High blood pressure patients are in for shocking news if they take a medication known as “calcium channel blocker”

Guinea pig nation

Hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend.

Before I headed out of town to dodge Baltimore’s Grand Prix, I warned you about the FDA’s goal of fast-tracking more drugs.

Any third-grader would know that’s a bad idea (government officials are another story…)

We’ve seen time and again that most safety problems don’t rear their heads until a drug has been on the market for years. It takes that long to see the effect they have on your body after taking them day after day, month after month.

And now we’re seeing we need to add “decade after decade” to that measure.

Because alarming new research exposes a grave risk associated with one of the most common and longest used drugs on the market – calcium channel blockers.

Loooooooong time coming

In just one year, 98 million prescriptions were written for calcium channel blockers.

Obviously, this is a HUGE drug. And of course, it’s one of those drug types that’s used pretty much for life.

And there’s the problem… Long term use.

In this shocking new study, women who took a calcium channel blocker for more than 10 years were TWO AND A HALF TIMES more likely to develop breast cancer.

That’s an astounding risk. And it was no fluke. Other types of blood pressure drugs did not link to breast cancer risk.

What’s really troubling is that this is not the first evidence of this link.

One expert told Fox News that previous studies have made the same association. And she added that the new study is “very well done.”

This revelation illustrates how critical these ongoing studies are.

CCBs have been on the market for about 30 years. Think of all the sisters, mothers, daughters we’ve lost because they were taking this seemingly innocent drug.

There’s not always an easy fix when we uncover a new drug risk, but there is for this one: Women should not take CCBs.

If you or a woman you care about is on a CCB, talk to the doctor immediately about switching to another class of blood pressure drugs. Or whether you can get off them altogether.

Sources:
“Some blood pressure drugs may raise breast cancer risk” Bahar Gholipour, Fox News, 8/6/13, foxnews.com