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When Investigating Fluoroquinolone Reactions, Move Beyond the ER

Published on March 13, 2024

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When trying to determine the danger associated with a drug, the number of Emergency Room (ER) visits that result from use of that drug is often cited. While anaphylactic shock and other acute ER worthy reactions should certainly be measured, exclusively looking at how often a drug leads to ER visits is not a comprehensive, or accurate, way of determining the danger of a drug. Simply looking at ER visits leads those trying to determine the risk associated with a drug to fail to take into consideration chronic illnesses and conditions that are caused by prescription drugs, and leads them to only recognize adverse reactions that are immediately life-threatening. Acute and temporary reactions are over-emphasized while systemic and chronic reactions are under-recognized.

When Only ER Visits are Considered, Fluoroquinolones Look Safe

For example, when comparing the safety profiles of different antibiotics, the following was noted in the Journal of Family Practice:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that adverse events from FQs (fluoroquinolone antibiotics) leading to emergency department (ED) visits occur at a rate of 9.2 for every 10,000 prescriptions. That’s higher than the ED rates for cephalosporins (6.1 per 10,000) and macrolides (5.1 per 10,000), but far lower than for penicillins (13 per 10,000), clindamycin (18.5 per 10,000), sulfonamides (18.9 per 10,000), and vancomycin (24.1 per 10,000).

Thus, fluoroquinolone antibiotics are slightly less safe than cephalosporins and macrolides, but slightly more safe than penicillins, clindamycins, sulfonamides and vancomycin, right? That’s what the statistics around trips to the ER clearly note. However, what these data fail to take into account is that adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones are not generally allergic or acute reactions, whereas adverse reactions to penicillins, clindamycins and sulfonamides are. The ER is the place to go when suffering from an acute reaction. When a patient is going through anaphylactic shock or inflammation that is threatening their life as a result of an allergic reaction, the ER is where their life can be saved. It is where epinephrine, steroids and antihistamines can be administered, and those drugs can save the life of a patient experiencing a severe allergic reaction. Adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones are not allergic reactions. Though anaphylactic shock can occur as a result of taking a fluoroquinolone, it is an uncommon adverse effect.

More often, those experiencing adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones experience weakening of all of the connective tissues in their body (especially tendons), peripheral neuropathy, insomnia and/or other CNS related symptoms, debilitating fatigue, dysautonomia, etc. None of these conditions warrant a trip to the ER, yet they are serious and severe symptoms of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome. In only looking at ER visits when trying to determine the safety of a drug, the symptoms of an adverse drug reaction that are chronic, as opposed to transient like allergic reactions, are systematically disregarded and the safety profile of the drug is not accurately represented.

Conditions that can be quantified and measured using tests and data-points that are currently easily at the disposal of doctors, and conditions that can be rectified through the tools that are available to doctors – like allergic reactions to penicillin – are recognized. Everything else is considered to be non-existent, mysterious or all in a patient’s head (as if what is in a patient’s head isn’t important). Systemic, chronic injuries caused by fluoroquinolones and other drugs are not seen because only adverse drug reactions that result in ER visits “count.” This is a problem because if doctors are only looking at a single data-point for determining the safety of a drug, and that data-point is the wrong one to look at, no one is getting an accurate or complete picture of the safety of drugs.

The frequency of adverse reactions to drugs that are more chronic and systemic in nature can be determined through long-term studies that take into consideration things like lifetime tolerance thresholds, delayed adverse reactions, etc. They should be implemented so that patients and doctors alike can have an accurate and comprehensive notion of the dangers of the drugs that are prescribed. ER visits are easy to calculate while long-term studies that recognize issues that are difficult to quantify (because the right tests are difficult to find and expensive to administer) are very difficult to conduct. Therefore, out of laziness, inertia and lack of funding, the wrong data is considered and drugs that cause chronic issues are falsely thought to have inflated safety records.

Asking the wrong question and expecting the right answer has never served anyone well, and doing that systematically in medicine is not serving patients or doctors well. It is not good for healthcare and it is not good for anyone seeking the truth about adverse drug reactions. If one wants to know the answer to the question of “How safe are fluoroquinolones?” we must move beyond trips to the ER and standard acute adverse reactions. Simply looking at ER visits is intellectually shortsighted and it leads to a false sense of security when prescribing dangerous drugs. Perhaps gathering some additional data-points should be considered.

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was published previously in December 2013.

From Healthy to Barely Functioning After Taking Bactrim and Keflex

by Chris

Published on May 10, 2023

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Up until July of 2014, when I was prescribed Bactrim and Keflex, I was truly in amazing physical condition. I was a 36-year-old male, who would run at least three miles every other day. Many times, I would do squats or some form of leg resistance training before my runs. I would sometimes do up to 400 push-ups throughout the day. I weighed 205 pounds, and was 5’10.

That July, I would get a tattoo. I had been to the parlor many times before, so it wasn’t such a big ordeal for me. I did have a new, different artist this time though. Shortly after getting the tattoo, I knew something had gone wrong. My arm was red, warm, and swollen. I contacted my doctor the next morning, and he called in a prescription for Keflex (500mg 3x/day). I took the medication for one full day, but it seemed to be getting worse. I decided to visit my pharmacy and speak to a pharmacist to get their opinion. When I told him what my doctor had prescribed, he told me that would not be enough to do the job. He recommended that I visit the ER. immediately. I did just that and was given Bactrim. I was also given a prescription that would double my original Keflex dosage.

I began taking everything right away and thought the ordeal would be over quickly. I went to bed that night and was woken up at around 2 am by an indescribable jolt. It felt a sudden weakness centered in my spine, but it radiated throughout my body. I knew something had gone very wrong. I woke my wife up from a deep sleep and told her I was feeling funny. I was probably too shocked to relay how terrible I actually felt. How could she know? “I think the medication is making me feel funny,” I uttered. She thought maybe I was adjusting to it. I thought of surprising her by saying I should visit the ER again, but I just lay there for the rest of the night. I was in awe at how I felt, and wonder to this day why I made this decision. “It’s only antibiotics,” I thought.

Somehow I went to work the next day. I was so weak that I had a hard time turning the steering wheel on my car. I struggled to pull doors open at work. I had taken the drugs again that morning. No matter how bad I felt, I never thought anything would be permanent, and I was tired of dealing with the infection. I then noticed that my heart had slowed down, and it seemed it never varied in speed. If I forced myself to strain in any way, it wouldn’t speed up; it would simply thump at that speed. I was also getting lightheaded, and I had dizzy spells. This wasn’t anything I was used to, so I paged a cardiologist I had seen in the past at a prominent Boston hospital. The doctor told me that Bactrim and Keflex were “benign,” and could not cause me any harm. The next thing I experienced was a toxic feeling in my head. I felt as though I had been poisoned. I had brain fog, and my ears and head felt like they were full of cotton. As I tried to sleep, I saw flashes of light and felt as though I could go into convulsions at times. I knew at that point, I had to revisit the ER.

“Tough It Out,” They Told Me

I went to a different local hospital to get a different point of view on the issue. In hindsight, it was another mistake that I didn’t visit the prescribing hospital. I told the doctor everything, and the infection still hadn’t made any remarkable improvements yet. I told him I could not afford a problem, and I was afraid to take either Bactrim or Keflex any longer. Although my WBC was low, he told me to “Tough it out” (literally). He told me I must have been a tough guy considering I had tattoos. I thought this was a ridiculous comment, but there were many more to follow. I stayed on the meds for 5 more days, completing the course. By this point, I had pins and needles in my feet, a sore in my mouth, a sore on my stomach, immediate weight loss, bladder pain, dizziness upon standing, and burning during urination. I was dropping weight quickly. I was visiting my PCP, trying to see a neurologist at a Boston hospital, and visiting ERs locally, as well as in Boston.

