Recent research revealed that people taking a combination of the blood thinner Plavix or clopidogrel and some acid-lowering medications known as proton pump inhibitors are at higher risk of having a heart attack.

Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto for six years studied data collected from 734 cases of readmission for heart attack and 2,057 controls. All of the subjects were heart attack patients aged 66 or older.

Data analysis revealed that heart attack patients who take the blood-thinning drug clopidogrel (Plavix) along with one of a number of proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) have a
40 per cent greater risk of suffering another heart attack.

Lead researcher, Dr. David Juurlink, head of the division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto said: "Our findings suggest that indiscriminate treatment with a proton pump inhibitor could result in thousands of additional cases of recurrent myocardial infarction each year."

Dr. Dennis Ko, one of the report's authors said: "If you're on one of those medications, you should talk to your doctors about switching you in the meantime to something that's safe."