cipro side effects

Cipro and Flagyl Neurotoxicity in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Athlete

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From Athlete to Barely Functioning

In 2016, I walked into the doctor’s office to be looked at for a stomach bug. I was prescribed Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) 500mg and 500mg of metronidazole (Flagyl), twice a day for 14 days. Within the first couple of days taking the antibiotics, I knew something didn’t feel right, but I continued to take them as prescribed.

Another day passed and I had a massive panic/anxiety attack. It felt as if my body was shutting down and I was going to die within a few minutes. After suffering all night long, I visited the doctor again and told him that it felt as though I was dying, that something was incredibly wrong and that I had never felt this way in my entire life.

He researched the side effects/symptoms of Cipro and Flagyl and based on what he read, he told me to stop taking it and see if there was any improvement.

I made it another few days before I couldn’t handle it any longer. My side effects were so bad. Less than a week after being off the pills, I went into work and was hit with another extreme panic attack. I couldn’t breathe again. I had extreme dizziness. It was like my body was shutting down. I told a coworker that I felt as if I was dying. I couldn’t walk and I needed him to call an ambulance immediately. From that point on, my life had changed forever.

In and Out of the Emergency Room

I had to stop working and I spent the next 8 months constantly in and out the emergency room. I went to multiple hospitals, saw multiple specialists, and my GP’s several times. I had several ECGs done, CT scans, ultrasounds, an MRI, and many rounds of blood work. Everything was negative.

I became delusional/depersonalized and suffered derealization. I was completely paranoid of life and in awe of my existence. I cried every single day.

I suffered with constant anxiety, severe panic attacks. I developed neuropathy with numbness in my arms and head and neuralgia with a sense of electricity in my brain or brain zaps. I developed tremors and body shivers. I felt hopeless, experienced intense fear and agoraphobia. I experienced tunnel vision and lost my vision to some degree. I had memory problems and was unable to concentrate. My dexterity declined and I lost the ability to walk or control my body properly. I developed high blood pressure. At times, I contemplated suicide. I was afraid of dying but also afraid of living.

I was prescribed Valium, a benzodiazepine, to calm my “anxiety”, even though I never had anxiety outside of it being chemically induced. This caused even more issues and I eventually had to stop taking it, no tapering involved.

It was like a bomb went off in my body and I have never recovered.

I still suffer from the following symptoms weak and shaken muscles and twitching, neurological symptoms dizzy when walking, extreme muscle pain tightness especially neck and shoulders, constant congestion, chest pain, chronic costochondritis, pins and needles in the hands and feet, and heart flutters especially at rest.

Prior to Cipro and Flagyl, I Was An Athlete

I had just turned 40 before all this happened and was high level functioning athlete. If I rewind 3-4 months before being given the Cipro and Flagyl, I had an accident on a job site, where some metal scratched my leg. I was given an antibiotic in case of infection, the name of which I cannot remember. That antibiotic started my gut symptoms that included reflux and so I was on Nexium for approximately 3 months. Those antibiotics gave me loose bowels and reflux etc. and that is when I went to the doctor and he prescribed me the Cipro and Flagyl. Since then, I have had fecal matter transplant done, which resolved over 90% of gut issues.

My diet was pretty clean and mostly protein and veggies. That is what it is now but probably even cleaner because of how aware I am of toxins, etc.

My energy before all of this was pretty good considering the output. I trained 3-4 days a week for approximately 1-2 hour sessions, plus worked physically 5-6 days a week. Although I would tire, it was nothing like it is now. I feel like I’ve run a marathon but have done nothing. I went from running 4 km just to warmup to not being able to walk within 2-4 weeks of taking Cipro and Flagyl.

I don’t smoke and only drink socially on occasion, a couple glasses of wine at most.

I’ve tried migraine medication, beta blockers, and vertigo drugs. All made me worse.

From holistic standpoint, I tried ozone. It helped marginally. I also tried an IR sauna saw some benefit but it also makes me worse if I go to hard.

Current Supplements

  • Omega 3s and high dose DHA
  • 400-800mg mag glycinate
  • ATP fuel 8 capsules
  • L Carnitine 800mg
  • Phosphorylcholine
  • Bitters, Quicksilver before meals – 2 squirts
  • Thorne B complex 12 – 1 cap twice a day
  • Researched nutritional glutathione 1/2 teaspoon – I do have glutathione deletion gene.
  • Hawthorn extract 3 tabs a day

I can’t really say if anything helping, as I still suffer from all these symptoms. I have recently discovered thiamine and begun supplementation. I have the glutathione deletion gene and also MTHFR. I am publishing my story for additional input.

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 story was published originally on April 26, 2021. 

Recovering From Medically Induced Chronic Illness

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Unexplained or Medically Induced Chronic Illness?

“Unexplained.”  That’s what doctors say about chronic illness. Conventional medicine says, ‘learn to live with it.’ Rather than offer a true treatment or cure for these debilitating conditions, they suppress the immune system and offer more drugs for depression and anxiety – none of which are effective. I’m here to tell you that common wisdom is wrong. I know, because my own lucky story proves we can heal from chronic illness. Pharmaceutical insults created my disabling illnesses  – Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, estrogen dominance, adrenal fatigue, POTS, Graves’ Disease, Hashimoto’s, Bell’s Palsy, infertility and more. I share my journey to offer hope. The doctors were wrong. I have recovered and am once again, healthy.

Early Clues and Pharmaceutical Insults

My childhood had some clues – things I now know predict chronic illness. My lymph glands swelled when I was otherwise healthy. Mosquito bites turned into angry 3” welts. Childhood bunions and hyper-mobile joints suggested leaky gut. All these issues correlate with chronic illness and, seen in hindsight, hint at the difficulties that awaited me in adulthood.

My immune system may have been awry from the start, but pharmaceuticals tipped the scale toward chronic illness. As a teen, I took birth control pills for heavy periods and cramps. When vague symptoms appeared in my early twenties, I asked about pill side effects. The gynecologist laughed at the idea, but I trusted my gut and finally stopped the pill. I felt better in some ways but developed new symptoms.  Sleep became difficult. I was hypersensitive to noise and light and struggled with unquenchable thirst.  The doctor suggested my extreme thirst stemmed from hot weather and salty foods. This explanation didn’t add up to me, but I was young and so was the internet. I had no resources to connect the dots. Today, I recognize that 10 years of hormonal birth control created nutrient deficiencies (folic acid, vitamins B2, B6, B12, C, and E, along with magnesium, selenium and zinc) while also raising my risk for future autoimmune disease.

