Beware of putting together two widely used meds

It’s an urgent warning 17 years in the making:

Combining a very common drug and a popular class of antibiotics can turn deadly.

And if you’re over 65, this combo can more than double your risk of sudden death.

What’s more, your doctor or pharmacist probably doesn’t have a clue about the risk…

Stop the presses

The danger is from a life-threatening reaction called hyperkalemia, or super-high potassium levels. And that condition can happen with very subtle symptoms or even none whatsoever.

Canadian researchers carefully studied the data of over 20,000 patients spanning almost two decades before they issued this warning.

And they found that if you’re taking a widely-used diuretic called spironolactone, which is prescribed for millions with heart problems and high blood pressure, you need to be very careful about what antibiotics you take. (This drug also goes by the brand name Aldactone).

Taking that drug along with the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, more commonly known by the brand names Septra, Bactrim and Sulfatrim, can raise your potassium to deadly levels.

And that’s not the only antibiotic you have to watch out for.

The Canadian team found that ciprofloxacin, better known as Cipro, and this diuretic can also be a deadly combo.

High blood potassium can kill by causing a deadly heart rhythm. And at a high enough level, it can actually stop the heart from beating.

Now, taking this diuretic all on its own can raise your potassium levels sky high. But mix it with one of these antibiotics, and things can turn lethal – very quickly.

The Canadian researchers found that some of the sudden deaths they uncovered occurred within just two weeks of taking these two drugs together.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Tony Antoniou, said that these antibiotics are very commonly prescribed, most often for urinary tract infections.

He also warned that doctors who don’t know about the risk might mistake a patient’s death as being caused by their heart disease, instead of drug-induced deadly high potassium.

So that tells us that we really have no idea how many have been harmed by taking these drugs. It could be the 12,000 the researchers tracked who died while on the combo – or it could be twice that number – or more.

Sadly, this isn’t the first warning that’s been issued about these drugs. Back four years ago, it was found that taking these meds together caused a 12 times greater risk of landing in the hospital with dangerously high blood potassium.

And it wasn’t the FDA that figured that one out, either, but another study out of Canada.

Now this diuretic, spironolactone is a very old drug, one that’s often prescribed for people with heart failure. And while doctors should know what can happen when these drugs are combined, it appears that many don’t.

Dr. Antoniou said that he wants to make sure that more doctors and pharmacists are aware of the danger, because it doesn’t appear to be “on the radar.”

And obviously, that includes the FDA’s radar.

This is just one more example of why you need to take matters into your own hands when it comes to protecting your health.

So make sure that:

• If you’re taking Aldactone, or any generic version of it and you need an antibiotic, avoid taking Septra, Bactrim and Sulfatrim, or any combo meds that contain the drug trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. The same goes for the antibiotic, Cipro.
• If for some reason one of those antibiotics is the only kind you can take, it’s vital that your blood potassium levels be monitored closely.
• And if you are taking this risky combo, be alert to the subtle symptoms of high potassium levels. These can include an irregular heartbeat, nausea and a slow pulse.

Source:

“Two common drugs could be deadly combination for seniors” Dennis Thompson, February 2, 2015, CBS News, cbsnews.com