Women’s risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) may increase if they use antibiotics for two months or more, according to a new study.
Researchers looked at data on more than 36,000 women over seven years of follow-up. Compared with women who never used antibiotics, women in their 40s or 50s who used them for two months or longer had a 28% increased risk for CVD, the study found. Women over 60 who used antibiotics for that long had a 32% increased risk.
Lead study author Lu Qi, adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor at Tulane University, said in an April 24, 2019 New York Times article that the link between long-term antibiotic use and CVD risk was found in many different diseases where antibiotics are used.
Other Harvard Chan authors of the study included Eric Rimm, Frank Hu, and JoAnn Manson.
Read the New York Times article: Long-Term Use of Antibiotics Tied to Heart Risks