Researchers are warning soluble painkillers could pose a health risk because they are high in salt.
The authors of a British study say some formulations taken at maximum dose tip users over the recommended daily sodium intake for an adult, with potentially dangerous consequences.
Their work, in the British Medical Journal, looked at the outcomes for 1.2 million patients. It found a link between the daily use of effervescent tablets and heart attacks and stroke.
Compared with patients taking the same drugs without salt, those who regularly took effervescent or soluble medications increased their risk of having a heart attack, stroke or dying from a vascular cause by a fifth.
They were also seven times more likely to develop high blood pressure or hypertension, which the researchers say is at the root of the problem.