One morning, I woke up in cold sweats. I noticed I had urinated a fair amount in bed, and visited the ER yet again. I had completely lost the urge to urinate for six weeks or so. I was so lightheaded that I felt drunk constantly, day and night. Nobody had any answers at all. By that point, I was researching the drugs online. I found a site dedicated to Bactrim reactions. It was an old site, and I believe it was from England. It wasn’t good news at all. Bactrim seemed to be a total poison. I was reading reviews before, during, and after work. I was starting to panic. I was unable to cut grass or do anything at all other than force myself to work each day. I had lost 20 pounds within two months. My heart was fluctuating like crazy. It seemed to be missing beats and stopping at times. I was put on a monitor, and by the next morning, I was told it had stopped for 4.1 seconds. It was in constant fluctuation. I was starting to get sharp pains in my feet, hands, head, eyes, chest, and everywhere else. They would go from dull to sharp. They varied in length or duration, but it was intense.

Post Bactrim Autonomic System Dysfunction

The tattoo was healed, but everything else was now a problem. Eventually, after being told I was a crazy person by my neurologist, he gave me autonomic testing. He had given me a brain and spinal MRI, but they proved to be normal. I also had other neurological tests that were unremarkable. However, the autonomic testing was abnormal. I failed the “Tilt Table” test, as well as the QSART sweat test. Although the doctor thought the whole Bactrim thing was a coincidence, he admitted he was eating some “Humble Pie” at the moment. He diagnosed me with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).

On the horizon symptom-wise, I was experiencing massive constipation fluctuating with diarrhea, loss of bladder function, and underactive bladder to leaking, with overactive bladder. My weight was still dropping, I was getting prickly sensations everywhere, and my hands were blue. My ears ring, my eyes are dry, and I even smell smoke or other scents that are not there.

Eventually, another neurologist gave me a skin biopsy, checking for small fiber neuropathy. That test was abnormal as well, and it appears I was not sweating at all.

To this day, I deal with many of the same symptoms. Overall, some have improved to a degree.

Six Year Later: Still Struggling

I now struggle to keep my weight at 167, which is about forty-five pounds under my normal. My appetite is very good the majority of the time, but I still struggle. My muscles are smaller and don’t recover quickly. I have some symptoms like periodic numbness in my small fingers due to ulnar nerve damage, eye floaters, and severe spinal pain. I experiment with many diets considering my ongoing food sensitivities. I take LDN (Low dose Naltrexone), CoQ10, L-Carnitine, creatine, fish oil, and alpha lipoic acid. I wear compression stockings at times, take salt pills, and keep a jug near my bed at night to urinate in so I don’t get dizzy when I stand. Situations like these affect all aspects of your life. Some doctors recommend IVIG, and others tell me to steer clear. I still do my research regularly. I wonder if an autoimmune condition was triggered, or if my mitochondria/nerves were damaged. I wonder why no doctor has any idea what to say. I wonder if deep down they really know, or if it goes over their head and only the “higher ups” know. I have a feeling that someone in the field is familiar with the poisons being prescribed. Everyone is reluctant to admit that there is an issue. Nobody wants to be sued or to have to pay for the development of another antibiotic.

When my father was 36, he had the flu. He was put on a fluoroquinolone. He has had severe brain fog, major fatigue, restless leg syndrome, and a plethora of other mysterious symptoms ever since. He even had trouble with his Achilles tendon. He had an abnormal muscle biopsy that showed red-ragged fibers. My doctors would not agree to give me a muscle biopsy. He’s sixty-eight now. When he asks doctors what the chances are that it was the antibiotics all along, he typically gets the shoulder shrug and an “Anything’s possible.”

Antibiotic Reactions Are Real

Anytime you explain this to the average person they think you are a crazy hypochondriac. Unless your illness has a name, you will be in for a rude awakening when it comes to people’s reactions, including most physicians. If there was one thing I could say to someone who is taking any medication and feels like there is a problem, I would tell them to trust their gut. It took me years to forgive myself for not going back to the prescribing hospital or at least standing my ground at the one I visited. I should have gone in right away and demanded another drug. Six years later, after the initial Bactrim reaction, I’m still “toughing it out,”

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was published originally on September 9, 2020.

Repeated Use Doesn’t Make Fluoroquinolones Safe

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on March 22, 2018

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“I’ve prescribed fluoroquinolone antibiotics to hundreds of patients and I’ve never seen problems like yours. It’s a good drug with an excellent safety record.”

Some version of that statement is said to many patients who approach doctors with the many symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity syndrome. Fluoroquinolones (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) have been shown to damage connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, cartilage, fascia, etc.) throughout the body, damage the nervous systems (central, peripheral and autonomic), and lead to multi-symptom, often chronic, illness. Most of the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity are listed on the 43 page warning label for cipro/ciprofloxacin. However, disregard of patients with fluoroquinolone toxicity syndrome is, unfortunately, common. Statements like the one above are wrong-headed and foolish – here’s why:

