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Aspirin Plus Plavix Disappoints According to researchers at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Congress yesterday, aspirin may help people who have already had a heart attack, however, if you have never had a heart attack, aspirin may not be that useful in preventing one. The researchers had carried out a study on combining aspirin with Plavix, a blood-thinning drug. They found that there was no benefit for preventing heart attacks, except for people who already had heart disease - even then the benefit was modest. This 28-month study looked at 15,600 patients over the age of 45. Apart from finding no evidence of protection from heart attack or stroke, there were indications smokers and patients with diabetes may actually be harmed by Plavix. You can read about this trial in the New England Journal of Medicine. Deepak Bhatt, M.D., Cleveland Clinic, spoke on behalf of colleagues in the CHARISMA (Clopidogrel for High Atherothrombotic Risk and Ischemic Stabilization, Management, and Avoidance) trial. Dr. Cinque's comments: I remember Dr. Dean telling me years ago that Plavix is a dangerous and unnecessary drug and that even in high risk cases, it's better not to take it. At least aspirin mimics the natural salicylates that are scattered throughout the fresh plant produce that we eat, but Plavix just poisons the platelets, and that's all there is to it. And now, there are numerous lawsuits for damages and wrongful deaths because of Plavix, and the class-action lawyers are having a field day. We don't hear about cases like these on the Evening News until they get as big as Vioxx. It seems that a certain number of class-action lawsuits are considered par for the course for a prescription drug. For instance, all of the popular statin drugs are facing class-action lawsuits of their own, but the corporate media only reports the so-called good news about statins. For instance, the other night, they heralded a study showing that taking enough Crestor to knock LDL below 60 (which is sub-physiological, meaning that it is highly unnatural and abnormal to have LDL that low) resulted in plaque regression in the worst cases of 7 percent. That's all?? Here, they used their biggest, most dangerous gun, with all that strain on the liver and more, and all they accomplished with it was a lousy 7 percent reduction in plaque size after two years??? I am not impressed. Eating a high-vegetable diet could have done that and more with no danger whatsoever. And they quietly added that there was no evidence of any reduction in the risk of heart attack or stroke from taking Crestor. Of course, that didn't change the tone of the report, which was entirely upbeat. But getting back to this case, my lowly opinion is that aspirin should only be considered in clearly established cases of heart disease, and Plavix should never be considered. E-mail to a friend Previous Article Next Article |
