Midazolam is a powerful drug that doctors often use to calm people down before surgery. It works so well that many patients don’t remember anything about their operations after taking it.
But now, scientists have found something surprising and a bit worrying. If this drug is given at night, it might hurt the heart.
A research team at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus looked at over 1.7 million cases where midazolam was used. Out of all those patients, more than 16,000 had signs of heart injury.
What’s even more surprising is that the risk of heart damage was much higher for surgeries done at night, especially for people who were healthy before the surgery.
Why would a drug that helps people relax cause heart problems? The answer may be linked to a special gene called PER2. This gene helps protect the heart and works in a daily rhythm that’s controlled by light and dark.
Our bodies have internal clocks, known as circadian rhythms, which tell us when to sleep, wake up, and do many other things. PER2 is part of that clock system and plays an important role in keeping the heart safe.
To better understand this, scientists did tests on mice. They found that when mice were given midazolam at night, the drug blocked the activity of the PER2 gene.
This happened because midazolam boosts a brain chemical called GABA, which makes us feel calm and sleepy. But at night, the increase in GABA seems to shut down the PER2 gene. Without PER2 doing its job, the heart becomes more likely to get hurt.
This discovery shows that the time of day when medicine is given really matters. Some drugs work better or are safer at certain times. For example, some blood pressure medicines work best if taken at night. The same idea might apply to midazolam and other sedatives.
Dr. Tobias Eckle, the lead scientist in the study, believes this could lead to big changes in how doctors give medicine. His team’s work was published in a science journal called “Frontiers of Cardiovascular Medicine.”
Their findings support the idea that we need to think about timing when we treat patients. By matching medicine schedules with our natural body clocks, we might be able to make treatments safer and more effective.
This research is part of a bigger movement in healthcare to make treatment more personal. Instead of giving the same medicine the same way to everyone, doctors are learning that things like time of day, sleep patterns, and even light exposure can change how drugs work.
In the future, hospitals may adjust surgery and medicine times to match each patient’s natural rhythm.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that apple juice could benefit your heart health, and Yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that Vitamin D deficiency can increase heart disease risk, and results showing Zinc and vitamin B6 linked to lower death risk in heart disease.
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