antibiotics and AFIB

[beach_bum]

My wife does not have AFIB, but had a terrifying rapid onset of jaundice caused by antibiotics prescribed for a bronchial infection due to a wicked cold last month. She had to go to the ER, and her bilious levels were off the chart, and her liver was stressed almost to the point of failure.

She is a healthy non drinking healthy eating woman. The doctors were alarmed, and of course, this is a RARE reaction, but she was one of the few that it affects so severely. She is almost fully recovered now, and ther will be no lasting damage, but *whew* that was scary.

So, my question is, has anyone experienced, or heard of any AFIB related issues due to antibiotics?

[CDreamer]

If you are taking antibiotics it will be because of an infection. Any infection will trigger AF so how would you be able to ascertain if it were the infection or the meds?

There are a LOT of antibiotics I must avoid for reasons other then AF so my take is that unless it is life threatening - which pneumonia (chest infection) could be - one would avoid taking antibiotics which have caused enormous problems because of overuse.

I know of a few on this forum who have had antibiotic injury but not as severe as your wife suffered, so glad she has come through and wishing her a speedy recovery to full health.

[beach_bum in reply to CDreamer]

Ya, just about everything triggers AFIB in someone somewhere.

[sunlovah]

Many have been left with stomach related, gastritis issues due to antibiotics and maybe contributed to afib flares.I believe they contributed to my gastritis. Many who have chronic gastritis have also reported high heart rate and afib triggered. Maybe due to the condition concerned - inflammation affects the vagus nerve, the nervous system is connected. It seems to much of a coincidence that, there are so many reports connecting antibiotics/stomachs issues to heart rate and that the afib eases for some, when the stomach is healed, one day the Doctors will join up the dots !

[Ppiman]

Most of us have, I gather, a broadly similar set of liver enzymes. These keep the metabolism chuntering along smoothly, breaking down this and that safely. Some have quirks with these enzymes. These can be silent throughout life, or provoked by something or other. In your wife's case - an antibiotic. Phew - what a worrying time you two have been through. A friend gets mild jaundice with certain viral infections and these make him very ill with what he calls "rigors". Covid did this to him.

I suspect a full recovery for your wife is on the cards, with a note made on her medical file of this issue. I was once prescribed an SSRI drug, a long time ago, for anxiety. I can't begin to tell you the range of symptoms it caused me, making my anxiety massively worse. Some of these effects took two years to go away. I have since read that around 15% of people have enzymes and metabolism that cannot deal with these drugs. Something similar exists with the pain killer codeine, with quite a proportion of us unable to metabolise it, rendering it completely ineffective.

Whether AF can result from such reactions is highly likely, I would guess.

Steve

[beach_bum in reply to Ppiman]

Thanks for that. Yes, her reaction could be a one off, as she has had several rounds of antibiotics over the decades, but this is the first reaction. She is so incredibly healthy otherwise. She is pretty much recovered now, and yes, it is now on her file and she has a medical alert bracelet.

[JOY2THEWORLD49]

My 80s friend was givem antibiotics for what seemed like a flu.

She does not have aFIB.

A Nurse Practitioner diagnosed with UTI. Later proven not the apropriate diagnosis.

2 more visits when I said take her to the DR on a different day. By then her brain was whey why.

I diagnosed her with Cryptogenesis Organising Pneumonia (But its not pneumonia pe se).

She was finally diagnosed with my diagnosis.

Antibiotics some more than others are risk meds to the patients health.

The sacs get inflammed in the lungs and can affect the brain.

She is more than 1 year down the track and thank goodness improving.

I would put her in a classification of under weight.

Be careful with antibiotics. I have some nursing experience and continue to always research ailments. I have AF.

cheri JOY. 76. (NZ)