Warfarin

Warfarin is the drug of choice to replace aspirin in stroke prevention. Its success rate over aspirin is as much as 62 percent, according to the research of Dr Robert Hart of the University of Texas Health Science Center. Dr Hart's research team analyzed 16 published clinical trials of antithrombotic agents for treatment of atrial fibrillation. The research was undertaken because of the uncomfortably high incidence of serious side effects with long-term aspirin use.

Aspirin is Bayer's brand name for acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). And Bayer is a well-known German pharmaceutical company whose investors have profited very well from world-wide sale of this chemical for many decades. If you have a pain, take aspirin!

Most people know that Bayer aspirin is routinely prescribed for heart disease and stroke prevention. It's a blood thinner, so some people take aspirin daily for years on the advice of their doctors. ASA therapy is given in doses ranging from 25 mg twice daily to 1,300 mg daily to reduce stroke incidence. The Texas Health Science Center report says stroke reduction with ASA has been 22 percent successful.

Bayer's has moved this over-the-counter drug into world-wide billion dollar sales with advertising claims (to both physicians and consumers) that aspirin reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke! Most people, including the medical profession, believed it. What's been less well advertised is the fact that aspirin has serious and often lethal side effects. In long-term use, it causes severe bleeding, hemorrhage stroke and even death. Aspirin and related drugs kill about 16,500 people each year in the US alone.

Now, with irrefutable evidence piling up that aspirin costs lives, not saves them, Bayer Inc has been forced to retract its claims. Officials at the US Federal Trade Commission (FDC) and the US Department of Justice became worried about the increased publicity given to aspirin's deadly side: Bayer's cavalier claims "might encourage inappropriate use" of the chemical. So the FDC ruled that any further advertising must include a warning that ""aspirin is not appropriate for everyone" and "be sure to consult your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen." Bayer Inc must also issue a brochure warning of the risks of aspirin use as part of a "national consumer education campaign."

That's all. FDC imposed no fines for Bayer's misrepresentation or false advertising. There was no compulsory recall of an easily accessible and dangerous drug that is probably in the bathroom cupboards of the majority of North Americans who take it whenever. And what of the doctors who have, for several generations, advised mothers, fathers, the elderly and the sick at heart to take aspirin, solely on the recommendation of Bayer et all This comprises another embarrassing two-step for general practitioners and cardiologists alike!

Enter Warfarin

Dr Hart et al discreetly advise doctors to "back away" from ASA as therapy for heart attack and stroke prevention. Instead they recommend "adjusted-dose" warfarin therapy. "It provides superior protection."

"Patients with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk, particularly those with previous stroke or [transient], potentially have the most to gain from treatment with warfarin instead of ASA....For most patients the increased risk of major hemorrhage associated with antithrombotic agents does not offset this benefit....of 46 percent relative risk reduction."

But what are warfarin's side effects?

Warfarin is rat poison, in case you haven't recognized the name. The name was chosen by the public relations side to indicate a "war" on rats and other pests through thinning their blood sufficiently to cause bleeding to death!

Is this the best that medical research has to offer for stroke prevention in the year 2000?

Dr Hart admits that, "Patients who received warfarin face double the risk of experiencing intracranial or major extracranial hemorrhages," and explains that problem away by saying that elderly people who are at increased risk for intracerebral hemorrhage should receive anticoagulation drugs, along with "diligently controlling blood pressure" with beta blockers and other drugs!

No wonder cardiovascular disease is escalating out of sight in our over-drugged population! And the increased incidence of cancer is not far behind. This century has to be a turnaround for both health education and medical practice. It's time to move out of the dark age, and it seems that the impetus has to come from the consumer.

Demand hard evidence and facts from your doctors. Seek physicians who offer real health care. And make your wishes and decisions known to provincial and federal officials.