Toss this new NSAID ‘safety’ study right in the trash

What do you do when you’re caught in an ugly lie? Well, if you’re a drug company, you try to cover it up with another one.

We’ve been told for years that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin and ibuprofen are safe for everything from headaches to arthritis. Even after people started dropping dead from stomach bleeding and heart attacks.

And now one of the largest NSAID makers on the planet is rolling out a new lie — and it may be the greatest whopper yet.

They’re claiming that a new study proves that over-the-counter NSAIDs are safe for your heart after all — and that everything you’ve read before was just a bad dream.

But this research may be the worst case of media manipulation in Big Pharma’s entire disgusting history. It’s a Grade A scam meant to keep you popping that daily Motrin — even if it kills you.

Rigging the resultsYou’ve listened to me sound the alarm over and over on the risks of NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen. And it looks like some folks at the FDA must be subscribing to my eAlert, too.

Because just this summer they announced that NSAIDs would carry a warning label admitting they increase your risk of heart attacks, heart failure or strokes.

Even if you have no history of heart disease and have only been taking the meds for a short time.

And what a coincidence! Just weeks later we have a new study telling us to hold the phone — that NSAIDs are practically as safe for your heart as exercise or a garden salad.

The European Society of Cardiology Congress recently issued a press release — which got picked up by lots of media outlets — saying a study presented at one of its recent events “Quells concerns about NSAID safety!”

And it’s clear that they either didn’t read what the study really said — or they just didn’t want you to know.

You see, the research was actually sponsored by Pfizer, the maker of pain meds Advil and Celebrex, which should make you suspicious right off the bat. It was never peer reviewed or published, probably because most self-respecting journals would have rejected this garbage outright.

All the study did was compare OTC NSAIDs like ibuprofen (Motrin) and diclofenac (Aleve) to Celebrex — a COX-2 inhibitor drug, which is basically a super-NSAID. They looked at two dangerous drugs side by side and decided that — since the NSAIDs weren’t any deadlier than Celebrex — they must be safe.

It’s like comparing nitroglycerin to gasoline, then saying the gasoline is nothing to worry about.

It sounds crazy, but I’m serious. There wasn’t even a placebo group, so we couldn’t see how much better people fared when they didn’t take these meds.

That’s Science:101 — and researchers never leave out a placebo group unless they’re trying to pull a fast one.

Well, unlike the Big Pharma shills who put out this press release — or the reporters who ran with it — I actually read the study. And here’s what Pfizer and its hand-picked research team hoped you wouldn’t learn:

• Both groups reported heart problems — and there were actually more cases among the folks taking OTC meds.
• Half the folks taking Celebrex and one-third of the OTC patients dropped out of the study because of adverse events and other issues.
• A whopping 5.2 percent of the Celebrex group and nearly 6 percent of the OTC patients reported gastrointestinal issues. And I’m betting that those patients who were writhing in stomach pain would not suggest you quit worrying about NSAIDs.

You’ll probably never see a more obvious case of Press Release Medicine than this turkey. That’s the sneaky way that companies like Pfizer pull off stealth marketing in this era of the 24/7 news cycle.

They toss out a press release with a catchy headline and hope that lazy TV talking heads will just read what they’re handed without ever stopping to wonder, “Wait a minute. That doesn’t make sense.”

And it makes even less sense to believe that this Pharma-sponsored research has told us anything new or reassuring about the safety of NSAIDs.

Sources:

“ESC: SCOT trial eases worries about NSAID risks” August 31, 2015, MedPage Today, medpagetoday.com