Recurrent UTIs, Fluoroquinolones, and New Onset Graves’ Disease

A few years later, recurrent urinary tract infections led to many doses of the fluoroquinolone antibiotic, Cipro. Cipro now carries a black box warning and is known to induce mitochondrial damage. My mid twenties also brought pre and post-menstrual spotting and bleeding for 10 days each month. Doctors did nothing for my hormonal imbalance but diagnosed Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism). Everything about me sped up. Food went right through my system. I was moody. My mind was manic at times. I was unable to rest and yet physically exhausted from a constantly racing heart.

The doctor said Graves’ disease was easy – just destroy the thyroid and take hormone replacement pills for the rest of my life. I didn’t have a medical degree, but this treatment (RAI, radiation to kill the thyroid) just didn’t make sense. Graves’ disease is not thyroid disease. It is autoimmune dysfunction, where antibodies overstimulate a helpless thyroid.

As I studied my options, I learned that RAI could exacerbate autoimmune illness and many patients feel worse after treatment. It was surprising to find that the US was the only Western country to recommend RAI for women of childbearing age. Armed with this knowledge, I declined RAI and opted for medication. The endocrinologist mocked my decision. I was in my 20s and standing up to him was hard, but it marked a turning point and spurred me to take responsibility for my own health, rather than blindly trusting doctors. Recent reports suggest RAI treatment increases future cancer risks. My Graves’ disease eventually stabilized on medication, although I never felt really well. I pushed for answers for my continued illness, but doctors refused to test my sex or adrenal hormones.

IVF and More Damage to My Health

Things turned south again when I was unable to conceive. The supposed best fertility clinic in Washington, DC could not find a cause for my infertility. I’ll save that story for another day, but the short version involved a few years of torment and four failed IVF attempts. The fertility drugs and the stress worsened my overall health considerably.

Our last try at pregnancy was with a specialist who practiced functional medicine. Labs and charting uncovered a clear progesterone imbalance, and also explained my spotting. This simple diagnosis was completely missed by the conventional fertility clinic. A brief trial of progesterone cream resulted in two naturally conceived, healthy pregnancies. Isn’t it remarkable that several years and over $100,000 failed to produce a baby with IVF and $20 of progesterone cream on my wrist did the trick? This could be a cautionary tale about profit motive in modern medicine, but that, too, is a topic for another day.

Years of Conventional Medicine: Thyroid Damage, Autonomic Dysfunction, and Profound Fatigue

I weaned off thyroid medications and felt fairly well after my babies, but my system took a big hit when life brought an international relocation. The move was intensely stressful and my health sunk after we landed half a world away. I had no energy, gained weight, and lived in a fog. The tropical heat and humidity of Southeast Asia felt like a personalized form of torture.

Perhaps the stress of our move left me vulnerable to the reappearance of autoimmune and adrenal dysfunction, as my next diagnosis was Hashimoto’s Disease and adrenal fatigue. Doctors ordered functional medicine tests (hair, organic acids, stool, saliva cortisol and hormones) that identified nutrient imbalances, but their treatment ideas fell short. Despite replacement hormones and supplements by the handful, I remained very sick, with profound exhaustion, brain fog, sleep disruption, pain, and terribly imbalanced sex hormones.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

If setbacks have a bright side, it is in the drive to get better. I started studying when my doctors ran out of ideas to treat my illness. Fibromyalgia was the best description of my pain, but I knew conventional medicine offered no help for this condition. I dug into the topic and found the work of Dr. John C. Lowe, who used T3 thyroid hormone for fibromyalgia, and Paul Robinson, creator of CT3M, the circadian method for using T3. CT3M and high daily dose of progesterone cream improved my quality of life in the short term. Near daily bleeding eventually regulated back into a normal cycle and my adrenal function improved greatly.

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) was the next bump, bringing a very high heart rate, very low blood pressure, heat intolerance, and extreme sweating on the lightest activity. By this time, I didn’t even ask the doctor for help. My research pointed to salt and potassium, and so I drank the adrenal cocktail and salt water daily. POTS symptoms vanished quickly with this easy strategy, as did the nocturnal polyuria that plagued me for many years.

I steadied after this time. I was not well but functional, despite some major life stressors, including another international move and a child’s health crisis. Even though I managed the daily basics, things like house guests, travel, or anything physically taxing required several days to a week of recuperation.

The Next Step: Addressing Nutrient Deficiencies

The next step in my recovery came thanks to a B12 protocol that includes co-factor nutrients, developed by Dr. Gregory Russell-Jones. Addressing the deficiencies connected to B12 helped and things progressed well until I had a disastrous reaction after eating mussels, which I hoped would raise iron levels. I vomited for hours and stayed in bed for days. I kept up the B12 protocol, but just couldn’t recover. Largely bedridden, and napping 4 hours at a stretch, I got up in the evening only to drive to a restaurant dinner, too exhausted to prepare food or deal with dishes.

Debilitating exhaustion lasted for a month, and then two, with no relief. It was an awful time, but hitting rock bottom proved a blessing in disguise, as desperation turned me back to research. Slowly, I pushed through brain fog and started to review studies on chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. This led me to a promising Italian study using thiamine for these conditions.

Studying thiamine, it seemed plausible that the allergic reaction to mussels drained my B1 reserves, making it impossible to recover. Inspired by the research, I started on plain B1 at very high doses. To my surprise, I felt better right away. The first dose boosted my energy and mental clarity.

I continued to learn about B1’s benefits, thanks to this website and the text by Drs. Marrs and Lonsdale.  Two weeks went by and thiamine HCL seemed less effective, so I switched to lipothiamine and allithiamine, the forms recommended in Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition. WOW. What a difference! Virtually overnight, my gears began to turn, and I felt better with each new day. In a single month, I went from bedridden to functioning well 2 out of every 3 days. I had ideas, I had energy, and I could DO things. The setback days were mild and disappeared entirely after 2 months on thiamine.

At the 2 month mark, I had to travel for a family emergency. My pre-thiamine self would have needed at least a week of rest following this kind of trip, and I expected pain and fatigue as I stepped off the plane. But to my great surprise, I felt well! I remember walking through the airport late that evening and thinking it felt amazing to stretch my legs. Maybe that sounds like an ordinary feeling, but years of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia conditioned my body to stop, to sit, whenever possible. It was entirely novel to FEEL GOOD while moving! The next day came and I did not collapse, I did not require days to recover and was able to carry on like a normal person. It was a remarkable change in an unbelievably short time.

Recovery From Conventional Medicine’s Ills Came Down to Thiamine

Getting better feels miraculous, but it’s not. The real credit for my recovery goes to experts like Dr. Marrs and Dr. Lonsdale who spread the word about thiamine. Despite years of illness and dead ends, I believed I could heal and I kept trying. Tenacity eventually paid off when posts on this site helped connect the dots between my symptoms and thiamine deficiency. More than anything, my recovery is a story of tremendous luck, as I finally landed upon the single nutrient my body needed most.

