Commonly Used Antibiotics
Leading to Heart Issues
Many people
would not think that taking recommended medicine may harm your body rather than
helping it. Especially when taking antibiotics, people don’t necessarily
consider the side effects to cause other health issues. A majority of the time
when people are sick they will trust what medicine the doctor prescribes, as
they typically know better than we do. Recent scientific discoveries have shown
that commonly used antibiotics are resulting in heart issues. Scientist have connected
two well known antibiotics that are putting people at a greater risk of aortic
heart issues. These two commonly used antibiotics are Ciprofloxacin and Cipro
which are used to help treat infections.
In the article on
science daily, scientists explain how they were able to connect commonly used antibiotics
to specific heart problems. A group of researchers from the University of
British Columbia discovered that people who use Ciprofloxacin or Cipro are at a
bigger risk of health issues such as aortic and mitral regurgitation. This
means that people who use these types of antibiotic are at risk of blood
flowing backwards into their heart. The group of researchers want physicians to
know that if their patients are showing these health issues and are unaware of
the causes, they should look into the medicine that they are taking. A main goal
these researchers have is for doctors to be more cautious with which
antibiotics they are prescribing to their patients. There has already been over
12,000 cases in which heart regurgitation was connected to antibiotic usage. Results
of this study showed that there is a higher risk of heart problems from current
or recent usage of antibiotics, past use has not shown correlation. Researchers
showed that patients are at a greater risk within 30 days of using the
antibiotics. Mahyar Etminan, a professor of ophthalmology has helped conduct
these studies in hopes that agencies will add these possible side effects to
their antibiotics to raise awareness around the country. Dr. Bruce Carleton who
works at BC Children’s Hospital is focusing on observing a variety of drugs and
whether they are improving health or not. These drugs include a variety of
antibiotics.
A lot of people
are unaware of the possible side effects when taking antibiotics that doctors
are prescribing to them. With this being such a recent scientific discovery,
people will need to be made aware of these risks. The FDA is now warning people
to only take fluoroquinolone
antibiotics if there are no other types of treatment available. This
outbreak should also lead to more tests that could help detect if there are
other harmful commonly used antibiotics. With the amount of antibiotics
available and being used around the world, it could take a long time for more
to be discovered but this topic is now a much larger concern. These recent
studies are creating a platform for future tests to be conducted and
discoveries to be found. Specific symptoms
after using certain antibiotics such as stomach or chest pain should now be
considered a red flag and reported immediately to a doctor for help. Since this
study is still new, doctors may not have solutions right away as tests are still
happening. With the amount of cases already being reported, it definitely is
helping to spread awareness, hopefully leading to a decrease in people getting
heart problems from these types of antibiotics.
Posted by Matt Cayer (1)
I feel like this is a very good topic to bring up since antibiotics are crucial in treating diseases caused by bacteria. Antibiotics have generally improved our societies health as a whole since its invention, but for some, it may cause heart issues. Those with increased risks of heart issues should stray away from fluoroquinolone antibiotics, but healthy people with no genetic history of heart problems shouldn’t be afraid of this kind of antibiotic since it helps rid bodies of diseases.
ReplyDeletePosted by “Lauren Shone”
I agree with this post that there is a huge crisis in the medical world when it comes to the overuse of antibiotics. It is alarming to know that some doctors are unaware of the side effects of the drugs they prescribe. This antibiotic disaster poses the question of whether or not the practices used by doctors are in need or reform. It seems that their current model of “pill pushing” is not only endangering the lives of their patients, but also is starting to affect the evolution of bacteria. For those who are unaware, there is another crisis in the medical community involving bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. Like the mitral valve regurgitation case, this problem came about due to unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics to patients.
ReplyDeletePosted by "Nicholas Georgette"
You made a lot of really good points throughout this reply. I also question if the practices used by doctors need reform. I think that reform will always need to be a factor as there will continue to be new findings in the medical field. Doctors need to be willing to change and learn new ways if it will benefit their patients. I also remember reading about how certain bacteria are developing a resistance to antibiotics. This is going to require more research to be made in order to find solutions for these problems. Doctors should not just be prescribing all these antibiotics if they can cause harm. This is an issue that needs to be presented more to the general public.
DeletePosted by Matt Cayer
Not too long ago i was reading an article about this topic. the article talked about how doctors now a days prescribe antibiotics for basically and we don't think this things can harm us because a doctor gave it to us. i feel like doctors need to let the patients know even tho antibiotics help you, it can also cause problems.
ReplyDeletePosted by Pam Jimenez
This is a very interesting post, and the first I am hearing of antibiotics being linked to heart problems. Antibiotics are at the forefront of fighting bacterial problems, and right now, there is not much of an alternative to antibiotics for fighting bacteria. I find it interesting that past use of Antibiotics does not have any correlation to an increased risk of heart regurgitation. It is only the Current or recent use of Antibiotics that increase the risk. Being more cautious with prescriptions of Antibiotics would be a good thing and might help to reduce the rate of which antibiotic resistant bacteria are forming.
ReplyDeletePosted by John Mariano
When I was reading about this topic, I also found it interesting that past use of antibiotics did not lead to a risk of heart issues. I was unable to find reasoning behind it. I was thinking that it must be due to certain bacteria recently showing resistance to antibiotics as mentioned by Nicholas in the post above. This could be why more recent use is showing a greater risk of heart issues. It definitely is a topic that requires much more research. You make a good point when you mention how there is not many alternatives for antibiotics. That is what makes it difficult as they are really one of the only option that doctors know of. I just think that patients should now be made aware of the possible risks, regardless if there are not many options. It seems like this become a bigger topic and soon more people will be aware.
DeletePosted by Matt Cayer
In my opinion, the troubles of antibiotic resistance and other associated long term side effects, such as the heart issues mentioned in this blog post, are already common knowledge in the scientific community. I feel like it's more important to increase the common knowledge of alternatives to antibiotic use. There are currently a few known alternatives. One of the most researched alternatives is bacteriophage therapy, in which phages are used to target and lyse bacteria at the site of infection. Bacteriophages are found naturally and are normally very target specific, as they can only infect bacteria that have their complementary receptor. My hopes are that we will see an increase in funding for research towards this alternative as well as an increase of it's study within the bioengineering field. It's still a growing field, but it seems to have a very promising future.
ReplyDeletePosted by Lauren Mason
Very interesting point to mention. I had no idea that this was an alternative but it definitely seems like one that researchers should be focusing on. It seems a lot more promising as you mention that the bacteriophages can only infect bacteria with the complementary receptor. I agree that this method could become successful if enough time is put into it. I think that if more people would become aware of this alternative then antibiotic use could decrease. This could help prevent major health issues.
DeletePosted by Matt Cayer
I had always heard about the potential dangers of antibiotics and had been weary of the ubiquitous use and prescriptions given for the most minor of illnesses. The potential for bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics poses a massive threat to the greater populous as greater more dangerous and less counterable diseases can take precedence.
ReplyDeletePosted by Brian Lee (1)