Subaqua Sternal Rubs

The past three months have been frustrating and confusing for millions of chronic pain sufferers, bewildered by evolving scientific opinion about brand-name drugs they depend on. Weeks after Vioxx's recall, three other popular painkillers — Bextra, Celebrex and Aleve — also were linked to cardiovascular concerns, although less persuasively in the view of some medical experts.

Now patients like Rubinstein are left to decide: What's my risk of developing heart problems? And is it enough to stop me from taking painkillers?

Unlike those with life-threatening illnesses whose lives may be saved or prolonged by risky drugs, people with painful conditions such as pulled muscles or severe arthritis face less clear-cut choices. With painkillers, the choice is not life or death, but quality of life here and now.

Some patients and doctors say that, as far as they're concerned, the drugs' benefits are established.

Robert Bucholz, president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, says many patients get relief from the COX-2 inhibitors. He is one of them, taking the drug for the "aches and pains of a 57-year-old."

"I personally took Vioxx ever since it was released. It's the one anti-inflammatory I can take that doesn't upset my stomach," says Bucholz, who also chairs the orthopaedic surgery department of the medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. "When that was taken off the market, I was personally disappointed. I've got my own personal supply of Vioxx, and I'm not about ready to destroy it."

He says patients need to put the findings of cardiovascular risk in perspective. Still, he does not recommend Vioxx to patients.

"All life is a series of risks, and you've got to measure the risks versus the benefits," he says. "And that's true of any drug."

Source: USA Today

Finally someone came out and said it - all foreign substances that you put into your body, no matter if they have government (FDA) approval or not, have some inherent risk. It should be up to the patient and their doctor to weigh the risks vs. benefits for that patient. It should not be the role of the government to forbid certain medications, especially based on such flimsy research. If you take high doses of Tylenol (acetaminophen) over a longer period of time, liver damage will ensue. Is this drug, touted in ads by its manufacturer to be the safest, soon to be the next to be pulled from the market by the FDA?

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