The difference between my “before thiamine” and “after thiamine” self is beyond what I can describe.  Birth control, Cipro, and Lupron created nutrient imbalances and damaged my mitochondria, leading to multiple forms of chronic illness in the years between my 20s and 40s. Replacing thiamine made recovery possible by providing the fuel my damaged cells so badly needed. At this writing, I am 7 months into high dose thiamine and continue to improve. I have not experienced any form of setback, regardless the stressors. My energy feels close to normal, the pain is resolving, and brain fog is a thing of the past. My sense of humor, creativity and mental functioning are all on the upswing. I owe thanks to the real scientists who dare to challenge wrong-headed ideas of conventional medicine, and who provide hope for these so-called hopeless conditions. My wish is that this story will do the same for someone else.

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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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Friends Don’t Let Friends Take Fluoroquinolones: Four Stories

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I’ve been writing about the dangers of fluoroquinolone antibiotics (cipro/ciprofloxacin, levaquin/levofloxacin, avelox/moxifloxacin, floxin/ofloxacin and a few others) for a little over a year. As my friends, family, and associates have read what I’ve written, their skepticism has waned and many of them have realized that I actually know what I’m talking about when I say that fluoroquinolones are dangerous drugs that lead to destruction of connective tissues and nerves throughout the body. They have glanced at my source articles and noted that there are peer-reviewed journal articles that back up what I say.  It feels nice to be believed. It feels even nicer when those people let me know that they didn’t take fluoroquinolones because of the information that I gave them. It’s nice to know that they won’t get “floxed.”

In the last few months, several friends have approached me, asking about alternatives to fluoroquinolones. Here are some of their stories. All their names have been changed, but the stories are true.

Rick and the Sinus Infection

Rick was prescribed Levaquin to treat a sinus infection. He read through the warning label and noted that two of the listed side-effects are tendon ruptures and seizures. Rick has a seizure disorder and had surgery on a tendon in his foot six months earlier. He refused the Levaquin prescription and asked for something else. He was prescribed Bactrim. The Bactrim cleared up his sinus infection.

Question – What was that doctor thinking? Why would a doctor prescribe a drug that is well-documented as causing destruction of tendons to a patient who has a history of tendon problems?  Rick told the doctor that he had surgery on his tendon in his foot. Did the doctor think that the tendon issues that are severe enough to lead to a black box warning on all fluoroquinolones was something to be dismissed and disregarded?  And why would a doctor prescribe a drug that can cause seizures, along with a myriad of other central nervous system problems, to a person who has a pre-existing seizure disorder?  It seems like a negligent decision – or at least a horribly uninformed decision.  Unfortunately, the disregard of well established side-effects happens all the time. The contraindications for fluoroquinolones are routinely ignored and patients with pre-existing conditions are frequently prescribed fluoroquinolones for non-serious infections where other antibiotics would be sufficient. If Rick hadn’t read the warning label himself, and insisted on being prescribed a more benign antibiotic, he might have become one of the millions suffering from and adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones.

Melissa and the Use of Cipro in Children

Melissa’s 2-year old daughter suffered from ear infections. She was prescribed Cipro twice to treat the ear infections. Both times, Melissa refused the prescription for Cipro and was given something else.  A more benign antibiotic, then tubes put in her daughter’s ears, cleared up the infections.

Again, what was the doctor thinking? Fluoroquinolones are contraindicated in the pediatric population because they have been shown to damage the cartilage and joints of juvenile animals (source).  A review in U.S. Pharmacist noted that:

“Fluoroquinolones have demonstrated adverse effects on cartilage development in juvenile animals through the inflammation and destruction of weight-bearing joints.  These arthropathies were often irreversible, and their potential occurrence in children limited the use of fluoroquinolones in this population. In one pediatric study, ciprofloxacin had a 3.3% (9.3% vs. 6.0%) absolute risk increase in musculoskeletal events within 6 weeks of treatment compared with control agents used to treat complicated UTIs or pyelonephritis. Adefurin and colleagues found a 57% increased relative risk of arthropathy in children given ciprofloxacin (21% overall) versus those in a non-fluoroquinolone comparator arm. In contrast to animal models, neither dose nor duration had an effect on the rate or severity of arthropathy.  A 2007 study by Noel and colleagues determined the incidence of musculoskeletal events (primarily arthralgias) to be greater in children treated with levofloxacin compared with nonfluoroquinolone-treated children at 2 months (2.1% vs. 0.9%; P = .04) and 12 months (3.4% vs. 1.8%; P = .03).  These results and the severity of the effects should be weighed heavily when initiation of fluoroquinolones is being contemplated in pediatric patients.” (source)

Fluoroquinolones can cause irreversible damage to the cartilage of juvenile animals, and adult humans, so did Melissa’s daughter’s doctor think that somehow toddlers with ear infections were exempt from being damaged by Cipro? Melissa’s daughter could have been hurt. She could have been damaged by the Cipro. She could have developed permanently weakened tendons, lesions on her cartilage, destruction of her joints, etc. None of the damaging effects of fluoroquinolones are easy to treat, and their severe side-effects should not be the trade off when treating pediatric ear infections.

Did that pediatrician completely forget his or her Hippocratic Oath?  She must have, because Cipro could have done severe, irreversible, life-long harm to the toddler.

Fluoroquinolones during Pregnancy? Denise’s Story

Denise was eight months pregnant when she came down with an upper respiratory infection. Her doctor tried to prescribe her Cipro. She refused the Cipro and instead took Azithromycin.

Azithromycin just happens to be the only antibiotic ever studied in pregnant women, at least partially. That is, there is one study showing basic pharmacokinetic or dosing information for its use during pregnancy. There are no data on the health and well-being of the offspring.

Given the total lack of data for medication use during pregnancy, one has to wonder what that doctor was thinking prescribing Cipro, one of the most potent and dangerous antibiotics, to a pregnant woman.  Why in the world would he prescribe a fluoroquinolone to a pregnant woman?  In big, bold, capitalized words on the Cipro warning label, it is stated that, “THE SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CIPROFLOXACIN IN PREGNANT AND LACTATING WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED.”  The warning label goes on to note that, “No differences in the rates of prematurity, spontaneous abortions, or birth weight were seen in women exposed to ciprofloxacin during pregnancy. However, these small post-marketing epidemiology studies, of which most experience is from short-term, first trimester exposure, are insufficient to evaluate the risk for less common defects or to permit reliable and definitive conclusions regarding the safety of ciprofloxacin in pregnant women and their developing fetuses.”  Note that no research has ever been done to investigate the effects of fluorquinolones on fetal development and child development post pregnancy when used during the second or third trimesters.

