The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the premier medical journals in the United States just published an original article which raised concern about the safety of a very popular prescription medication for diabetes—rosiglitazone—also known as Avandia. 

Avandia is in a class of drugs that helps to lower your blood sugar and helps get and keep your diabetes under control.  This new study which is called a meta-analysis pools together data from various other studies and tries to answer the question..”Is Avandia safe or is Avandia harmful?”  The authors of the study concluded that “rosiglitazone was associated with a significant increase in the risk of myocardial infarction and with an increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular causes” and that “patients and providers should consider the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular effects of treatment with rosiglitazone for type 2 diabetes.” 

The media publicized these results which prompted the makers of Avandia to send their pharmaceutical reps literally door to door to physician offices, to hospitals and even to my office today to give their take and interpretation on this statistical review of previously published data and to help make sense of all the hype. 

People can argue the validity or the accuracy of these statistical reviews (or meta-analyses) until they turn blue in the face but the fact of the matter is this….this paper was reviewed by other physicians before being published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the simple fact that this article was published in a reputable medical journal means that patients and physicians alike…that means you and me, must take these new results seriously.

Now I’m not here to argue for or against the results of the published study.  What I’m here to do is get you….the consumer…to understand that prescription drugs do come with warning labels.  Now I know some of the warning labels are so small that you’d need a magnifying glass to even read them…and sometimes I’ll even put down my glasses for a closer look at the small print.  The main point is this….prescription drugs can save lives BUT some medications are associated with serious adverse effects….even death. 

As consumers, we all have to weigh the relative benefits of a prescription drug against the potential harmful side effects of the drug.  When I frequently counsel my patients about a new medication I believe will help them, I sit down and discuss the possible side effects…like nausea, headache, diarrhea, decreased sexual libido, etc., so that we, as a team, can decide if this new medication is right for them or not.  Sometimes, after talking with a patient, we decide against starting the new medication and try to find other ways to control the problem.  This open line of communication is vital in getting the necessary treatment and care that we all deserve.

This new article really stresses the need for all of us to be active participants in our healthcare and that means knowing the risks and potential side effects of the medications we take.  So if you have a question or concern about the medications you’re taking, I urge you to speak with your doctor.

To your wellness,

The Health and Wellness Queen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.