RECALL ALERT: Another blood pressure drug pulled off the shelves by the FDA because of cancer risk

by: | November 20, 2018
RECALL ALERT: Another blood pressure drug pulled off the shelves by the FDA because of cancer risk
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(NaturalHealth365) We’ve all heard this story before: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates a drug that has already flooded the market, only to find that an unintended ‘side effect’ of the drug is that it’s a cancer risk.

This time, it comes down to a certain drug batch from a major pharmaceutical company called Sandoz. The FDA just released a warning to consumers and physicians about a contaminated hypertension medication that’s been tainted with a chemical known to cause cancer in humans.

Drug warning: The FDA is warning the public about a cancer risk

The drug in question is a medication used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure), a silent killer affecting 1 in 3 U.S. adults.

According to the FDA, the specific bad batch from Sandoz is JB8912, which includes “losartan potassium and hydrochlorothiazide 100mg/25mg tablets.”  These tablets tested positive for a cancer-causing substance known as N-Nitrosodiethylamine, or NDEA for short.

Sure, these drug products from Sandoz represent “less than 1 percent of the total losartan drug products in the U.S. market,” but given the billions of dollars earned by the pharmaceutical industry, it’s safe to say there are a LOT of these tablets out there posing serious long-term health consequences for unsuspecting American consumers.

Keep in mind, NDEA is not supposed to be in ANY medications. If this carcinogenic chemical is in your medicine cabinet, it’s safe to say that it’s not meant to be there.

What is NDEA exactly?  It’s a light-sensitive, volatile, yellow oil that emits toxic fumes and is used as an additive, antioxidant, and stabilizer in gasoline and other industry materials.

And, yes, you read that right: gasoline!  Certainly not intended for human consumption – yet, somehow it’s slipping into the manufacturing process of medications.

And unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened.

Another voluntary drug recall just happened: Same carcinogenic chemical, different company

The FDA JUST reported in October about another voluntary recall of certain batches of irbesartan, which is an angiotensin II receptor blocker.  The recall involved drugs made by the pharmaceutical company ScieGen.

Testing confirmed that these medications also were tainted with NDEA.

Important message: if you’re living with hypertension (high blood pressure), it’s important to never start or stop a medication without your doctor’s direct supervision.  That said, there ARE plenty of things you can do to better manage your hypertension without having to take harmful medications that are riddled with side effects.

Most importantly: stop smoking (or never start), maintain a healthy routine of physical exercise, and make the bulk of your caloric intake come from whole, minimally processed, and real food – including lots of veggies, fruits plus a modest amount of clean protein and healthy fats.

Sources for this article include:

FDA.gov
CDC.gov
Forbes.com
NIH.gov

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