Differences in musculoskeletal development, cognitive development, mitochondrial and microbiome health, etc. of the children of women given Cipro while pregnant weren’t looked at in the first trimester studies that were done. Those are the things that should be examined – not just spontaneous abortions and low birth weights. Indeed, these effects should be looked into for all meds prescribed during pregnancy, as very few medications routinely prescribed to pregnant women have ever been tested. Most physicians know this, or should know this, but over the last few decades, have ignored it and prescription medication use during pregnancy has increased by 60%. Concurrently, the rates of chronic childhood disorders from autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, to obesity and Type 2 diabetes have increased significantly.  Perhaps before we so cavalierly prescribe medications to pregnant women, we ought to investigate the long-term effects on their children.

Violet and Cipro for Traveler’s Diarrhea?

Violet was planning a trip to Ecuador. Her travel doctor wanted to give her Cipro just in case she got traveler’s diarrhea. Many other, less problematic antibiotics are available and equally effective in treatment of traveler’s diarrhea – doxycycline, Bactrim or sepra.  She asked for a prescription for something other than Cipro.  

The appropriate situation for fluoroquinolones to be used is when they are needed to save a life and when a life-threatening infection doesn’t respond to other antibiotics. To prescribe fluoroquinolones in situations where life-threatening infections are not present is absurd and it is wrong. To prescribe fluoroquinolones prophylactically, when no infection is present, for treatment of traveler’s diarrhea, is to completely disregard all of the dangers of fluoroquinolones that are listed on the 43 PAGE warning label (for Cipro – the ones for levaquin, avelox and floxin are equally as bad).  The adverse effects for the fluoroquinolones include: permanent peripheral neuropathy, tendon ruptures, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, hepatic failure, hallucinations, suicidal ideation, and more.

Fluoroquinolones should not be prescribed frivolously. They should not be prescribed to anyone who is not in a life-threatening situation. The risk for adverse effects of these drugs are such that their use is not appropriate in situations that are not life-threatening and they certainly should not be used prophylactically for traveler’s diarrhea.

To all the doctors who prescribe Cipro and other fluoroquinolones prophylactically to people for traveler’s diarrhea – What are you thinking? There is nothing that is okay about giving a drug to a healthy person that can injure them grievously. Even if the chances are low (but no one really knows the incidence of fluoroquinolone toxicity), the severity of the adverse effects of fluoroquinolones are so extreme that fluoroquinolones shouldn’t even be considered as a treatment until other antibiotics have been tried, and have failed.

To all the doctors whose knowledge of the drugs that they prescribe I have questioned – please, please, please read some of the articles about how dangerous fluoroquinolones are. I have more than 100 peer reviewed articles listed HERE.  Or, just read the warning labels and note that all of the horrible symptoms listed on the warning label can happen to your patients at once. You don’t want to do that to your patients.  Please DON’T do that to your patients. Prescribe more benign antibiotics. They’re available. Use them first.  Please.

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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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.

Yes, I would like to support Hormones Matter.

Image credit: Lisa Bloomquist.

This article was published originally on Hormones Matter on June 30, 2014.

 

How Many Doctors Does it Take to Fix the Shower? A Tale of Fluoroquinolone Injury

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I don’t know much about plumbing, I’ll admit it. I‘m not afraid to use a plunger, or take the lid off the toilet to jiggle the parts on the inside. I am also a master at pouring Drano in a clogged pipe. Usually this level of expertise is enough to solve the majority of my problems. However, when things get complicated, jiggling the handle just won’t do. Luckily there is a person with the technical know-how to fix most everything that my plunging skills won’t. Just one phone call away and I’ve got him. The plumber.

Plumbers can handle all sorts of issues. They arrive, do whatever magic it is that gets everything in running order again, charge a fee, and leave us happily using the facilities.  But imagine this. When the plumber arrives, instead of fixing your shower issue, he (or she) takes a cursory glance. Maybe he quickly turns the faucet on while you try to explain the problem.  He doesn’t really listen, but still pinpoints the issue right away.  “Your problem is the showerhead. You need a new one.” Perhaps you argue that this may be true, but what about the drain?  “Well, I only diagnose showerheads.  You are going to need to call a drain guy to fix your drain.”  Huh?  Well, OK.  At least go ahead and fix the showerhead.  “Oh, I can’t fix that. You need the showerhead guy for that.  I just diagnose showerheads.  I don’t fix them.”

Ridiculous right?  Of course it is.  But this is essentially what happens when we venture into the medical world with any complaint more complicated than the sniffles. Take my experience. In the last 5 months an adverse reaction to a fluoroquinolone antibiotic (Cipro) has caused my husband’s body to go haywire. Going to our family doctor my husband had a myriad of complaints (some that came right after the prescription, some that came later). These included tendon and body pain, nerve pain, tingling and buzzing nerves, insomnia, depression (can’t think why), chemical and food sensitivities, a persistent rash, and other issues which I am not at liberty to share publicly.

My husband’s doctor did what doctors are trained to do. He consulted the checklist.

Primary Physician Checklist:

  1. Throw more drugs at the problem (in this case NSAIDs for inflammation).
  2. Perform tests to eliminate “serious” issues (MS?  Fibromyalgia? Arthritis? No, no, no. Fluoroquinolone/Cipro toxicity?  Yes. This seems serious enough to us, despite our doctor never having heard of such a thing.)
  3. Refer to specialists.

Fluoroquinolone Side Effects Aren’t Impressed by Checklists

The Physician’s Checklist is a three pronged approach that got us exactly nowhere. Which is not at all surprising because the logic behind this all too common approach is deeply flawed. The implicit reasoning is that a patient can be divided into individual body parts and systems, each one with an associated specialist. For the body and tendon pain, a rheumatologist. For the nerve pain, tingling, and buzzing, a neurologist. For the rash, a dermatologist. For the foot pain, a podiatrist. For the crazy B6 and B12 blood test results, a nutritionist. For the depression, a therapist. Although we haven’t been to an endocrinologist, an allergist, or a gastroenterologist, I’m sure we could get an appointment quickly. Referring to specialists is something our primary care physician does very well. It’s the last thing on his checklist after all.

The problem that should be obvious here (besides our doctor’s total ignorance of side effects from fluoroquinolones) is that nowhere in this process has my husband been treated as more than the sum of his parts. None of these doctors talk to each other.  (For good reason perhaps. Would another doctor have patience with a neurological diagnosis of “it’s probably static on the line” with a prescription for “you can try the meds I prescribe to my diabetic patients, or not”?)  Why, for example, is my husband intolerant to foods, supplements, and medications that used to cause him no issue?  Aren’t these symptoms possibly related, both to each other and to other symptoms?  Also, why are the majority of his issues concentrated on the left side of his body? His rash is on his left leg.  His foot pain is in his left foot.  His nerve issues are most pronounced in his left leg and left temple. His left big toenail has a discoloration that is not present on the right toe…  None of our doctors have found this at all remarkable or interesting. Perhaps we would do better if doctors divided themselves by body regions.  We could go see the “leftologist” and have better luck.

