First published April 6, 2017.
What the evidence actually addresses
The study linked in the 2017 report concerns hospital admission for heart failure, not a blanket instruction for everybody over 40 to stop ibuprofen. A relative increase in risk is different from saying that one person has a 20% chance of a heart attack.
Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs carry cardiovascular risks, but the cited evidence does not establish a blanket instruction for everyone over 40 to stop taking them. Decisions about ibuprofen depend on the individual, the dose and the duration of use.
Doctors are warning people that the risks of taking Ibuprofen might outweigh the benefits. Ibuprofen might temporarily lessen the pain of a headache, but is it worth heart disease? The FDA strengthened its cardiovascular warning for non-aspirin NSAIDs in 2015, following earlier warnings.Original source They say that even with short term use, a persons heart attack and stroke risk increases significantly.
The 2017 article attributed the following wording to the FDA; that exact quotation and its age-40 threshold have not been authenticated:Original source “This risk increases the longer one continues to use ibuprofen. You do not need to have an existing heart condition to be at risk, although such a condition does increase your chances. These risks make ibuprofen especially dangerous to individuals over 40 – the age at which one’s risk of heart disease begins to skyrocket.”
(Correction: the FDA’s safety communication of 9 July 2015 says the risk of heart attack or stroke can occur as early as the first weeks of using an NSAID, may increase with longer use, appears greater at higher doses, and applies to patients with or without heart disease; it sets no age-40 threshold (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 9 July 2015). Anyone who takes ibuprofen regularly should discuss it with a doctor or pharmacist rather than stopping or continuing because of this article.)
The cited 2016 BMJ study examined hospital admission for heart failure; its result should not be described as a 20% increase in heart attacks from ibuprofen. The health warning over the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) comes after analysis involving almost 10 million patients published in The British Medical Journal. NSAIDs are a drug class that groups together drugs that provide an analgesic and antipyretic effects. The chance of having a heart attack is a large price to pay for the relief of a headache. This article supplies no comparative clinical evidence that unspecified natural ingredients relieve pain as effectively as NSAIDs. Natural origin does not establish that an alternative is effective or free of adverse effects.
Source: Go Natural Cures
Certain types of pain can only be fixed with Ibuprofine. Inflamation and infection, for example, because other pain killers do not thin the blood, which is why it works so well. You don't tell someone with a toothache to take a tylenol.. won't do anything.
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