Common Antibiotic Linked with Heart Deaths

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Recently, researchers have been going back to study “time-tested” drugs only find inherent risk. For instance, a common heart drug, always believed to be inherently safe is now believed to increase cardiac death. Some antibiotics were recently shown to alter immunity and lead to respiratory disease susceptibility later on.

Clarithromycin, a common antibiotic, lauded by WHO and used for wide variety of infections like gastritis, skin, lung, throat and lyme - can now be added to the list.

It belongs to a group of antibiotics known as macrolides. Macrolide antibiotics prolong the duration of electrical activity of the heart muscle (known as the QT interval) and are therefore thought to increase the risk of potentially fatal heart rhythm problems.

Recent concern and other studies led Danish researchers to believe that the cardiac safety profiles of each macrolide need to be studied in greater detail to help guide future clinical decisions.

So the team decided to assess the risk of cardiac death associated with clarithromycin and another macrolide called roxithromycin – they compared it with penicillin V, an antibiotic with no known cardiac risk.

Using national databases, they identified over 5 million treatment courses among Danish adults aged 40-74 years from 1997 to 2011 (160,297 with clarithromycin, 588,988 with roxithromycin and 4,355,309 with penicillin V). Excluded from the list were people with serious disease or those who may be at high risk of death.

A total of 285 cardiac deaths were observed during ongoing use with the study drugs, 18 of which occurred during use of clarithromycin and 32 during use of roxithromycin.

After further adjustment, over all, clarithromycin was associated with a 76% higher risk of cardiac death compared with use of penicillin V. Or, 37 cardiac per 1 million courses. They did not find a risk for death after treatment ended.

Even with the previous numbers, they conclude no increased risk of cardiac death was found with ongoing or past use of roxithromycin. Perhaps that conclusion has to do with their elimination process.

Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.

Recent posts by Heather Callaghan:

• Russia Moves to Toughen GMO Food Sanctions, Introduces Fines for Vague Labeling
• Early Use of Antibiotics Alters Immunity Later On
• This Secret to Massive Yields Could Rock the Farming World