The statement of, “I’ve prescribed fluoroquinolone antibiotics to hundreds of patients and I’ve never seen problems like yours” and implying that therefore fluoroquinolones are safe, is an illogical argument based in ego, not fact. Prescribing a drug hundreds of times does not make it a good, or safe, drug. The fact that something has been done millions times before does not mean that it’s the right way to do things. As an example, millions of people were given Vioxx before it was taken off the market because it causes heart attacks and strokes. If a physician never saw a heart attack result from Vioxx use, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen. They did. Thousands of people had heart attacks and died because of Vioxx. A history of doing something wrong does not make it right. Implied in the statement that a physician has never seen fluoroquinolone damage is the assumption that what a physician sees is factual and without bias. If a doctor regularly prescribes a drug, he or she is going to believe in its safety and efficacy based on a desire to see him or herself as one who helps patients, regardless of its actual safety and efficacy. Doctors have bias and ego just like the rest of us. Anecdotal evidence, even anecdotal evidence from a doctor, is not able to trump experimental evidence. Drugs need to hold up in scientific experiments and controlled trials – not in the opinion court of doctors. In multiple experiments, fluoroquinolones have been shown to damage cells (by depleting mitochondrial DNA, magnesium, lipids, enzymes, etc.). Science wins every time, and the scientific evidence comes down on the side of fluoroquinolones being dangerous drugs.
It shows an unwillingness/inability to connect pharmaceutical drugs to multi-symptom diseases. Fluoroquinolones deplete mitochondrial DNA and lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. When mitochondria aren’t functioning properly, cells aren’t functioning properly. Mitochondria are the energy centers of eukaryotic cells – the engines. If cellular engines are malfunctioning, many systems shut down. This shut-down can lead to a cascade of damage – much of it self-perpetuating and difficult to repair. The details of the biochemistry behind this are incredibly complex and difficult, but the basic concept of drugs that cause mitochondrial damage lead to multi-symptom, chronic illness, isn’t so difficult that someone who went through med school shouldn’t be able to grasp it. But many doctors are loathe to admit that the drugs that they prescribe cause mitochondrial damage. Many studies have shown that fluoroquinolones damage mitochondria (HERE and HERE). Even the FDA acknowledges that the mechanism through which fluoroquinolones do damage is through mitochondrial toxicity. Mitochondrial toxicity = multi-symptom, often chronic, illness. It’s not that hard. But if doctors admitted that fluoroquinolones cause multi-symptom, chronic illness, they may have to look at the relationship between all mitochondria damaging drugs (statins, SSRIs and even acetaminophen are on the list along with fluoroquinolones) and the rise in mysterious multi-symptom illnesses. If they did that, they may have to admit that the drugs they prescribed, ‘hundreds of times’ are hurting people – and who wants to do that? It’s much easier to repeat the lie of, “these drugs have an excellent record of safety and efficacy,” than it is to admit to inflicting harm (even inadvertently) on patients.
They’re not looking at delayed reactions or tolerance thresholds. Despite the fact that both delayed adverse reactions and tolerance thresholds for fluoroquinolones are documented (it all goes back to how mitochondria respond to damage – more HERE), reactions that occur after administration of the drug have stopped are not connected to the drug by many physicians. “It should be out of your system by now,” is repeated often. That may be the case, but the drug set off an intracellular bomb and now the damage is self-perpetuating. Delayed reactions and tolerance thresholds may make recognition of adverse drug reactions difficult, but it doesn’t make them go away. Unfortunately, cells don’t always act as they “should” – they act as they do – with messy things like non-linear reactions, negative feedback loops, etc.
The specialist model keeps many doctors from seeing the damage that fluoroquinolones cause. For example, ER doctors often prescribe fluoroquinolones because they’re powerful broad-spectrum antibiotics. But when people have an adverse reaction a week later that looks and feels a lot like an autoimmune disease, they’re not going to the ER for treatment because autoimmune-disease-like symptoms are for a rheumatologist or general practitioner to treat, not an ER doctor. This disconnect keeps many doctors from seeing the harm done by fluoroquinolones.
Statements like, “I’ve prescribed fluoroquinolone antibiotics to hundreds of patients and I’ve never seen problems like yours. It’s a good drug with an excellent safety record.” communicate to patients that a physician’s anecdotal evidence is more important than a patient’s pain. It communicates that it’s okay for side-effects of a drug to be devastating as long as the doctor perceives the adverse reactions as rare. It’s not okay for a doctor to disobey his or her Hippocratic Oath and hurt patients – even inadvertently. And I would argue that adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones are far less rare than anyone would like to believe (arguments HERE and HERE).
It shows that doctors don’t believe the warning labels on drugs. The warning label for Cipro/ ciprofloxacin is 43 PAGES long and lists many musculoskeletal and nervous system adverse effects of cipro and other fluoroquinolones. Do doctors think that the FDA is just kidding when they put all those adverse effects on the warning label?
The mantra of, “fluoroquinolones have an excellent safety record” has been repeated so many times that it is assumed to be true. It is not true. There are hundreds of studies showing that fluoroquinolones profoundly damage cells and there are zero studies that show that people are immune to the damage caused by fluoroquinolones. The perception of safety is based on an unwillingness to recognize tolerance thresholds for fluoroquinolones, delayed adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones and the connection between fluoroquinolones and multi-symptom diseases.
It shows that they’re afraid. Some of the fear is legitimate. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise. If fluoroquinolones are restricted to only being used appropriately – i.e. in life-or-death situations after all other antibiotics have failed – doctors will have fewer tools at their disposal and they may not be able to fight a nasty infection without inflicting cellular damage that results in chronic illness. No one wants to have to choose between an infection and multi-symptom, chronic illness. It would be better to have neither. But if there aren’t any options of antibiotics that don’t cause the cellular damage that leads to oxidative stress and multi-symptom illness… well, that’s a possibility that is too frightening and daunting to think about.
Too many doctors are attached to lazy medicine – throwing strong, broad-spectrum antibiotics at everyone who comes in the door with an infection (or just a high white blood cell count). If the adverse effects of fluoroquinolones were acknowledged, the pros and cons would have to be careful weighed before administering them. A long discussion with patients about tendon ruptures, peripheral neuropathy, increased chance of diabetes, central nervous system damage, etc., would have to be had along with every prescription for Cipro, Levaquin or Avelox in order for an obligation of informed consent to be met. If broad-spectrum fluoroquinolones couldn’t be thrown at every infection, bacterial cultures would need to be done to figure out exactly what antibiotics would work best. That takes time and money and it’s easier to do things as they have been done – even if it involves denying the damage that fluoroquinolones do. Those pesky tests to make sure that the Hippocratic Oath is upheld may get in the way of business.

Adverse drug reactions don’t stop happening just because they’re inconvenient; or because they’re unrecognized or misdiagnosed. They don’t become rare or insignificant just because they are complicated and difficult to recognize.

Fluoroquinolones are dangerous drugs that damage cells on multiple levels. This has been shown in laboratories many times. The cellular damage caused by fluoroquinolones (along with the destruction of the microbiome) leads to multi-symptom, often chronic, illness. This has been shown by multiple patient reports.

Many doctors haven’t read the memo about how dangerous fluoroquinolones are though. Shouldn’t they know the dangers of the drugs that they prescribe? Shouldn’t they have learned about adverse drug reactions in school? It doesn’t seem like too much to ask for. There are hundreds of studies showing that fluoroquinolones damage eukaryotic cells. Shouldn’t they have read them, or at least been told about them by the FDA?

You’d think so. But the mantra of, “Fluoroquinolones have an excellent record of safety and efficacy” has been repeated so many times that it’s thought to be true just because it’s been heard over and over again. Let’s change the mantra. How about, “fluoroquinolones are dangerous drugs that should only be used in life-or-death situations?” That mantra sounds much better. It’s more appropriate, and it’s closer to the truth. If we keep on repeating it, maybe doctors will start to listen.

We Need Your Help

More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This post was first published on October 1, 2014.

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

Photo by karatara: https://www.pexels.com/photo/male-statue-decor-931317/

Dear Epidemiologists, Consider Fluoroquinolones

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on January 23, 2017

3959 views

Dear Epidemiologists,

I am writing to encourage you to study the long-term and intergenerational adverse-effects of fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Floxin, and their generic counterparts). It has been noted by both patient groups and the FDA that fluoroquinolones have long-term adverse-effects, yet many patients and physicians are caught off-guard when fluoroquinolone toxicity symptoms are not transient. Fluoroquinolone toxicity symptoms are similar to those of many multi-symptom, chronic, mysterious diseases of modernity, and epidemiological studies are needed in order to determine if the similar symptoms are coincidental, or if they are indicative of a causal relationship between fluoroquinolone use and many of the diseases that fluoroquinolone toxicity resembles.

The Acknowledged Adverse-effects

The musculoskeletal adverse effects of fluoroquinolones are well-known, and fluoroquinolone antibiotics even carry a black box warning noting that they increase the risk of tendon ruptures. Studies have shown that fluoroquinolones also increase the risk of retinal detachment, and a recent (2015) article in JAMA Internal Medicine noted that the risk of aortic aneurysm and dissection is increased with fluoroquinolone use. All these adverse effects point to fluoroquinolones causing collagen synthesis disorders and/or collagen toxicity.

