Antibiotics don ’t speed recovery from asthma attacks

Does winter in the Northeast make you think of snowmen, warm fires, and hot chocolate? Or, does it instead inspire visions of runny noses, congestion, and cough? Although it is less rosy, I know readers with asthma may be picturing the latter. People with asthma get respiratory infections more often In general, people with asthma tend to get sick more easily, and illnesses can trigger asthma attacks. In my practice, we generally start seeing an increase in the number of asthma attacks, or asthma flares, once the ground frosts. If you are fortunate enough not to have asthma, chances are that you know somebody who does. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  reports that rates of asthma in the United States are soaring, such that today, 1 in 12 people has it. Because people with asthma get sick more often, it is logical to suspect that they will often be prescribed antibiotics. But do antibiotics really help? New research is helping to answer this very question. Do antibiotics help people with asthma get back to normal faster? A study recently published in the Journal of American Medicine Association looked at the effectiveness of an antibiotic called azithromycin for treating asthma attacks. The trial, nicknamed AZALEA, aimed to look at whether adding azithromycin to the usual treatment helped people recover from asthma attacks more quickly.  This was of interest to the researchers for several reasons: For starters, azithromycin is a very commonly prescribed antibio...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Asthma and Allergies Cold and Flu Health Lung disease Source Type: blogs