High Use of Anticholinergic Drugs Linked to Increased Cardiovascular Disease Risk
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Common medications with anticholinergic effects — including certain allergy drugs, sleep aids, and antidepressants — interfere with acetylcholine, a chemical your nervous system uses to regulate heart rhythm, blood pressure, and other automatic body functions
- A large study following 508,273 adults for about 14 years found that higher use of these medications was linked to significantly greater risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and strokes
- Researchers observed a clear dose-response pattern: the more frequently these medications were used, the higher the risk of heart disease, with the highest exposure group showing roughly a 71% increase in cardiovascular events
- A separate long-term study tracking 21,636 adults found that people taking several anticholinergic medications had increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and significantly higher death rates compared with those who took none
- Reducing reliance on anticholinergic medications and supporting metabolic health may help lower the drug burden on your heart and nervous system; further research is needed to confirm whether these lifestyle changes directly reduce cardiovascular risk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Millions of people take medications with anticholinergic effects every day without realizing |
| 0:04.3 | it. |
| 0:05.6 | Antihistamines, bladder control drugs, certain antidepressants, and sleep aids all share this property. |
| 0:11.7 | And a major new study has found that heavy use of these drugs is linked to a 71% higher |
| 0:16.4 | risk of cardiovascular disease. |
| 0:19.5 | Dr. Mercola breaks down what this means and why it matters. |
| 0:22.6 | Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. |
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| 0:36.6 | Hello and welcome. Subscribe for free at mercola.com for the latest health insights. |
| 0:43.3 | Hello and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. |
| 0:52.4 | The study, published in BMC Medicine in February 26, analyzed health data from over 500,000 people aged 45 and older in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| 0:56.0 | None of the participants had cardiovascular disease at the start of the study, aside from hypertension. Researchers followed them for up to 14 years, |
| 1:02.1 | tracking the cumulative antich colonergic drug burden each person accumulated over time. Dr. Mercola |
| 1:08.0 | notes that this was not a small pilot study. It was one of the largest population-based |
| 1:12.9 | analyses of its kind. The results were striking. People with the highest cumulative antich |
| 1:17.8 | exposure had a 71% higher risk of developing cardiovascular events compared to those with no |
| 1:24.5 | exposure. The association held across different types of cardiovascular outcomes, including heart |
| 1:30.8 | failure, coronary events, and stroke. |
| 1:34.9 | Dr. Merkola emphasizes that the risk was dose-dependent, meaning the more antich |
| 1:40.6 | medication a person took over time, the higher the risk climbed. |
| 1:45.1 | Anticholinergic drugs work by blocking acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in muscle |
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