Current report of the popular antibiotic Azithromycin potentially increasing the risk of sudden death due to potentially fatal heart issues is in the news this week.
Azithromycin may up chance of sudden cardiac death | theheart.org
In an observational study, during a five-day course of azithromycin therapy, patients had a small, increased chance of dying from sudden cardiac death compared with patients taking amoxicillin. The risk of death was higher …
Granted the medication is traditionally used for those at risk of pneumonia but have you, in the past several years, been given this medication for an upper respiratory infection?
The increased use of this medication is a direction towards ‘compliance’. If you give the patient the medication in a pack that is laid out in black and white; you give them a limited number of pills for each day and you state that specifically in a pack form; you have a limited number of days to treat with potential success; and you hit all the areas that could have this type infection, ear nose and throat; you should have success; right?
So I ask you……. did you finish your last z-pac down to the last pill? So many people are taking the medication and after the first day and a half, they stop because they feel better. Many have commented about feeling better and saving the rest of the pac for the next time they get sick. I would venture to say, if you have not cleared the infection completely and rendered this bacteria gone, you have just created a potential super bug in your body and yes, you will reach for the rest of the z-pac to help. Only now, the z-pac does not work. What do you do now? Go back to the doctor and demand more?
So why are we talking about z-pacs if they should be rarely given anyway? Truth is, they are more commonly given due to the compliance issue. Therefore, are the doctors creating a potential for increased heart death by not sticking to the reason why they should be giving this medication in the first place? Or is it the patient who is the reason for the increase in demanding this prescription?
I would suggest: heart disease is on the increase due to:
- obesity
- diabetes
- uncontrolled estrogen
- increased inflammation in the body
- increased dietary fats and sugars
- increase in pharmaceutical medications, use or misuse
So the next time you ‘run’ in to the doctor for the cold or flu and demand or take a prescription for a z-pac, you should stop and talk to the doctor about your overall health or the lack of it. You may be stepping into a mine field and putting yourself at risk by not talking with your doctor about your body and your overall health. You may be putting yourself and him at risk by not sharing how you are feeling. Let the doctor do the work, share all your symptoms and follow through with the treatment.
Take the time to take care of your own body.