The 2015 BMJ Open article, “Fluoroquinolones and collagen associated severe adverse events: a longitudinal cohort study” goes over the increased risk of tendon ruptures, retinal detachment and aortic aneurysm and dissection in those given fluoroquinolones. The authors conclude that:

“Current fluoroquinolone use was associated with an increased hazard of tendon rupture (HR 3.13, 95% CI 2.98 to 3.28), and increased hazard of aortic aneurysms (HR 2.72, 95% CI 2.53 to 2.93). The relative hazard of these two collagen-associated adverse events were slightly attenuated after multivariate adjustment, but remained clinically meaningful and statistically significant (table 2). The relative hazard of retinal detachment was modest in magnitude, and only statistically significant after multivariate adjustment (table 2). The magnitude of the association of fluoroquinolones and aortic aneurysm events was stronger than the association observed with other aneurysm risk factors such as hypertension and atherosclerosis (table 3).”

Longer-Term Studies are Needed

“Fluoroquinolones and collagen associated severe adverse events: a longitudinal cohort study” is an excellent study, and I commend the authors for their work. However, a couple of drawbacks of it are that the authors only look at patients who are over the age of 65, and the time-period examined is only 30-days post-exposure, though many fluoroquinolone toxicity patients are under the age of 65, and many experience adverse effects months, or even years, after exposure to the fluoroquinolone.

It would be helpful for both patients and physicians if similar studies were conducted looking at the long-term health outcomes for people of various ages after exposure to fluoroquinolones.

Collagen-synthesis Problems and CNS Symptoms

The relationship between other diseases that have to do with disordered collagen synthesis and fluoroquinolone use should also be examined. For example, fluoroquinolone adverse-effects include many central nervous system symptoms, including convulsions, toxic psychosis, suicidal ideation, dizziness, confusion, tremors, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and many other psychiatric symptoms. It is possible that the collagen in the central nervous system is adversely affected by fluoroquinolones, and that fluoroquinolone use is associated with the rise in psychiatric illnesses in the population. It is a hypothesis that should be explored.

Fluoroquinolones and Multi-symptom, Chronic Illnesses

Many patients who have adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones suffer from multi-symptom, often chronic, illness. Fluoroquinolone toxicity has symptoms that are similar to those of autoimmune diseases (including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and M.S.), neurodegenerative diseases (including ALS and Parkinson’s), and mysterious diseases like fibromyalgia and M.E./chronic fatigue syndrome, and the symptoms often overlap with those of chronic Lyme disease. (Some patient stories that go over the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity can be found on www.fqwallofpain.com). It would be helpful if some epidemiological studies were done to see if fluoroquinolone exposure predisposes people to a diagnosis of an autoimmune, neurodegenerative or other mysterious diseases.

Those who have experienced fluoroquinolone toxicity see the connections between fluoroquinolones and those diseases—because we went from being healthy to suddenly being sick with symptoms of multiple chronic diseases shortly after taking a fluoroquinolone—but our experiences are only anecdotal unless studies confirm our assertions. Epidemiological studies to determine whether or not there is a connection between fluoroquinolone use and autoimmune, neurodegenerative and mysterious diseases would be immensely helpful in showing whether the relationship is causal or anecdotal.

Fluoroquinolones and Diabetes, Heart-disease, and Autism

Fluoroquinolones have been shown to cause dysglycemia and use of fluoroquinolones is correlated with type-2 diabetes. Diabetes is a growing problem that is causing pain and suffering to millions of people worldwide. If even a small percentage of diabetes cases could be prevented through more prudent use of fluoroquinolones, much pain and suffering could be alleviated. Quantifying the relationship between fluoroquinolone use and diabetes via an epidemiological study would be immensely useful.

Given that fluoroquinolones have been shown to increase incidence of aortic dissection and aneurysm, it would be interesting to see if they are associated with heart-disease more generally.

It was noted in the 2013 article in Nature, “Topoisomerases facilitate transcription of long genes linked to autism” that, “chemicals or genetic mutations that impair topoisomerases, and possibly other components of the transcription elongation machinery that interface with topoisomerases, have the potential to profoundly affect expression of long ASD (autism spectrum disorder) candidate genes.” Since fluoroquinolone antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed topoisomerase interrupting drugs, it is worthwhile to look into whether or not they are related (intergenerationally, most likely) to autism.

Longer-Term Studies are Needed

It has been known for many decades that fluoroquinolones have serious and severe adverse-effects, yet very few studies of the long-term effects of fluoroquinolones have been conducted. Fluoroquinolone affected patients have been noting that they have experienced fluoroquinolone toxicity symptoms months, or even years, after administration of the drugs has ceased, and even the FDA has noted that fluoroquinolone associated disability (FQAD) is a consequence of fluoroquinolone use. However, fluoroquinolone studies have primarily concentrated on adverse-effects that occur while the drug is being administered. Long-term, and even intergenerational, epidemiological studies will enlighten us to the true consequences of fluoroquinolones.

Many Questions to Study

How much does fluoroquinolone use increase a person’s risk of getting an autoimmune disease? How much more likely is a person to become diabetic if they use a fluoroquinolone to treat a sinus infection? How much more likely is a person to need a pain medication like Lyrica if they have been prescribed a fluoroquinolone in the past? Are thyroid diseases more common in those who have taken fluoroquinolones than in those who haven’t? Are psychiatric illnesses more common in those who have taken fluoroquinolones? Are people more likely to suffer from heart-disease if they have taken a fluoroquinolone? Are there any intergenerational effects of fluoroquinolones, and, if so, how are they manifesting?

These are all reasonable questions to ask, given the long list of adverse-effects caused by fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

Patients have been screaming about the connections between many of the diseases of modernity and the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity for years, but our screams will only be heard if there is data to back them up. Studies need to be done to get necessary information, so I encourage all scientists who have the access to data and expertise needed, to study fluoroquinolones. People are being hurt by these drugs. Information, data, science and a bit of enlightenment, will help to encourage more prudent and appropriate use of fluoroquinolones, so that the pain caused by them can be minimized.

To all the scientists who have studied fluoroquinolones—your work is appreciated and I hope that it is built upon. Thank you in advance to all those who look further into fluoroquinolone adverse reactions. Your work will be greatly appreciated as well.

Regards,
Lisa Bloomquist
Patient advocate and founder of Floxiehope.com

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This letter was published previously on Hormones Matter in December 2015.

Side Effects and Unintended Consequences of Popular Pharmaceuticals

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on October 7, 2014

3633 views

After experiencing an adverse reaction to a popular antibiotic, ciprofloxacin, that involved destruction of my tendons, muscles, and cartilage, as well as my central, peripheral and autonomic nervous systems, I was left with questions that no one seemed to be able to answer – What did ciprofloxacin do to my body? What happened that made it feel as if a bomb had gone off in me? Why was I fine after taking ciprofloxacin once, but was far from fine after taking it a second time? Why can some people tolerate ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics with no ill effects, but others can’t and are destroyed by a single prescription? And the most important question of all – How could I put my body and mind back together again?

I scoured research journals for answers to these questions. The answers that I found were daunting. I found that ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics are topoisomerase interrupters – meaning that they disrupt the enzymatic process of bacterial DNA replication (and mitochondrial DNA replication). I found that fluoroquinolones deplete intracellular magnesium. Depletion of intracellular magnesium has multiple health consequences including disruption of more than 300 enzymatic processes. I realized that both enzyme depletion and magnesium depletion lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. I found that mitochondrial dysfunction leads to high levels of oxidative stress and that oxidative stress wreaks havoc on multiple areas of health. I discovered that the carboxylic acid molecule in fluoroquinolones can be metabolized into poisonous metabolites in the liver. I learned how feedback loops between multiple biological systems work together and those compensatory feedback loops make repairing damage difficult.

