Question:
this in the moring call page 11 of front of paper. www.mcall.com under scientists question safty of celebrex, bextra. i don't under stand it all. but it sounds alot like what happen to vioxx to me. i don't under it. :confused: i take it and have high blood pressure. can some one look at and tell me what they think. i don't want to scary any one but it makes me think. thank you. hope it works.
Hey Rich I think this is the article your talking about.... The way I'm understanding it is there is something in the meds to make it "easy on the stomach" but it also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, like the article says spare the stomach at the expense of the heart.... the article says "There's a good prostaglandin and a bad prostaglandin as far as the heart is concerned. Suppressing both, as older painkillers like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS do, helps the heart. But shutting down just the "good" one raises the risk of high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and clotting, he reports."
I saw the same thing on the news the other night, about celebrex, they said they needed more studies and data before they could conclude if celebrex was safe.... I don't know if there are any answers when it comes to meds. It's kinda like damed if you do and damed if you don't... Maybe if you take the article to your doctor and ask about it.
Here is the article if anyone wants to read it.
Report: Other drugs besides Vioxx may raise heart risks
The arthritis drug Vioxx may not be the only drug of its type that raises the risk of heart attack and stroke, scientists suggest in a report released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
That's contrary to what federal regulators said when the blockbuster pain reliever, made by Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., was pulled from the market last week.
Studies done five years ago when Vioxx and New York-based Pfizer's Celebrex were approved suggest that the same mechanism that inhibits inflammation and makes the drugs easier on the stomach than traditional painkillers also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, according to Dr. Garret FitzGerald, a University of Pennsylvania cardiologist who led the studies, which were designed by him but funded by the drug companies.
"I believe this is a class effect," meaning that the problem also applies to Celebrex and Pfizer's newer, similar drug, Bextra, which remain on the market.
He called on the federal Food and Drug Administration to change its advice to patients and doctors to reflect the new safety concerns. In a separate report also released by the medical journal, Dr. Eric Topol of the Cleveland Clinic chastises the FDA for not requiring Merck to do studies investigating heart problems with Vioxx when hints of them first appeared years ago.
Pfizer's medical director, Dr. Gail Cawkwell, insisted that its drugs are safe.
"The data for Celebrex is robust and exceeds, in the length of patients in studies and in the size of studies, the data Vioxx has," she said.
She called FitzGerald's contention "an interesting theory," but said, "there is no evidence" of increased risk of heart problems among the 75 million Americans who have taken Celebrex. Long-term studies are not yet available on Bextra, which was approved in 2001.
FDA officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
When Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx, FDA officials said heart problems were unique to that drug and that the mechanism underlying them wasn't known.
But FitzGerald and colleagues published two studies in 1999 and another in 2001 suggesting that by selectively blocking one of the two substances called prostaglandins that lead to inflammation, these so-called cox-2 inhibitors were sparing the stomach at the expense of the heart.
"There's a good prostaglandin and a bad prostaglandin as far as the heart is concerned," he explained.
Suppressing both, as older painkillers like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS do, helps the heart. But shutting down just the "good" one raises the risk of high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and clotting, he reports.
The studies will be published in the Oct. 21 print edition of the medical journal.
Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
thank you pat
thanks for caring
have a good night
richard
When talking to my GP doctor today he mentioned it looked like Celebrex and the other (cant' think of the name) were likely to go off the market like vioxx, at least it was looking that way based on what he heard
When talking to my GP doctor today he mentioned it looked like Celebrex and the other (cant' think of the name) were likely to go off the market like vioxx, at least it was looking that way based on what he heard
Great! :rolleyes: ...guess I just take the Bextra until they decide what else will kill us! ...sheesh! :(
Kim
Answers:
Hey Rich I think this is the article your talking about.... The way I'm understanding it is there is something in the meds to make it "easy on the stomach" but it also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, like the article says spare the stomach at the expense of the heart.... the article says "There's a good prostaglandin and a bad prostaglandin as far as the heart is concerned. Suppressing both, as older painkillers like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS do, helps the heart. But shutting down just the "good" one raises the risk of high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and clotting, he reports."
I saw the same thing on the news the other night, about celebrex, they said they needed more studies and data before they could conclude if celebrex was safe.... I don't know if there are any answers when it comes to meds. It's kinda like damed if you do and damed if you don't... Maybe if you take the article to your doctor and ask about it.
Here is the article if anyone wants to read it.
Report: Other drugs besides Vioxx may raise heart risks
The arthritis drug Vioxx may not be the only drug of its type that raises the risk of heart attack and stroke, scientists suggest in a report released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
That's contrary to what federal regulators said when the blockbuster pain reliever, made by Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., was pulled from the market last week.
Studies done five years ago when Vioxx and New York-based Pfizer's Celebrex were approved suggest that the same mechanism that inhibits inflammation and makes the drugs easier on the stomach than traditional painkillers also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, according to Dr. Garret FitzGerald, a University of Pennsylvania cardiologist who led the studies, which were designed by him but funded by the drug companies.
"I believe this is a class effect," meaning that the problem also applies to Celebrex and Pfizer's newer, similar drug, Bextra, which remain on the market.
He called on the federal Food and Drug Administration to change its advice to patients and doctors to reflect the new safety concerns. In a separate report also released by the medical journal, Dr. Eric Topol of the Cleveland Clinic chastises the FDA for not requiring Merck to do studies investigating heart problems with Vioxx when hints of them first appeared years ago.
Pfizer's medical director, Dr. Gail Cawkwell, insisted that its drugs are safe.
"The data for Celebrex is robust and exceeds, in the length of patients in studies and in the size of studies, the data Vioxx has," she said.
She called FitzGerald's contention "an interesting theory," but said, "there is no evidence" of increased risk of heart problems among the 75 million Americans who have taken Celebrex. Long-term studies are not yet available on Bextra, which was approved in 2001.
FDA officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
When Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx, FDA officials said heart problems were unique to that drug and that the mechanism underlying them wasn't known.
But FitzGerald and colleagues published two studies in 1999 and another in 2001 suggesting that by selectively blocking one of the two substances called prostaglandins that lead to inflammation, these so-called cox-2 inhibitors were sparing the stomach at the expense of the heart.
"There's a good prostaglandin and a bad prostaglandin as far as the heart is concerned," he explained.
Suppressing both, as older painkillers like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS do, helps the heart. But shutting down just the "good" one raises the risk of high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and clotting, he reports.
The studies will be published in the Oct. 21 print edition of the medical journal.
Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
Answers:
thank you pat
thanks for caring
have a good night
richard
Answers:
When talking to my GP doctor today he mentioned it looked like Celebrex and the other (cant' think of the name) were likely to go off the market like vioxx, at least it was looking that way based on what he heard
Answers:
When talking to my GP doctor today he mentioned it looked like Celebrex and the other (cant' think of the name) were likely to go off the market like vioxx, at least it was looking that way based on what he heard
Great! :rolleyes: ...guess I just take the Bextra until they decide what else will kill us! ...sheesh! :(
Kim
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