Looks like Big Pharma and mainstream medicine have outdone themselves once again. And not in a good way…
Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute just released a study showing that improper dosing of two common blood-thinning drugs may be doing more harm than good.
No surprise there. We know the horrible side effects of conventional medicine.
Millions of patients with coronary artery disease usually take one of two drugs – clopdogrel (Plavix) or prasugrel (Effient).1 The two drugs are prescribed to prevent blood clots that can lead to a stroke or a heart attack.
It’s another one of those situations where the medicine prescribed to fix the problem may actually cause it. Or not work at all. The side effects aren’t the news. There’s another reason. And it’s not making Big Pharma or the physicians writing the scripts look good.
Researchers recently presented their findings at the AHA Scientific Sessions 2012 in Los Angeles.2 For the study, they examined 521 patients currently on one of the two heart disease drugs. They found that blood was not clotting properly in 75 percent of the patients taking the blood thinners. . What does this say for the millions of others taking these drugs?
Again, it wasn’t the side effects. So why the greater risk?
Most of them were taking the wrong dose!
Out of the 521 patients, only a quarter from each drug group was taking the right dose.
Fifty percent of patients who were taking Plavix were not getting enough of the drug for it to work effectively in preventing blood clots. Then going from one extreme to the other, a quarter of the Plavix patients were taking too much of the drug.
Among the patients taking Effient, this time half were taking too much. The increased dose raised their risk of dangerous bleeding. And a quarter was taking too little of the drug.
The number of people treated in hospitals in the U.S. for drug-related issues has increased more than 50 percent in recent years.3 In 2008 alone, 1.9 million people became sick or injured because they took or were given the wrong dose of medication. Among the drugs sending the highest number of people to the hospital – blood thinners!
Doctors are supposed to know this stuff, right?
In the case of blood thinners such as Plavix and Effient there are no set guidelines for dosage amounts. In fact, the guidelines that are “set” suggest everyone take some same dose of one of these pills. That means a 30-year-old male who weighs 220 lbs. is taking the same dose as an 80-year-old, 120 lb. woman.
Dr. Brent Muhlestein, a cardiac researcher at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute says there is an average dosage range for patients but researchers are finding out that most patients are not falling into that “set” range.
It gets worse…
Doctors aren’t even taking the necessary time to perform tests to determine what dosage would be appropriate. Doctors take into consideration a patient’s age, gender, cholesterol levels, and heart history to prescribe. But those are indicators that researchers found to not be good predictors for how a person will react to the drug.
How did the researchers reach their dosage conclusions? A simple blood test.
“We showed that by performing a simple blood test to see whether or not the blood is clotting properly, we can determine whether patients are getting an appropriate, individualized dose of the medications,” Dr. Muhlestein said. “The test is easy to perform, but not widely used.”
Dr. Muhlestein went on to say that it would be very easy for the doctors to perform the test. “A physician could have the test machine on his or her desk and perform the test right there in the office.”
If it is that simple then why aren’t doctors using it?
Enter Big Pharma…
Patients spend over $1,800 a year on just one of those drugs. And if doctors were to find a lower effective dose that medical bill could be cut in half. That definitely wouldn’t make Big Pharma happy. With more than half of Americans taking at least one medication and one out of six of them taking three or more, doctors do not want to sacrifice their costly cut.
But of course there are several natural alternatives to prevent blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks.
Best of all you can find them in your local grocer for pennies compared to the $1,800 you’d be spending on one of the conventional drugs. We’ve told you about many of them.
Here are just a few – click on the links to read more:
A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is a far much safer and effective way to go when preventing heart disease.
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Editor’s Note: More than 2,300 people die of heart disease every day. That means the mainstream’s medical solutions are a failure! Get the scoop on the real, natural solution that one cardiologist credits with restoring heart health to almost every single one of his patients! And the easy way to implement it in your own life, today.
References:
1http://intermountainhealthcare.org/qualityandresearch/Research-News/Pages/home.aspx?NewsID=1313<
2http://my.americanheart.org/professional/Sessions/ScientificSessions/Scientific-Sessions_UCM_316900_SubHomePage.jsp
3http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/medication-related-injuries-on-the-rise/