Do NOT take these antibiotics if you take this drug

Researchers said that there have been “potentially hundreds of hospitalizations and deaths” when people take this drug along with a specific type of antibiotic. And that was just in one area of Canada.

So please, don’t just rely on your pharmacist or doctor to alert you…because there’s a good chance even they don’t know about it.

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are prescribed for millions of Americans every year for high blood pressure and heart disease. These are drugs that people are usually on for life.

In fact, in just one year, over 98 million prescriptions were given out for these drugs.

And that makes this news even more frightening.

Researchers in Canada have uncovered alarming evidence confirming the dangers of combining CCBs and a type of antibiotic called clarithromycin. Risks can include acute kidney failure, dangerously low blood pressure, and even death.

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

Other studies have shown the same risk of taking CCBs with two other common antibiotics in the same family — erythromycin and telithromycin.

So what makes these combinations so deadly?

CCBs are removed from your liver by a special enzyme. Some drugs can stop that from happening. That can result in dangerously high levels of the drug in your body.

And that’s when things can get really risky.

The new Canadian study, published in JAMA, was huge. It looked at all residents over 65 in Ontario who were on a CCB. It found that patients on the blood pressure drug who were also given clarithromycin had a much higher risk of landing in the hospital with critically low blood pressure. And of dying.

Researchers said that hundreds have been hospitalized and died in Ontario alone just because of this “preventable drug-drug interaction.”

And who knows how many deaths might have resulted all over the U.S.?

Sadly, this is not the first warning. Back in 2011 other researchers in Canada cautioned that patients taking the CCBs and erythromycin or clarithromycin had a “major increase” of serious side effects.

Please, can someone tell me why all these warnings are only coming from Canada? Where is “our” FDA?

Since we can’t wait — or depend — on the FDA to do its job, you need to take matters into your own hands when it comes to protecting yourself.

So here are some guidelines The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has published for those who are taking a CCB and also need an antibiotic:

• Always try to avoid taking clarithromycin, erythromycin and telithromycin.
• If for some reason you are told one of those antibiotics are the only kind you can take, ask your doctor if you can stop or reduce your dose of the CCB.
• Be alert of symptoms of a toxic level of the CCB drug. These include dizziness, swelling, flushing and heart palpitations.

Sources:

“Calcium channel blockers plus most macrolide antibiotics: a dangerous combination” Worst Pills Best Pills Newsletter, April, 2014, worstpills.org

“Antibiotic and calcium-channel blocker a fatal combination” Nancy A. Melville, November 13, 2013, Medscape, Medscape.com