The more I learned about the complex interactions occurring in my body, the more I realized that the number of unknown factors is far greater than the number of known factors. I realized that, as much as I wanted easy answers and quick solutions, there were none available. Because of the complexity of the human body, as well as individual differences in both genetics and environment, I doubt that easy answers will ever be available. Any one of the many complex systems within the human body can be studied for a lifetime without knowing everything about it. The multiple systems within our bodies are interconnected, difficult to comprehend, poorly understood and truly amazing. Human life is astoundingly, beautifully, mind-bogglingly complex.

Mind Blowing Complexity

This chart of metabolic pathways shows just one level of biochemical complexity in the human body. Click and take a look. Amazing, isn’t it? I find the pathways to be both incredibly daunting and beautiful at the same time. As complex as that chart is, it doesn’t include everything. There are additional layers on top of it – genetics, epigenetics, equally complex charts about the microbiome, endocrine system, bioenergetics, etc.

Even though the metabolic pathways in the chart above are known (if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the chart), I suspect that the interactions between the metabolic pathways, and the connections between them and other complex systems, are not adequately considered in healthcare. How could they be? These pathways are so mind-blowingly complex, and so interconnected with layer upon layer of feedback and feedforward loops amplifying any disruption and miscalculation, that if we were to properly consider the ramifications of pharmaceutical alterations, no one would dare take most medications. We would recognize the limits of our abilities to predict and treat the inevitable unintended consequences of disturbing the balance within and among these systems. Since pharmaceuticals are a trillion dollar industry, it is safe to say that all of the potential effects of pharmaceuticals on these pathways are not fully considered.

Pharmaceuticals Disrupt Biochemical Pathways

Every pharmaceutical has an effect on those pathways. When the drug interacts with the metabolic pathways as expected, all parties involved are pleased. When the drug interacts in unexpected or unwanted ways, we say that there are “side-effects.” I wonder though, are there really side-effects, or is that just a more palatable expression about the limits of our understanding (and attention)? One could argue that if we paid more attention to the broader biological systems involved in human health, those “side-effects” would be entirely predictable. But we don’t. Instead we focus our medication efforts on narrowly defined targets, destroying a particular pathogen or amplifying or diminishing a specific cell cycle function, all the while ignoring that those processes are conserved systemically. Perturbations in one organism or one function, necessarily affects the entire system. Nothing happens in isolation.

If we were to consider the potential for drugs to initiate systemic reactions, and if the effects of drugs on metabolic pathways were properly regarded, fluoroquinolones and many other drugs and vaccines would not be on the market. But we don’t. Instead, we choose to believe that side-effects are rare and won’t happen to us. Those beliefs are bolstered by decades of marketing to physicians and patients, promoting the safety and efficacy of each drug, often long after science and the legal system have disputed those claims.

Fluoroquinolones, the drugs I know most about, deplete intracellular magnesium (note how many times you see Mg in the chart) and disrupt vital enzymatic processes (which are kind of important). Can you even imagine there not being unintended consequences to depleting vital minerals from a system that is as complex and interconnected as cellular biochemistry and metabolic pathways that determine human health? I cannot imagine it, because after learning about how fluoroquinolones react in the body, I know too much to believe the marketing propaganda about any drug. Before my adverse reaction, however, I never gave the safety of antibiotics a second thought. It appears neither did my doctor, nor the millions of other physicians who have made the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics the most prescribed and profitable antibiotics ever.

I know that there are some very smart scientists out there; people who are far more intelligent than I, who have a much better grasp of biochemistry – so why aren’t the dangers of fluoroquinolones more well-known? Why aren’t the side-effects entirely predictable? Why did I have to figure out all of this on my own, without help from the physician who prescribed the medication or the physicians I saw post reaction? Sadly, I have come to believe that most physicians and patients alike don’t want to recognize the complexity of human health; preferring instead to believe in our own intellectual supremacy. And as much as I appreciate the scientists who are doing the work on which I have based my assertions, I don’t think that there is anyone who understands the complex biochemical feedback loops sufficiently to guarantee that there won’t be unintended consequences when disrupting part of the system with a pharmaceutical.

Unintended Consequences

How can one avoid the unintended consequences that come with disruption of the biochemical interactions described in this chart? Individualized medicine that takes into consideration genetic predispositions is one place to start, but it requires that we recognize the complexity of interacting systems and abandon our silver bullet approach to medicine. From where I sit, this is a long way off. Individualized medicine based on genetic predispositions barely exists. If we consider the complexity of a lifetime of environmental exposures, predicting how a particular drug will react in given individual is complex, if not impossible. For me, the most feasible way to avoid unintended disruptions and feedback loops is to avoiding pharmaceuticals (or at least use them very sparingly). Each medication has side-effects and unintended consequences. All drugs disrupt the very biochemical feedback loops necessary for keeping us healthy.

Avoid the Cause in Order to Avoid the Effect

Perhaps, I am the medical equivalent of a Luddite. Perhaps, I over-emphasize the harm done by pharmaceuticals and underestimate the good done by them because I was hurt by a drug. I see the unintended consequences of disrupting the delicate balance of biochemical pathways everywhere. All of the diseases of modernity can be traced to a disruption on the chart above (or maybe a disruption on the endocrine system chart, or the microbiome chart, or the epigenetics chart). People are sick; not cells in a petri dish – people. They are sick and they are suffering because of disruptions in their biochemistry.

These systems are complex. The feedback loops between systems amplify the complexity and make mistakes and miscalculations difficult (impossible) to correct.

Disruptions in our biochemistry result in disease.

We live in a world of unintended consequences. Does anyone else see it?

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

Shades of Grey – The Good and Bad of Fluoroquinolones

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on September 9, 2014

2528 views

Lisa Bloomquist flouroquinolone antibiotics

A friend of mine recently commented on one of my posts about fluoroquinolone toxicity, “I totally appreciate these articles and my heart goes out to those suffering, but are there people who have benefited from these antibiotics? I’m not trying to stir the pot, I’m curious as I would think many readers would be.”

I really appreciate the inquiry, and I’m sure he’s right in thinking that many people have the same question. Here is my response:

Yes – absolutely – lives have been saved by fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin). They are powerful, broad-spectrum antibiotics and, as such, they have saved the lives of people who are suffering from severe, life-threatening infections.

Unfortunately, fluoroquinolones come with severe side-effects that include cellular damage. They have been shown to deplete mitochondrial DNA and induce large amounts of oxidative stress (also known as reactive oxygen species or ROS). Both mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress have been linked to many chronic, multi-symptom diseases, including chronic fatigue syndrome / M.E., Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s, fibromyalgia, autism, Gulf War Syndrome, and many others. Fluoroquinolone toxicity syndrome is a multi-symptom, chronic illness that is often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia, CFS/ME, an autoimmune disease, etc. Fluoroquinolones have been shown to cause destruction of tendons, cartilage and muscles, as well as permanent peripheral neuropathy and severe central nervous system reactions.

Fluoroquinolones are being used Inappropriately

Because of the severity of the side-effects of fluoroquinolones, it is inappropriate for them to be used when other, more benign, antibiotics will effectively fight an infection. They are only appropriate for use in situations where more benign antibiotics have failed, and a person’s life is threatened by an infection.

Unfortunately, many people are given Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin or Floxin/ofloxacin for sinus infections, urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, and prostate infections. Fluoroquinolones are even prescribed when no infection is present for suspected infections (they are often prescribed prophylactically for travelers’ diarrhea).

