Description: Ibuprofen, the popular over-the-counter painkiller found in Advil and Motrin, may increase the odds of heart problems in patients who have osteoarthritis and are taking daily aspirin to help lower their cardiovascular risk, a new study finds.

The authors of the study, published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, speculated that ibuprofen may cancel out the cardio-protective effects of daily low-dose aspirin.

Use of ibuprofen and aspirin boosted arthritis patients' one-year heart attack and stroke risk ninefold compared to patients who were taking a cox-2 inhibitor pain reliever, the study found.

"This adds more data to the fact that perhaps ibuprofen inhibits aspirin in a clinically significant way," said Dr. E. Scott Monrad, director of interventional cardiology at Montefiore Weiler Division in New York City. "The most reassuring thing is that the event rate seen in the study, even in the high-risk arm, is still pretty low," added