[Alert] Popular Drug Putting Seniors in The Hospital?!

All drugs come with side effects.

Some are fairly minor, like dry mouth or diarrhea.

Others can land you in the hospital.

One recent study uncovered one of the most dangerous drugs for seniors.

In fact, certain patients taking this drug have 20 times the risk of being hospitalized.

Find out if you’re at risk.

It’s called baclofen, and it’s a commonly prescribed muscle relaxer.

But there’s nothing common about its side effects—especially for older people who are suffering from kidney disease.

These side effects send seniors to the hospital for problems like severe confusion, lethargy, and other problems with brain function.

The drug can make it seem like you’ve had a stroke… when you haven’t.

Or like you have dementia… when you don’t.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers analyzed almost 16,000 with chronic kidney disease who were prescribed baclofen between 2007 and 2018.

People with the kidney function of 30 percent or less who were prescribed more than 20 mg of baclofen per day had the greatest risk of being hospitalized for confusion.

These individuals had 20 times the relative risk of being hospitalized.

And people taking lower doses still had a six-fold increased risk of being hospitalized.

Even those with 60% kidney function (that’s about 1 in 5 older adults) experienced an increased risk of confusion.

Ultimately, about 1 in 25 people with kidney problems who were prescribed high doses of baclofen were admitted to the hospital for severe confusion.

This was compared to 1 in 500 kidney patients who were NOT taking baclofen.

Pretty big difference.

The actual number of people experiencing these symptoms is likely much higher, since not everyone is going to go to the hospital when they experience these kinds of issues.

The reason drugs like baclofen are problematic for kidney patients is because they’re not able to filter it out of their system, which causes too much to build up in their bodies.

It’s like a causing a gradual overdose over time.

If you’re currently taking this drug, talk to your doctor about other options—especially if you have any issues with kidney function.