Think of Fluoroquinolones as Chemo Drugs – They Are

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics should be thought of as anti-cancer chemo drugs. In fact, they have been investigated for their cancer-fighting / tumor killing properties. Chemo drugs can save lives – there is no doubt about that. But, because of the harm that the drugs themselves do, it is not appropriate to give them to people unless they have cancer or are in a life-or-death situation. Similarly, it’s not appropriate to give people fluoroquinolones for simple infections that could be treated with more benign antibiotics.

The Hippocratic Oath and Informed Consent – Forgotten Bedrocks of Medicine

Despite the fact that fluoroquinolones have severe side-effects, very few people are advocating for their removal from the market. When they are needed to save a life, they should be available. What most people (myself included) are advocating for is sensible, appropriate use of fluoroquinolones. Neither Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin nor Floxin/ofloxacin should be prescribed to people who can be helped by a more benign antibiotic. (Adherence to the Hippocratic Oath should prevent this from happening, but it’s not). Fluoroquinolones should not be given to people without a warning about the severe cellular damage that can be done by these drugs. (Informed consent is important.) In order for fluoroquinolones to be thought of and administered appropriately, both physicians and patients need to be aware of how dangerous fluoroquinolones are, and how severe their adverse effects can be.

Through people telling their stories of how fluoroquinolones hurt them, awareness of the dangers of fluoroquinolones will come. Hopefully, sensible and appropriate use of these powerful, dangerous drugs will follow.

Fluoroquinolones can do good, but they can do harm too. Categorizing things in terms of good or bad is the natural inclination of most people, but it’s never that simple for drugs. All drugs can do good, but they can do harm too – hence the list of side-effects that comes with each prescription. We can’t yet ask for drugs to only do good, and never do harm – that’s not the way the world works. But we can ask for dangerous drugs to be used appropriately. It is ONLY appropriate for fluoroquinolones to be used in life-or-death situations when other antibiotics aren’t effective. To use them flippantly, and when they aren’t entirely necessary, is inappropriate and a violation of the Hippocratic Oath.

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

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Epigenetics and Common Medications: Now What?

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on May 28, 2014

5660 views

A recent article in The Guardian noted that, “Epigenetics is one of the hottest fields in the life sciences. It’s a phenomenon with wide-ranging, powerful effects on many aspects of biology, and enormous potential in human medicine.” It is certainly true that epigenetics is a “hot” topic and that epigenetics research is paradigm shifting. But because the field of epigenetics is so new, we currently have more questions about epigenetics than we have answers.

Questions about Epigenetics

What is epigenetics? What positively affects epigenetics? What negatively affects epigenetics? Do some things have a greater influence on epigenetics than other things? How do things that negatively affect epigenetics affect health? How do things that positively affect epigenetics affect health? How does epigenetics affect the health of our offspring? At what point in time or development can epigenetic changes in a parent affect the health of a future child? How likely is it that something that affects the epigenetic profile of a parent will be passed on to a child? How will epigenetic traits passed from parents to children show up in the children? What happens on a biochemical level to induce epigenetic changes? How does the recent research on epigenetics change disease models? What can I, personally, do to influence my epigenetics? What should I do if I suspect that a toxic substance has negatively affected my epigenetics? Can negative or positive epigenetics lie dormant then show up in future offspring?

There are hundreds of questions around epigenetics that scientists are diligently working to answer. Most of the answers to the questions listed above have partial answers that can be found in journal articles and text books. None of the answers are complete or comprehensive yet. There is much that is unknown and there is much to be learned in this relatively new field of research. Just touching on what is known about each of the questions listed would make this post long and convoluted, so I won’t go into details about each one. However, it should be noted that the answers to these questions are meaningful for determining how people live their lives.

In this post, I will give a brief overview of what epigenetics is, I will point out that many popular pharmaceuticals have been shown to have a deleterious effect on epigenetics, and I will explore the question – What should you do if you have been exposed to a pharmaceutical that has been shown to cause persistent epigenetic changes?

What Does Epigenetics Mean?

The underlying DNA sequence that each individual has is static, but those genes can be turned on or off depending on conditions in the environment. The process of those genes turning on and off is epigenetics. The term “gene expression” is often used when describing epigenetics.

In “Epigenetic side-effects of common pharmaceuticals: A potential new ﬁeld in medicine and pharmacology,” epigenetics is described as:

The term “Epigenetics” refers to DNA and chromatin modifications that persist from one cell division to the next, despite a lack of change in the underlying DNA sequence. The “epigenome” refers to the overall epigenetic state of a cell, and serves as an interface between the environment and the genome. The epigenome is dynamic and responsive to environmental signals not only during development, but also throughout life; and it is becoming increasingly apparent that chemicals can cause changes in gene expression that persist long after exposure has ceased.

This BBC Horizon documentary, The Ghost in your Genes, more thoroughly describes the mechanisms and the study of epigenetics:

In The Ghost in your Genes, both famine and stress are noted as things that not only change gene expression in the person who is experiencing famine and/or stress, but also change the gene expression / epigenetics of the children and grandchildren of those who experience stress or famine at critical times in their development. In both a NOVA documentary on epigenetics and a study published in Nature Communications in 2014, it was noted that not only famine, but what a mother eats before and during her pregnancy can affect gene expression in her offspring. Additionally, the authors of the article “Epigenetic side-effects of Common Pharmaceuticals” hypothesize that, “commonly-used pharmaceutical drugs can cause such persistent epigenetic changes.”

I took one of the drugs highlighted in “Epigenetic Side-effects of Common Pharmaceuticals” (Ciprofloxacin – a fluoroquinolone antibiotic) and had an adverse reaction to it. According to the article, my adverse reaction may have been due to an epigenetic mechanism causing the adverse effects. This leads me to the question of:

Now What?

Some of the drugs described in “Epigenetic side-effects of common pharmaceuticals: A potential new ﬁeld in medicine and pharmacology” as having adverse effects through an epigenetic mechanism are: synthetic estrogens, combined oral contraceptive pills, fluoroquinolone antibiotics, beta-blockers, statins, cox-2 inhibitors, neuroleptics, SSRIs, Ritalin, Adderall, chemotherapeutics and general anesthetics. With 70% of Americans taking prescription drugs, and many of the drugs noted being popular, the question of what people are supposed to do after exposure to these drugs – in order to minimize and repair the epigenetic damage done – is not a trivial one.

I had an adverse reaction to Cipro/Ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone (also called quinolone) antibiotic that has been shown to “inhibit eukaryotic DNA polymerase alpha and beta, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase, affect cell cycle progression and function of lymphocytes in vitro, and cause other genotoxic effects.” That sounds like pretty severe cellular genetic damage and it leads me to wonder – what am I supposed to do now that I have taken, and had an adverse reaction to, a drug that has been shown to cause, “extensive changes in gene expression….suggesting a potential epigenetic mechanism for the arthropathy caused by these agents?”

Should I change my diet so that I only eat things that are good for my liver and heart because, “It has also been documented that the incidence of hepatic and dysrhythmic cardiovascular events following use of fluoroquinolones is increased compared to controls, suggesting the possibility of persistent gene expression changes in the liver and heart?” Will foods that are good for my heart, or a liver cleanse, trigger positive gene expression that can reverse the negative gene expression induced by the Cipro? Are nutrient dense foods and liver cleanses powerful enough to combat the ill effects of a pharmaceutical that is specifically designed to disrupt the DNA replication process? (Fluoroquinolones are supposed to disrupt the DNA replication process for bacteria while leaving eukaryotic cells intact. Unfortunately, fluoroquinolones also have deleterious effects on mitochondrial DNA replication and chromosomes of eukaryotic/human cells.) How do I know whether or not gene expression for liver and heart disease have been turned on in me? If heart or liver disease genes have been turned on, can I turn them back off?