This specialization is now the cornerstone of western medicinal practice. And under ideal conditions, it saves lives. For example, if you have a strange spot on your skin, where else would you want to go but to Stanford’s “Pigmented Lesion and Melanoma Clinic”? An entire clinic of the most well renowned doctors in the world, whose sole focus is diagnosing and treating spots like yours. Yes, that is truly great. However, doctors have become so very specific in their field of expertise, that they most often do not have the knowledge, time (or frankly the interest) to look outside of their own domain. (Looked at in a different way, they treat melanoma, not people.)  Humans are intricate creatures. Our health is a complex and elaborate system that is not divisible into discreet elements.  Sometimes a spot is skin cancer. Sometimes it’s a hormonal imbalance.  Sometimes it’s a side effect of medication. When our health becomes complicated, our specialists are rarely equipped to look beyond the bits and pieces and treat an entire person.

Modern general practitioners have become, in many cases, little more than the gatekeepers to these special specialists. When health concerns becomes complex, there is another professional to direct the patient to. This creates a situation in which nobody is truly responsible for treating the whole patient. Had my husband taken the conflicting advice of every specialist he visited he would, with no diagnosis whatsoever, have treated irritated nerves with pain medication, aching tendons with pain medication, injured feet with pain medication, insomnia with sleeping pills, depression with anti-depressants, ulcer-like stomach pains (caused from accepting the pain meds early on) with proton-pump inhibitors.  And the rash?  The treatment recommendation for that was a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Specifically, Cipro. The same fluoroquinolone drug that started this whole mess.

There is No Such Thing as a Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Specialist

The one tangible outcome from visiting these various specialists is the gravity that it lends to my husband’s situation. The prevailing thought from people seems to be, “Well, it must be very serious if he has seen specialists!”  Close on the heels of this thought is the question of whether we have yet seen the right specialist. We live in Silicon Valley so people’s inevitable question is, “Well, have you been to Stanford?”  I guess Stanford is where people go when they are serious about getting well.  (Not like us, we’re satisfied with misery?)  This question is well meaning. But it clearly shows that people have an ingrained trust in the way our medical system runs (insurance issues not withstanding). If you have not been helped, it must be because you haven’t been to the right specialist yet.  The specialist with the most education. The expert. Surely a Stanford neurologist can cure my husband’s nerves, a Stanford rheumatologist can soothe the body pain, a Stanford podiatrist can fix the feet, a Stanford dermatologist can cure the rash, and a Stanford therapist can make everything cheery again. It’s not the system that’s the problem.  It’s the individuals within the system.

This isn’t logical and I no longer believe it. I don’t accept that our two options are that groups of specialists looking at small parts of the whole can fix each of those parts independent of one another, and if not, we’re hopeless. Surely our multitude of doctors can aspire to do better than this, but it seems not. Ultimately we were helped by one visit to a specialist.  It was the nutritionist who finally was at all useful.  She essentially said, “I don’t know how to help you. You need to see a naturopathic doctor, and research alternative medicine.”  This is ultimately what we have decided to do.  We will have to go outside the mainstream to find a health professional that sees patients as whole humans. We refuse to be treated any longer as a mismatch of thrust together parts. The plumber could do better.

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This article was published previously on Hormones Matter in December 2013.

Don’t Take Cipro, Levaquin or Avelox If….

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There is a huge range in how people react to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/Ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/Levofloxacin, Avelox/Moxifloxacin and Floxin/Ofloxacin). Some people take fluoroquinolones repeatedly and never experience an adverse reaction. Some people are left bed-bound after one pill, or one prescription. Some people take a full fluoroquinolone prescription without incident at one time in their life, then, when they take a second (or third, or fourth) prescription, their body goes hay-wire. Some people have a sudden and severe adverse reaction, where they are unable to move or think after previously being fine, and other people have a gradual onset of symptoms where they damage tendons or develop neuropathy slowly, over time.

What determines how a person reacts to fluoroquinolones? The black box warning label on fluoroquinolones states that, “risk (of tendinitis) is further increased in older patients usually over 60 years of age, in patients taking corticosteroid drugs, and in patients with kidney, heart or lung transplants.” But people who fit into those categories aren’t the only people who are hurt by fluoroquinolones. I didn’t fit into any of those categories. I was 32, athletic, strong, not on any medications, etc. when I was sickened by Cipro. I was healthy. But fourteen 500 milligram pills of Cipro (half taken in 2009 without incident and half taken in 2011 with a sudden severe adverse reaction) were enough to cause my body and mind significant harm.

I must have had risk factors that made me susceptible to fluoroquinolone toxicity though, because Cipro made me quite sick. I’m honestly not sure what those factors are (no one knows – or at least they aren’t publishing papers about it if they do). Perhaps those who are hurt by fluoroquinolones have depleted liver enzymes and therefore they aren’t able to metabolize drugs like people who have more robust supplies of drug metabolizing enzymes. Perhaps people who suffer from fluoroquinolone toxicity are depleted of cellular magnesium, as magnesium has been shown to have protective effects on cells that are exposed to fluoroquinolones. Perhaps the microbiome of those who are hurt by fluoroquinolones is depleted of good bacteria and an overwhelming number of bad bacteria in the gut leads to many of the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity. Perhaps there are some people who are genetically predisposed toward having an adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones. As with everything, there is a mix of genetics and environment that goes into how the body reacts when faced with a chemical onslaught. Human bodies are unbelievably complex and multifaceted; once individual differences are considered, the complexity becomes mind-boggling.

Customizing medicine is difficult. The entire human genome, though sequenced, has not yet been mapped out. We are not at a point yet where we can easily and inexpensively test genes and interpret the results of genomic tests.

Genes aren’t the only things that determine how a person reacts to a drug. The microbiome also plays an important role in determining drug metabolism. Per an article entitled, Role of Intestinal Microflora in Xenobiotic-induced Toxicity, “individual differences in the intestinal microflora may result in individualized xenobiotic (a chemical or substance that is foreign to an organism or biological system) toxicities.” The differences in the bacteria in our gut make a difference in how drugs are metabolized. As the microbiome is changed, through drugs – especially antibiotics, the reaction of the individual patient to formerly well tolerated drugs, can change.

