Recall on blood pressure medication

Imagine being a perfectly healthy person going to the doctor for you annual checkup. Your doctor tells you that you have high blood pressure. That shouldne be any issue because it is the 21st century and there are plenty of medications to up your blood pressure go down. So you doctor prescribes a medication called valsartan and you go about your day. Everything is fine until there is a huge recall on that medicine along with others for causing cancer. 

Valsartan, losartan and irbesartan are called under recall because tests show that it carries trace levels of NMBA. NMBA is a human carcinogen which is any substance with radionuclide which emits radiation. Radiation in the body has been proven time and time again to cause cancer. 

With extensive research done by the FDA they said that, “The cancer risk for any person who took valsartan that had the carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, is small.” This is relatively good news to hear. This means that even though some people may get cancer from taking this medication it wont turn into an epidemic.

The outcome of this situation is definitely not what was expected but at least they found the NDMA before it contaminated even more people.