Epigenetics across Generations

Should I not have kids? A chemotherapeutic agent, Topotecan, with the same mechanism of action as fluoroquinolone antibiotics – the disruption of DNA replication through interrupting topoisomerases – was found to “profoundly affect the expression of long ASD (autism spectrum disorder) candidate genes” according to the study, “Topoisomerases Facilitate Transcription of Long Genes Linked to Autism” published in Nature in September, 2013. Autistic kids are just as much of a blessing as non-autistic kids, but the question remains; did Cipro negatively affect my epigenetic profile in a way that will cause negative gene expression in my children, should I choose to have them? I wasn’t pregnant when I took Cipro though. Does that matter? Does the timing of exposure to the pharmaceutical that negatively influences gene expression make a difference?

A friend’s son was given a drug to keep him from wetting the bed. Shortly thereafter he developed Tourette’s-like symptoms. Several drugs used to prevent bed-wetting fall into the category of “Neuroleptics, SSRIs, Ritalin, Adderall.” Per Epigenetic Side-effects of Common Pharmaceuticals, “The long-term use of these drugs causes an iatrogenic disease termed ‘‘Tardive Dyskinesia” (TD), which refers to a variety of involuntary, repetitive movements such as grimacing, tongue protrusion, lip smacking, puckering and pursing of the lips, and rapid eye blinking.” Those symptoms are awfully similar to my friend’s son’s symptoms and it made us wonder, should he talk to his son about the possibility that he carries epigenetic errors that can be transcribed to his future children? Should his son take that into consideration when he is of an age to have children? Could my friend’s future grandchildren be adversely affected by a drug that was given to his son to stop bed wetting? If so, how might they be affected?

Lessons Learned and Forgotten from Thalidomide and DES

How does pharmaceutical induced epigenetic damage affect a person’s children or grandchildren? Some drugs, such as thalidomide and DES, have demonstrably shown that intergenerational adverse epigenetic effects of pharmaceuticals are possible, and can be severe. “Diethylstilbestrol (DES), which was used to prevent miscarriages and other pregnancy complications between 1938 and 1971, is known to cause cancer in the male and female reproductive tracts later in life. Many other adverse associations have been identified in DES-exposed women and their offspring, and animal studies have shown effects in the next generation (grandchildren), a clear demonstration of transgenerational epigenetic effects.” You can read about some of the effects of DES on children and grandchildren of exposed women HERE, HERE, and through doing a search for “DES” on Hormones Matter. The transgenerational adverse effects of DES and thalidomide are frightening, and you’d think that lessons would have been learned from those experiences, but did we actually learn any lessons? The effects of DES and thalidomide on the children of the women given those drugs were rooted in epigenetics, yet some of our most popular pharmaceuticals today also have deleterious effects on epigenetics. Is it possible that we learned nothing and that the harm brought on by drugs given to millions of people today (drugs like fluoroquinolone antibiotics, SSRIs, statins, and others are prescribed to millions of people annually) are going to show up as amplified harm in our children and grandchildren?

It is not yet known what the intergenerational effects of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, most chemotherapeutics, statins, beta-blockers, SSRIs, etc. are. But it is a question that is worth asking and it is certainly a question that is worth exploring and answering in a scientific way. With millions of people taking pharmaceuticals daily, and many of those people having children, we should all demand answers to the questions of how pharmaceuticals are affecting not just our individual gene expression, but also how the genes of our children and grandchildren are going to be expressed.

Until those studies come out, what are we, collectively, supposed to do with the information that pharmaceuticals are adversely affecting gene expression?

What I’m Going to Do

I know what I’m going to do. I’m learning as much as possible to empower myself; I’m not having kids; I’ll try to live a healthy lifestyle. I feel okay about these things. I grieve a bit for the loss of my trust in the medical system, and for the decision not to have biological children, but on an individual level, these decisions aren’t tragic. However, if many people follow my lead, there would be quite a bit of trouble in the world. It’s not realistic for everyone who has taken a SSRI, beta-blocker, fluoroquinolone, statin, etc. to forego having kids. It’s not going to happen. Honestly, I don’t even know that it should happen. There are too many questions that are still unanswered about how pharmaceuticals affect epigenetics and what those epigenetic effects look like, for anyone to make an informed decision.

But we still should ask the difficult questions. And we should still demand answers to the difficult questions. We deserve to know – what should we do if our gene expression has been negatively affected by a pharmaceutical? There won’t be easy answers, but the hard questions, and the hard answers, are valuable.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, quotes are taken from “Epigenetic side-effects of common pharmaceuticals: A potential new ﬁeld in medicine and pharmacology”

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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Image by kjpargeter on Freepik.

Truth Seeker or Conspiracy Theorist? You Decide.

by Lisa Bloomquist

Published on November 25, 2013

4163 views

I’ve always believed that the simplest answers to most problems are the ones that are closest to the truth. I don’t particularly like conspiracy theories. I generally find them to be offensive. So as not to offend the people who believe in conspiracies, I’ll refrain from giving an example, but I tend to think that what you see is what you get and that there aren’t any evil masterminds controlling the world. I don’t think that there is anyone smart enough to have evil plots that control the world. Rather, I believe that there are complex feedback loops that keep certain parties in power and others powerless. Of course, those in power work to protect their power, sometimes through greed, lies and cover-ups, but it’s not necessarily a conspiracy per se. It’s just people being people and trying to maintain the status quo because people generally don’t like change (and a million other complex psychological and sociological reasons why people like to keep those in power who are in power and those without power without power).

Then I got sick. I got sick because a prescription pharmaceutical, an antibiotic no less (Cipro), hurt me. I was poisoned by a prescription drug that is considered to have an “enviable record of safe and efficacious use.” (1) I started screaming about how it’s not okay to take away people’s ability to walk, sleep, work, etc. to treat their sinus or urinary tract infections. I started screaming about how fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Floxin and a few other less commonly used drugs) are dangerous and over-prescribed. I started researching how fluoroquinolones work and was appalled to find that they dismantle and disrupt replication of DNA. I began making connections between the side-effects the fluoroquinolones, and the various diseases that fluoroquinolone toxicity mimics.

Diseases of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Fluoroquinolones cause peripheral neuropathy (2), peripheral neuropathy could easily be mistaken for Fibromyalgia. Fluoroquinolones cause destruction of tendons (3) and cartilage (4), both of which are found in the joints, and thus fluroquinolone toxicity could be misdiagnosed as Rheumatoid Arthritis. Fluoroquinolones have many psychological side-effects including anxiety, depression and even psychosis (5), and thus they may be connected lead to psychiatric disorders. I found a study that connected topoisomerase interrupting drugs (6) (fluoroquinolones are topoisomerase interrupters (7), along with several chemotherapy drugs) with Autism. A conspiracy theorist was born.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics can take an acute infection and convert it into a chronic illness (Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome). The new, chronic illness likely will be misdiagnosed and not recognized as a drug side effect, and the treatment of the misdiagnosed disease often leads to prescriptions for additional drugs. And, even though that line of thinking leads to more profits for Big Pharma, I don’t think that it’s a conspiracy. I don’t think that it’s intentional, even on the part of the companies that initiate and perpetuate it, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J). Though making people chronically ill through an antibiotic that is viewed as benign by almost everyone is convenient and profitable for them, I don’t think that it’s their intention. Perhaps I’m naive.

