflammatory and anti-inflammatory alike, maybe taking them is not such a good idea after all, ESPECIALLY if you take them more than just occasionally.

Anything that interferes with your ability to make prostaglandins seriously interferes with your body’s ability to naturally regulate blood pressure; heart, liver and kidney function; proper immune function and everything else. 

Given this it’s no surprise to discover that the regular use of prostaglandin inhibiting NSAIDs and acetaminophen is now “officially” thought to be responsible for a great deal pain and suffering. 

The Story BEHIND The Story

Because this study focused specifically on the relation between NSAIDs and acetaminophen and high blood pressure, what the study did not mention was another study published in the July 1998 Issue of The Journal of The American Medical Association that stated the following.  

“Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug related gastrointestinal complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone.”

Blood pressure concerns aside, it’s well known and well reported in medical literature that these kinds of drugs, prescription or not, can and frequently do cause serious gastrointestinal problems.

Anti Acids To The Rescue!

People who regularly take NSAIDs or acetaminophen frequently develop all sorts of gastrointestinal problems.  To ease their NEW pain, they take anti acids and regularly consuming anti acids creates a whole new set of problems. 

First, anti acids effectively MASK THE SYMPTOMS of the developing gastrointestinal problem, but in no way stops the damage from occurring.   In other words, your GI track is being slowly destroyed and you never feel a thing!

By effectively masking the symptoms, but in no way stopping the damage, people who take pain medication AND anti acids are actually at HIGHER RISK for developing serious gastrointestinal problems.  And many do.

There’s another problem with the regular consumption of anti acids. 

Anti acids are usually high in calcium.  Consuming lots of extra calcium WITHOUT balancing it with magnesium causes a serious mineral imbalance.  To correct that imbalance, your body grabs minerals out of your muscles and bones, which predictably leads to weakness and may lead to heart problems and osteoporosis.  

As you can see, taking drugs to solve problems frequently complicates matters beyond comprehension and can lead to much bigger problems.

Here’s my opinion.  What do you think?

The solution is KNOWLEDGE and ACTION. 

The drug approach to dealing with pain is to reduce your body’s ability to make prostaglandins that regulate inflammation, but that compromises your ability to make ALL prostaglandins and interferes with your natural ability to be healthy.

Just taking the drugs and forgetting everything else amounts to nothing more than a death sentence that’s carried out slowly over the years.  

The solution is not to INHIBIT your body’s ability to function so you don’t feel the pain.  The solution is to ENHANCE your body’s ability to function PROPERLY so there is NO PAIN TO FEEL. 

How do you do that?  An excellent first step is to follow the advice in5 Steps To Optimal Health.  If you take NSAIDs or acetaminophen for pain, pay extra attention to the discussion of Essential Fatty Acids and essential minerals.  Thousands have benefited from the 5 Steps Program.

More Health News You Can Use is on the way… so be sure and subscribe to the Blog so you get Health News You Can Use hot off the press.  www.DrRussellsHealthAndWeightLossBlog.com

Health is a choice only you can make and if you want excellent health you have to make that choice every day. 

Until Next Post… All The Best To You And Yours!
Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
Bringing You Health… At The Speed Of Life!

This is a small sample of the practical, usable information in 5 Steps To Optimal Health, a program I wrote in 1999 and have updated continuously every since.  It’s fun, easy to listen to and completely downloadable.  Learn more here:  www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com 

Written by Dr. Russell J. Martino, Ph.D
The Voice Of Health
Stay Updated - Subscribe to my RSS Feed