Until customizing medicine to the individual becomes feasible, what are doctors supposed to do to prevent their patients from having a dangerous adverse reaction to a drug? Drugs with potentially devastating adverse effects could be avoided entirely unless they are necessary to save a life. This is the policy that I would like to see applied to fluoroquinolones. (The cellular damage that fluoroquinolones inflict make their use inappropriate for infections that are not life-threatening.) Unfortunately, prudence in regards to prescribing fluoroquinolones is not the current trend. In 2011, 23.1 million prescriptions for fluoroquinolones were written in the U.S., and despite the 43 page warning label that comes with Cipro/Ciprofloxacin, fluoroquinolone toxicity is denied by many physicians. As much as I would like to cut the number of fluoroquinolone prescriptions by 90%, the entire medical establishment is not yet listening to me and others who are screaming about the pain and suffering caused by fluoroquinolones. To reduce the number of people hurt, either a study or news story must induce a paradigm shift enabling all doctors to see that fluoroquinolones are vastly more dangerous than penicillin, or patients (especially those in the risk categories listed below) must ask their doctors to not prescribe them.

Though the true risk factors for fluoroquinolone toxicity (genetic, enzyme and microbiome markers) are not yet established, there are some groups of people who are at higher risk of an adverse reaction than others. They should never be given fluoroquinolones. Those groups are:

  1. People who have had an adverse reaction to a fluoroquinolone in the past. Despite the fact that all of the warning labels for fluoroquinolones state that they should not be given to people with a history of hypersensitivity to fluoroquinolones, the recommendation that they be avoided is often ignored. This is the case because people often don’t realize that they are having a mild adverse reaction to a fluoroquinolone. Who would think that muscle twitches, insomnia, urgency when urinating or loss of endurance would be related to the administration of an antibiotic? The connection is so bizarre that it is often not recognized. A list of warning signs that your body has reached its threshold for fluoroquinolones can be found here: Warning Signs of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity.
  2. Athletes. It is well documented and known that fluoroquinolones degrade the structure of tendons. They “exert a toxic effect not only on tendons but also on cartilage, bone, and muscle,” per a Mayo Clinic affiliated article entitled Musculoskeletal Complications of Fluoroquinolones: Guidelines and Precautions for Usage in the Athletic Population. Further information about why the Mayo Clinic researchers note that, “Athletes should avoid all use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics unless no alternative is available” can be found here: Deciphering the Pathogenesis of Tendonopathies: A Three Stage Process.
  3. People on steroids. Steroids are contraindicated with fluoroquinolones. As is noted in the Cipro/Ciprofloxacin warning label, people who are on corticosteroids are at an increased risk of tendonitis when administered fluoroquinolones. In addition to the increased risk of tendon damage, the combination of steroids and fluoroquinolones can increase the risk of development of a deadly glabrata fungal infection.
  4. People who need to take NSAIDs regularly. NSAIDs, and other drugs that contain a carboxylic acid molecule, are contraindicated with fluoroquinolone toxicity. Patients suffering from fluoroquinolone toxicity have reported adverse reactions to NSAIDs even weeks or months after they have stopped taking fluoroquinolones. The adverse interaction between fluoroquinolones / fluoroquinolone toxicity and NSAIDs is likely because of the formation of poisonous acyl glucuronides. Articles describing this process can be found on Fluoroquinolone Links and Resources.
  5. Immunocompromised individuals. Fluoroquinolones, and other broad spectrum antibiotics, kill good bacteria along with harmful bacteria. When the good bacteria in the gut are wiped out, they can no longer keep the bad bacteria, or fungal infections, in check. Fungal infections can take over a person’s body and they can be deadly. This can happen with people who have healthy immune systems. For people with already compromised immune systems, vulnerability to fungal infections may be increased. Per an article in Life Extension Magazine, “Anyone can acquire a fungal infection, but the elderly, critically ill, and individuals with weakened immunity, due to diseases such as HIV/AIDS or use of immunosuppressive medications (such as corticosteroids), have a higher risk.”
  6. People with mitochondrial dysfunction. Per an article entitled Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Control T Cell Activation by Regulating IL-2 and IL-4 Expression: Mechanism of Ciprofloxacin-Mediated Immunosuppression, “ciprofloxacin was also shown to deplete the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content, thus leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and retarded cellular growth.” Ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones damage mitochondria. Those with preexisting mitochondrial dysfunction will suffer more as their mitochondria are further damaged.
  7. Children. Fluoroquinolones have been shown to degrade cartilage in juvenile animals and, for this reason, are generally considered to be contraindicated in the juvenile population. Unfortunately, children are still prescribed fluoroquinolones by pediatricians who are unaware of the severity of adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones.

Until medicine is more individualized and every factor that makes a person more or less susceptible to experiencing an adverse reaction to a drug can be tested before that drug is administered, everyone who takes a fluoroquinolone is at risk of experiencing an adverse reaction. The best way to protect oneself from fluoroquinolone toxicity is to not take a fluoroquinolone. Though there are some risk factors that make some groups of people more susceptible to experiencing a severe adverse reaction to fluoroquinolones than others, there is no guarantee that not fitting into one of those groups will ensure your safety. With that noted, the people who fit into any of the seven categories listed above should avoid fluoroquinolones whenever possible.

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 MatterTM 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 MatterTM conducts other crowdsourced surveys on medication reactions. To take one of our other surveys, click here.

To sign up for our newsletter and receive weekly updates on the latest research news, click here.

What Else Can I Do To Help?

Hormones MatterTM 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.

To support Hormones Matter and our research projects – Crowdfund Us.

This post was published previously on Hormones Matter in January 2014.

Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Dangers: Why Didn’t They Tell Me?

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Hundreds of articles about the harmful effects of fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin and Floxin/ofloxacin) have been published in medical and scientific journals, yet most of the articles have been ignored by the medical community and downplayed by the FDA. I can only surmise that the ignorance around the dangers of fluoroquinolones is because they are used as antibiotics and antibiotics are “supposed” to be safe and only damage bacteria, while leaving human cells unscathed. Or maybe it is because of the constant repetition of the baseless statement that fluoroquinolones have an “excellent record of safety and tolerance;” a statement that is only true if delayed reactions, tolerance thresholds and epigenetic effects are not taken into consideration.

Regardless of the motivations of those who are ignoring how destructive fluoroquinolones are, valuable information about the safety (or rather, the dangers) of fluoroquinolones as a class of drugs, have been ignored. Warnings about the toxicity of fluoroquinolones have been noted in journal article after journal article, yet they are still some of the most popular antibiotics prescribed.

Caution, prudence and thoughtfulness should be exercised when prescribing drugs that are as dangerous and destructive as fluoroquinolones. Fluoroquinolones are chemo drugs that are being mis-prescribed as antibiotics. Before filling a prescription for a fluoroquinolone to treat a sinus infection, or to use prophylactically for traveler’s diarrhea, or putting in your child’s ear to treat an ear infection, I encourage you to note the cellular destruction done by fluoroquinolones. Neither the FDA nor the average doctor is properly warning patients about the dangers of fluoroquinolones. Unfortunately, it is up to patients to inform themselves and gain proper warnings about the consequences of these dangerous drugs.