Somewhere between naively believing that Bayer and J&J have no idea what they’re doing, and pessimistically believing they are poisoning us all to turn us into lifelong customers, lies the truth.

The Truth about Fluoroquinolones

The truth, especially when dealing with something as complicated and multifaceted as biochemistry, cellular biology and genetics, is very difficult to comprehend. But the fact that it is too difficult for most of us to understand does not mean that there is no truth. The correct answers are probably not the easiest answers. They don’t fit into a box of good or evil. They aren’t linear. The truth about fluoroquinolones involves inconvenient things like delayed reactions, tolerance thresholds, system-wide cellular destruction that results in a wide array of disease states, enzyme depletion, etc. The truth about fluoroquinolones defies common sense because our common sense tells us that antibiotics are benign, that drug side-effects are rare, that when side-effects happen they’re treatable and transient, etc. That “common sense” approach, unfortunately, is not the truth.

The truth is that fluoroquinolones disrupt and dismantle DNA. This has been shown repeatedly. Per a 1998 study entitled “The Mechanism of Inhibition of Topoisomerase IV by Quinolone Antibacterials,” Fluoroquinolones are “among the first antibacterial agents that efficiently inhibited DNA replication.” (8). The mechanism for action for Ciprofloxacin, as listed on the FDA warning label is, “The bactericidal action of ciprofloxacin results from inhibition of the enzymes topoisomerase II (DNA gyrase) and topoisomerase IV (both Type II topoisomerases), which are required for bacterial DNA replication, transcription, repair, and recombination.” (7) Disrupting the DNA replication process is how these drugs work (or at least part of how they work). Denying that fluoroquinolone antibiotics damage DNA because it’s not a pleasant thing to acknowledge, is futile and it does not get us closer to the truth.

Very little is known about the consequences of disrupting DNA replication through pharmaceuticals. The truth that fluoroquinolones disrupt and dismantle DNA is only part of the puzzle; it is only part of the truth. As complicated and poorly understood as the effects of these drugs on DNA are, there are still multiple levels of questions regarding the effects of fluoroquinolones on the human body. Some of the questions, answers and truths likely lie in understanding the effects of these drugs on mitochondria. A thorough understanding of article “Mechanisms of Pathogenesis in Drug Hepatotoxicity Putting the Stress on Mitochondria” (9) and how it relates to fluoroquinolones will likely give you some answers about how these drugs do damage. There is evidence that fluoroquinolones cause cerebellar ataxia (10). The carboxylic acid molecule that is part of fluoroquinolone drugs likely leads to the formation of hazardous acyl glucuronoids (11). The interaction between broken mitochondrial DNA, acyl glucuronoids and cerebellar ataxia, combined with other ill understood and complex factors, is probably where the truth lies. It is hugely complex. It is impossible for the average person to comprehend and it is difficult for even the smartest person to understand. So, instead of seeking understanding and truth, the majority has chosen to ignore the fact that no one knows how these chemicals work in the human body and what their consequences are. We will take them because we know one small element of what they do – they kill bacteria – and believe that all other effects of these drugs are coincidental, accidental or rare.

Willful Ignorance about Fluoroquinolone Dangers

Willful ignorance has taken over, and faith-based assumptions about the good or evil that the medical system is have come to dominate the conversation. The established medical system is the entrenched party with the power, so those who support it are the majority; they are those with “common sense.” Those who rebel against the assumptions that the medical system is doing good are accused of being conspiracy theorists or worse. No one is really qualified to say that they have a position based on truth though, because there are too many unknown variables to know the truth (at this time). No one, not even the smartest researchers and scientists, fully know how fluoroquinolones, and probably many other drugs, affect every system in the human body. The human body is too complex and too little is known (at this time) about it, and how each of its systems interact, for anyone to truly know how everything works together. So little is known about the human body that ligaments, something that you can see with the naked eye, are still being discovered (12). If we don’t even know every ligament in the body, you can certainly bet that we don’t know every enzyme or neural pathway. Yet enzymes, neural pathways, mitochondrial DNA and other really important parts of human physiology are being disturbed by pharmaceuticals. And people are getting sick because of it.

Though the truth about how adverse drug reactions occur is difficult to ascertain, it should be sought. Questions should be asked. Experiments should be done. The effects of drugs on all bodily systems should be explored. Perhaps answers to difficult questions about how drugs effect mitochondria, neurons, enzymes, etc. should be asked before drugs are released into the public.

Back in 1992, when fluoroquinolones were first gaining popularity, Scientists raised concerns about their use in an article published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States:

“the interaction (of fluoroquinolones) with DNA is still of great concern because of the possible long-term genotoxicity of quinolone compounds, which are increasingly adopted as first-choice antibiotics for the treatment of many infections, and because it addresses the real mechanism of action of this class of molecules.” (13)

The question hasn’t been asked though. People have been stuck on the faith-based assumption that fluoroquinolones have “enviable record of safe and efficacious use” because the only side-effects that they’re willing to see are allergic reactions. They have been intent on willful ignorance. Willful ignorance protects them. It keeps them from seeing that in frivolously over-prescribing dangerous and poorly understood drugs, we may have damaged our precious DNA, and that the consequences of doing so may be many of the “mysterious” systemic diseases that plague us.

There is a fine line between screaming about willful ignorance on the part of the majority and being a conspiracy theorist. I’d like to think that I am reasonable; that my assertions are backed up by scientific findings, and that I’m right. Of course, all conspiracy theorists also think that they’re right, so my conviction does very little to convince naysayers. I hope that my screams are heard though. I hope that some people in power do something to stop the foolish over-use of these DNA damaging drugs. I hope that it’s not too late to be prudent and cautious.

The real world is complicated. Sometimes human bodies work in ways that aren’t simple. Sometimes problems are complex and difficult to understand. Sometimes pharmaceuticals work, or don’t work, in ways that are poorly understood. The power to do a massive amount of both good and harm is possible with modern medicine. Perhaps it is time that we start admitting that the harm that some drugs do is disproportionate to the good that they do. Perhaps it is time that we start recognizing that adverse drug reactions are not always immediate or easy to remedy. Perhaps it is time that we start insisting that the mechanisms of action for drugs be fully understood, at least by Scientists, before they are mass marketed to the public.

I don’t think that these suggestions and assertions make me a conspiracy theorist. But if they do, so be it. The notion that the pharmaceutical/medical system is killing and sickening innocent people is a “conspiracy theory” that I know to be true. So I will continue to fight to expose it, whatever the consequences may be.

Information about Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

Information about the author, and adverse reactions to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) can be found on Lisa Bloomquist’s site, www.floxiehope.com.

Participate in Research

Hormones Matter^TM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with the fluoroquinolone antibiotics, Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox and others: The Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics Side Effects Study. The study is anonymous, takes 20-30 minutes to complete and is open to anyone who has used a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Please complete the study and help us understand the scope of fluoroquinolone reactions.

Hormones Matter^TM conducts other crowdsourced surveys on medication reactions. To take one of our other surveys, click here.

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Hormones Matter^TM is completely unfunded at this juncture and we rely entirely on crowdsourcing and volunteers to conduct the research and produce quality health education materials for the public. If you’d like help us improve healthcare with better data, get involved. Become an advocate, spread the word about our site, our research and our mission. Suggest a study. Share a study. Join our team. Write for us. Partner with us. Help us grow. For more information contact us at: info@hormonesmatter.com.

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References

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