Treatment with antibiotics may reduce the risk of heart attack and chest pain in some patients with heart disease.
In a study of 148 patients who experienced a heart attack or an episode of severe, heart-related chest pain, those who took a 3-month course of the antibiotic Zithromax were 41% less likely to have another cardiovascular "event" during the next year and a half than patients who received an inactive placebo pill.
One potential problem with using antibiotics to treat heart attack patients is that such widespread use of the drugs could increase the rate at which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.
Inflammation plays a role in both heart attacks and unstable angina, a type of heart-related chest pain that occurs when a person is at rest. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to the idea that infections may contribute to this inflammation.
Based on the potential link between infections and the inflammation involved in heart disease, investigators have tried to find out whether clearing infections with antibiotics can benefit heart disease patients. So far, the results of these studies have not been conclusive.
Unlike other studies that tested the effectiveness of short-term antibiotic treatment, researchers evaluated the effects of a 3-month course of the antibiotic Zithromax (clarithromycin). The study included patients who had had a severe heart attack or unstable angina.
Patients treated with the antibiotic were 41% less likely to have another heart attack, unstable angina or other type of cardiovascular event. The apparent beneficial effect began while patients were taking the drug, but this effect did not diminish after the patients stopped taking it.
Circulation April 2, 2002;105
No new information here as I have reported on this connection for the last five years.
Clearly, bacterial infections are a major cause of disease. The confusion many people have, including health care professionals, is that the bacteria are responsible for the disease.
Nothing could be further from the truth. One's weakened immune system that opens the door for these infections to come in is usually the causal factor. This is actually good news. If we had to focus our resources on avoiding bacteria we could only be partially successful.
However, if we change our eating we will have an improvement in heart disease. The most amazing new information is the normalization of our omega-3 fat to omega-6 fat ratio maybe one of the most important influences for the protections of heart disease.
Working on the psychoemotional wounding that most of us have, we can also normalize our adrenal hormones and radically improve our immune system so we can prevent future infections and recover from any current ones.
The unfortunate and complicating issue in most cases is that once the "horse is out of the barn" and one has a serious bacterial infection, it frequently is necessary to use antibiotics to recover from the illness.
I fully believe that most people die from heart disease due to unresolved stress rather than their cholesterol levels or smoking.
Fortunately, EFT is one of the major new tools that can be used to effectively and rapidly address these stresses.
You can review the EFT Resource Page that can provide a sound foundation to effectively applying EFT to improve your immune system by reducing the negative influences stress has on your immune system.
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