Fluoroquinolones Damage DNA

Back in 1992, when fluoroquinolones were first gaining popularity, Scientists raised concerns about their safety 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.”

Fluoroquinolones are topoisomerase interrupters, meaning that their mechanism of action is described as, “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.” (Cipro warning label).

Very little, if any, concern over the possible genotoxic effects of fluoroquinolones were expressed to the public as they gained popularity and uses were expanded in the early 1990s. The warnings and concerns expressed by the scientists quoted were ignored.

It is noted in Molecular Pharmacology, “Delayed Cytotocicity and Cleavage of Mitochondrial DNA in Ciprofloxacin Treated Mammalian Cells” that fluoroquinolones “cause a selective loss of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)” and “The loss in mtDNA was associated with a delayed loss in mitochondrial function.” Additionally, it is stated that “ciprofloxacin induces reversible double-stranded breaks in nuclear DNA.” Studies have shown that both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA is adversely affected by fluoroquinolones, yet those studies have not gained traction in the medical community and have effectively been ignored.

The intergenerational effects of depleting DNA with fluoroquinolones is unknown at this time (I surmise that this is because these studies have been ignored, intergenerational studies are difficult to do, and funding for them is hard to come by). However, it is known that, “a number of human mitochondrial genetic diseases that are clinically discreet are being diagnosed at unexpected rates” (source). Additionally, in an article published in Nature in 2013 entitled, “Topoisomerases facilitate transcription of long genes linked to autism” it was noted that, “Our data suggest 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 the expression of long ASD (autism spectrum disorder) candidate genes.” Fluoroquinolones are topoisomerase interrupting chemicals.

Thus far, neither the increase in mitochondrial genetic diseases nor the link between topoisomerase interrupting drugs and autism have been acknowledged by the medical community, the FDA or the general public.

Fluoroquinolones Damage Mitochondria

The deleterious effects of fluoroquinolones on mitochondria have been noted repeatedly in journal articles, and even by the FDA.

In Science Translational Medicine, “Bactericidal Antibiotics Induce Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Damage in Mammalian Cells,” it is noted that bactericidal antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, “damage mammalian tissues by triggering mitochondrial release of reactive oxygen species (ROS).” Even the FDA acknowledges that fluoroquinolones cause mitochondrial damage. In their April 27, 2013 Pharmacovigilance Review, “Disabling Peripheral Neuropathy Associated with Systemic Fluoroquinolone Exposure,” the FDA notes that the mechanism for action through which fluoroquinolones induce peripheral neuropathy is mitochondrial toxicity. The report says:

“Ciprofloxacin has been found to affect mammalian topoisomerase II, especially in mitochondria. In vitro studies in drug-treated mammalian cells found that nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin cause a loss of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), resulting in a decrease of mitochondrial respiration and an arrest in cell growth. Further analysis found protein-linked double-stranded DNA breaks in the mtDNA from ciprofloxacin-treated cells, suggesting that ciprofloxacin was targeting topoisomerase II activity in the mitochondria.”

Fluoroquinolones are very, very bad for mitochondria. As the engines of our cells, healthy mitochondria are very necessary for healthy cells. Mitochondrial dysfunction is connected with many chronic diseases, including autismCFS/MEfibromyalgiaAlzheimer’s DiseaseParkinson’s Disease,multiple sclerosis, etc.

Fluoroquinolones Alter Neurons

Fluoroquinolones downgrade GABA-A receptors and can lead to a variety of CNS related symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity such as “dizziness, confusion, tremors, hallucinations, depression, and, rarely, psychotic reactions have progressed to suicidal ideations/thoughts and self-injurious behavior such as attempted or completed suicide,” as well as “nervousness, agitation, insomnia, anxiety, nightmares or paranoia” (Cipro warning label).

It was concluded in an article in The Journal of Neurophysiology in 1991 that, “in the presence of an anti-inflammatory agent, the quinolone antibiotics decrease the affinity of GABAA receptors, the result being induction of epileptogenic neurotoxicities.”

GABA receptors
Copyright 2009 Pharmacy Weekly, Inc. Printed with permission.

An article in Pharmacology Weekly that was published in 2009 notes that fluoroquinolones “modulate the activity of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-A receptor” leading to the CNS side-effects of fluoroquinolones that include “tremors, restlessness, anxiety, confusion, paranoia, insomnia, etc.” and that “the presence of an NSAID or NSAID metabolite can significantly augment this effect and result in an even greater inhibition of GABA-A receptor activity” and lead to seizures, in addition to the other CNS effects listed. But, in 2015, people still are not systematically warned about the possibility of fluoroquinolone induced “nervousness, agitation, insomnia, anxiety, nightmares or paranoia” and NSAIDs are still prescribed concurrently with fluoroquinolones, despite documentation that the combination of fluoroquinolones and NSAIDs downgrade important neurotransmitters.

Though the symptoms that arise when GABA-A receptors are downgraded are noted on the warning labels for fluoroquinolones, nowhere on the warning label does it say that these effects can be long-lasting, or even permanent.

Generally, the effects of fluoroquinolones on neurotransmitters are ignored, and ensuing anxiety, insomnia and psychiatric illnesses are assumed to have nothing to do with the antibiotics that were prescribed for a sinus or urinary tract infection. The research and the warnings, have been ignored.

Fluoroquinolones Damage Cells

In The Journal of Medical Microbiology it was noted that:

Dougherty & Saukkonen (1985) showed that inhibition of DNA synthesis by nalidixic acid, a DNA gyrase inhibitor, results in morphological changes consistent with a loss of membrane integrity and leakage of intracellular components. Similar results were presented by Wickens et al. (2000), who noticed a decrease of both membrane integrity and membrane potential after exposure of E. coli to CIP. One of the proposed explanations of this finding is that, as a result of processes induced by inhibition of DNA replication, cells lose their capacity to synthesize necessary components and to maintain the proper membrane structure (Dougherty & Saukkonen, 1985).”

Naladixic acid is the root component of all fluoroquinolones.

In case it needs to be said, cellular membrane integrity and keeping intracellular components inside cells, are important. It is important for cells as a whole, and for organelles within cells such as mitochondria. As the importance of the microbiome is being uncovered, the importance of the bacteria in our guts maintaining cellular integrity is slowly being realized as well.

Fluoroquinolones are Dangerous Drugs

The FDA warning label for Cipro/ciprofloxacin is 43 pages long. The serious and severe adverse effects listed on the warning label are due to the cellular destruction done by Cipro. Other fluoroquinolones (Levaquin and Avelox are popular) have similar safety/danger profiles.

