Are painkillers good for you?

As people get older aches and pains become commonplace, and painkillers are often used to alleviate some of the distress caused by an array of conditions.

However, new research has revealed that the drugs may not be good for you, as they increase blood pressure.

The study at Tel Aviv University claims the over-the-counter drugs are one of the major causes of hypertension, which increases risk factors for stroke, heart attack and aneurisms.

Professor Ehud Grossman, from the university's Faculty of Medicine and the Sheba Medical Centre, explained that the chemical component in painkillers can cause blood pressure to spike and interfere with anti-hypertension medication.

What's more, many patients and doctors are dangerously uninformed about this link and are unwittingly taking the drug.

"In diagnosing the causes of hypertension, over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen are often overlooked," said Professor Grossman.

Patients often assume that because a medication can be obtained without a prescription, it's relatively harmless. But that's not always the case.

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