Because of possible increased heart attack in taking the drug Avandia, some doctors are now starting to take patients off the drug. Some doctors are taking patients off Avandia, but replacing it with another drug.
GlaxoSmithKline indicates that there are more accurate, longer-term studies that show no significant increased risk. It is hard to take a chance on something like a heart attack because they occur so suddenly. It is not healthy to just stop taking medication when blood sugar, blood pressure, and other vital signs are not in control. It can be extremely detrimental.
Avandia seems to be overall effective. The pill is taken once a day and helps regulate blood sugar levels. The pill is extraordinarily expensive, costing about $4 to $6 per pill.
Some people believe that Avandia is perfectly safe to take because there is no consensus for how dangerous it actually is. In the clinical trials examined by the New England Journal of Medicine, out of 15,560 patients taking Avandia, 86 suffered heart attacks and 39 died. In 12,283 patients not taking Avandia, there were 72 heart attacks and 22 deaths.
For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Drugs, Medical Devices, and Implants.
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