A new study that analyzed the health information of thousands of women found that prolonged antibiotic use is correlated with a higher risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event.

Share on Pinterest Women may wish to consider limiting their use of antibiotics to prevent cardiovascular issues.

Scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, and Fudan University in Shanghai, China investigated how antibiotic use is linked to women’s risk of experiencing cardiovascular problems.

They were interested in the link between antibiotics and cardiovascular health because, they explain, antibiotics can have an important impact on gut microbiota, which, in turn, can affect various other aspects of health.

“Antibiotic use is the most critical factor in altering the balance of microorganisms in the gut,” says study co-author Prof. Lu Qi.

“Previous studies have shown a link between alterations in the microbiotic environment of the gut and inflammation and narrowing of the blood vessels, stroke, and heart disease,” he adds.

The study — the findings of which appear in the European Heart Journal — analyzes information the scientists collected from a cohort of 36,429 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study.

Specifically, the researchers examined data from 2004–2012; at the beginning of this period, all the women in the cohort were 60 or older.

All the participants reported how often they used antibiotics and other relevant information during three periods of their lives: ages 20–39, ages 40–59, and ages 60 and over.

Based on the antibiotic use patterns that the women reported, the scientists split them into four groups: