A warning about blood thinners, such as Plavix

A friend of mine went to the doctor complaining that she was gasping for breath at the slightest exertion, such as walking upstairs. She also had blood in her stool. The doc, a GP, discovered she was severely anemic and sent her to the hospital for a transfusion. To me, it was clear that she was bleeding internally.

My friend had a heart attack in 2002 and had been on Plavix (clopidogrel) ever since. Plavix is a blood thinner that is used to prevent clotting, especially after a stent has been inserted. She’d also been taking aspirin.  After she got to the hospital, the nurses and other staff named Plavix as the culprit and she was immediately taken off of it. (This diagnosis of drug-induced bleeding was never formally acknowledged in written form.)

My friend had the transfusion on a Friday, then languished in the hospital over the weekend waiting to be seen by a gastroenterologist. The idea was to look for ulcers. An endoscopy showed no ulcers. “They must have healed,” the doc concluded. She saw her cardiologist a few days later. He took her off the aspirin but put her back on Plavix as a stroke-prevention measure.

Of course, I had to get in on the act and start researching all of this. Here’s, what I found:

•  Plavix, when combined with aspirin, doubles the chance of gastrointestinal bleeding as well as fatal hemorrhaging.    
• Compared to aspirin alone, Plavix users are twelve times more likely to develop ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, and cerebral bleeding.
• Several lawsuits accuse the manufacturers and marketers of rushing the drug to market, aggressively advertising Plavix as more effective than aspirin for preventing strokes and less harmful to the stomach — all while minimizing the serious risks.
• For people who have had stents inserted following a heart attack, a drug regimen of Plavix plus aspirin is advised for only one month for patients with bare metal stents and for six to 12 months in patients with a medicine-coated stent. (My friend was on this regimen for 15 years!)
• For stroke prevention, the recommend treatment for women ages 55-79 is a daily aspirin if you have a history of cardiovascular disease (but men in this age group shouldn’t take it); for both women and men age 80 or over, it’s not clear if the benefits of taking aspirin outweigh the risks for bleeding in the digestive tract or brain.

Here’s a fun thing: In an alternative medicine Web site, I found that instead of taking blood thinning drugs you can just walk barefoot! It’s called “grounding” or "earthing." I will research this and let you know the details! 

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