Though no antibiotics are without consequence, the cellular destruction done by fluoroquinolones makes them far more dangerous than other antibiotics. Fluoroquinolones should be categorized as chemo drugs along with all other topoisomerase interrupters. Please be wary and cautious with fluoroquinolones, and don’t use them unless it is absolutely necessary.

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 MatterTM 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 MatterTM conducts other crowdsourced surveys on medication reactions. To take one of our other surveys, click here.

To sign up for our newsletter and receive weekly updates on the latest research news, click here.

What Else Can I Do To Help?

Hormones MatterTM 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.

To support Hormones Matter and our research projects – Crowdfund Us.

Shades of Grey – The Good and Bad of Fluoroquinolones

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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.

Write for Us

Patient stories are important. Help spread awareness. Write for us.

Participate in Research

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

To sign up for our newsletter and receive weekly updates on the latest research news, click here.

What Else Can I Do To Help?

Hormones MatterTM 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.

To support Hormones Matter and our research projects – Crowdfund Us – Buy an Unsubscription.  

Postpartum Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

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In March of 2011, two months after the birth of my daughter, I experienced a bout of acute illnesses. My birth experience had been difficult, delivering five weeks early via emergency C-section after my water broke at 35 weeks gestation. My recovery was complicated by the need for an appendectomy just six weeks later. As if two abdominal surgeries weren’t enough, all of the trauma apparently dislodged two kidney stones in my right kidney. I woke up one morning with blinding pain in my stomach that migrated to my back and my side. I had passed a kidney stone once before, so I immediately knew what was causing the pain. Many who have experienced a kidney stone compare it to the pain of childbirth; I would argue that the pain is actually much worse. Unable to manage the pain on my own, I was taken to the emergency room for treatment. In the ER I was given IV pain medication and sent home with a short-term prescription for hydrocodone. I was also sent home with a prescription for a seven day course of the antibiotic Cipro. This medication was given to me as a preventative measure in case the stone ripped through my ureter.

Initial Symptoms of an Impending Cipro Reaction

About 48 hours after beginning the Cipro, I noticed an unusual feeling of nervousness. I was also having trouble regulating my internal body temperature. I would either be sweating profusely or so bone-chill cold that the only relief I could get was standing in a hot shower. I attributed these symptoms to being overwhelmed by the beating my body had taken in the last two months all while trying to care for my two month old preemie daughter. The anxiety was met with severe insomnia, and after a few days of almost complete sleeplessness (on top of the getting up with a newborn every few hours), I saw a general practitioner at a local walk-in clinic to get some advice and hopefully some relief. The doctor agreed that I was likely overwhelmed by all that had happened on top of adjusting to caring for a newborn. However, she also mentioned that I should stop taking the Cipro, and that “Cipro can do funny things” to some people. I took her advice and stopped the Cipro. Within a few days I started to feel more normal, and I shrugged off the experience. Little did I know my nightmare was just beginning.

Neurocognitive Deficits and Cipro

Two weeks later I returned to work. I was staring at the computer screen working on a research project when I noticed that my vision had become blurry. I went to the bathroom and put saline drops in my eyes when I discovered that my pupils were enormous. My eyes looked completely black instead of the normal light greenish-blue hue. I decided to leave work and go home early, and I had to squint and blink furiously just to keep my car on the road. When I returned home, my husband noticed my eyes and told me to lie down. I was exhausted, yet sleep would not come.

Cipro and the Central Nervous System

In the next few months I deteriorated rapidly, suffering from extreme anxiety, muscle twitches, myoclonus jerks, sweating, chills, weakness, tendonitis in my wrists, confusion, PVC heart arrhythmia, among roughly 30 other terrifying and painful symptoms. The worst of them, by far, was the completely intractable insomnia. I would go days at a time without being able to sleep even for one minute, finally crashing for two or three broken hours, and then the cycle would repeat itself. I sought out several doctors who ran tests after test and found nothing. I was finally steered toward psychiatry, where I was diagnosed with “anxiety” and given a slew of prescription psychiatric medications. Luckily, I declined to take most of them.

Continued Deterioration and Delayed Reactions to Fluoroquinolones

Weeks went on and my symptoms did not abate. I decided to leave my job and stay at home to take care of my precious baby daughter, the only thing giving me hope or the will to keep moving forward at that point. I was simply too sick to work, and my work environment was extremely stressful during that time. I was still very confused as to what had befallen me. After months of suffering, I remembered the doctor who had advised me to stop the Cipro. One simple Google search of “Cipro side effects” opened literally thousands of pages of information, with stories exactly like mine, of delayed reactions and unexplainable, debilitating symptoms. Because the severe symptoms were delayed for weeks after I stopped the Cipro, I never attributed my symptoms to this medication. I was unfortunately unaware that close proximity of the effect was not a necessary condition for causation when it came to pharmaceutical side effects.  However, as I began to research this class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones, I became aware that the most severe reactions are often delayed.

Fluoroquinolone Toxicity

I saw the top expert in the medical field on fluoroquinolone adverse reactions, and he diagnosed me with fluoroquinolone toxicity syndrome after a careful assessment. Almost a year after my first symptoms appeared, I finally had a name for my suffering. It took me almost two and a half years to recover ninety percent. My recovery focused on nutrition, stress management, and the power of positive thinking. Instead of taking medications, I found a sleep psychologist and underwent CBT for insomnia, and it helped dramatically. I still have symptoms, including the PVC arrhythmia, transient insomnia and peripheral neuropathy, but I consider myself very lucky. Many individuals with fluoroquinolone toxicity are disabled for life. You can read more about fluoroquinolone (FQ) toxicity here.

The pharmaceutical companies will lead you to believe that these side effects are rare, and therefore insignificant compared to the population of people that the drugs help. However, the truth is that most medication side effects are never reported, if they are even attributed to the drug at all. In actuality, doctors are generally uninformed about the complex array of side effects that these drugs can cause and are often unwilling to attribute patients’ symptoms back to the medications that they themselves prescribe. It is unlikely that we have an accurate picture of the side effect profiles of many prescription drugs, not just fluoroquinolones. In fact, many have speculated that a variety of idiopathic illnesses such as fibromyalgia are not organic illnesses but are all manifestations of fluoroquinolone toxicity or other adverse medication reactions. Each individual tends to have a unique threshold for toxicity, so it is entirely possible to have taken these antibiotics before without trouble only to experience a severe adverse reaction the next time they are taken. Since my diagnosis, it has become my mission to educate my friends, family and the world on FQ toxicity. Knowledge is power, and sometimes it can even be life-saving.

Participate in Research

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

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