For Women Actively Trying to Conceive, a WARNING about ACE Inhibitor Drugs

Based on the new findings, taking these drugs during early pregnancy "cannot be considered safe and should be avoided," lead researcher Dr. William Cooper, a Vanderbilt University pediatrician, said in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

"The research raises troubling questions about the lack of safety data for many drugs prescribed to pregnant women."

If you are one of the 2.7 million people taking an ACE inhibitor drug and actively trying to conceive, you'd better check out this warning about these drugs being DIRECTLY linked to birth defects esp. in EARLY PREGNANCY:

http://tinyurl.com/p4g5c

I liked this pediatrician who said he thought ALL drugs were poisons, you just had to figure out if the benefit was worth it or not. Keep this in mind when your doc wants you to take something...I always argue (with all the resources of the Brown med school at my disposal) and often, it turned out the drugs were unlikely to be effective for whatever it was, anyway (e.g., refusing antibiotics for ear infection that would resove itself on its own in three days, anyway) Please remember that prescribing drugs (and getting free pens and lobster dinners) is a reflex habit for many (not all) docs. Caveat emptor.