Health insurance news - Painkillers may increase cardiovascular disease risk

Health insurance customers could benefit from taking less anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen as research suggests that using these drugs commonly could increase the relative risk of cardiovascular disease.

Drugs such as celecoxib, diclofenac and naproxen could significantly increase the relative risk of the disease. 

The biggest relative risk rep was represented by diclofenac, which increased the cardiovascular disease chances by up to 40 per cent.

Assistant medical director at Bupa Health and Wellbeing UK Dr Pete Mace said this study could have a large impact on clinical practice and he is concerned that many of these painkillers can be obtained without a prescription.

"People who are already at high risk of CVD may be inadvertently putting themselves at an increased risk, especially in the case of diclofenac," he added.

Earlier this month, research published in the British Medical Journal suggested that patients with yellow markings on their eyelids, known as xanthelasmata, could be more likely to suffer a heart attack.