| Pain Killers Can Raise Your Blood Pressure!
Where would we be without painkillers? In pain, that’s where – at least some of the time. They're amongst the most important and commonly used types of medication, known to us since 400 BC when Greek doctors advised their patients to chew on willow bark to relieve pain (they didn't know it at the time, but it contains aspirin).
Painkillers can cause side effects in some people – aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) like naprosyn and ibuprofen cause stomach bleeding and paracetamol can cause liver damage if you take too many tablets. But most people tolerate them well, and it's a lot better than being in pain.
But over the last couple of years studies have linked NSAIDs with an increased risk of heart attack, taking a lot of the gloss off them.
Now another study suggests that painkillers – even aspirin and paracetamol – can elevate blood pressure if taken continuously.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, looked at 16,031 male health professionals – average age 65 – with no history of hypertension. They got detailed information about what painkillers the men took and how often; and followed them over a four year period, measuring their blood pressure along the way. By the end of the four years, nearly 2000 men had developed high blood pressure.
The researchers did take onto account things like age, weight, smoking status, physical activity and diet, alcohol intake and family history of hypertension of each man.
Those who used acetaminophen (known as paracetamol in Australia) six or seven days a week had a 34 per cent greater risk of hypertension compared to non-users. Those who took aspirin had a 26 per cent greater risk and those who took NSAIDs had a 38 per cent higher risk.
The more pills they took, the higher the risk. Those who took between 6 and 14 pills a week, for example, raised their risk by 53 per cent (if they took paracetamol) and 32 per cent (taking aspirin).
Now, this didn’t conclusively prove that it was the painkillers that raised the blood pressure. There could have been other factors at work causing it.
Small risk for a man, larger risk for mankind
Also, the absolute increase in risk wasn't large. Over the age of 65, there's a three per cent risk of a man developing high blood pressure for the first time in any one year. So taking painkillers might raise that to 4 per cent – not a large increase.
But previous studies have shown a link between painkillers and hypertension – and shown that it exists in women too – say the researchers. Other studies have showed that analgesics reduce the effectiveness of antihypertensive drugs by raising blood pressure.
And when you consider how often and many millions of people regularly take painkillers, the number of people with elevated blood pressure due to painkillers could run into many, many thousands world wide.
High blood pressure is one of the contributing factors for arteriosclerosis, the disease of the arteries which is the cause of heart disease and stroke. Together they account for 40 per cent of all deaths.
How might painkillers raise blood pressure? The researchers don't know exactly. They may cause the kidney to retain salt and fluid, or they may increase spasm in the arteries.
Does it mean you should clean out your medicine cabinet and grin and bear the pain? Not necessarily.
If you use painkillers occasionally to relieve acute pain, then the risk is small, and not a reason not to take them. But if you're taking them continuously, for example for arthritis or some other chronic condition, then it may be a good idea to talk to your doctor to see if there are alternative ways of preventing your symptoms – especially if you already suffer from high blood pressure or another risk factor for arterial disease, like obesity, high blood fats, smoking and or a family history of heart disease.
If you do need to be on painkillers, then your doctor may need to monitor your blood pressure.
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