levofloxacin Archives - Hormones Matter

A Light at the End of the Tunnel: Uncovering Thiamine Deficiency

Published on July 16, 2018

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thiamine deficiency - light at end of tunnel

Early Health Issues: Enuresis, Long Term Antibiotics and Gardasil

My name is Eva, I am 24 years old, I am from Spain and I would like to share my story. Since I was born I have been a very healthy and active girl. The only thing to note is that I have always had frequent urination and nocturnal enuresis until I was 12 years old. At age 13, I began having frequent bouts of tonsillitis and with each episode, I was given a course of antibiotics. Eventually, I was taking antibiotics every three months along with ibuprofen continuously. At 15 years old, they gave me the human papilloma vaccine (HPV) – Gardasil.

After the vaccine, I began having fructose and sorbitol malabsorption problems and because of the frequency of antibiotics, I developed abdominal pains. I had a very pale color on my face and I was a little more tired than usual. I kept getting sore throats and at age16 they removed the nasopharyngeal tonsil /adenoids. In spite of all of this, I was living a normal life and continued to excel in school, receiving honors degree in high school.

At 18 years old, I had another course of antibiotics. This time for three months because the pus plates of my throat did not go away. I was exhausted. In the end, it was determined that I had a staphylococcus aureus resistant infection that was resistant to penicillin. I had an antibiogram, and of all the chances of antibiotics to which I was sensitive, the doctor chose levofloxacin. I was given levofloxacin for treatment of 14 days.

A few days after the treatment, in September 2012, I moved to another city to start my university studies (2 careers at a time). After a month, I got another sore throat that continued for three months. They put me on intravenous antibiotic. The doctor proposed to me to have an operation on my tonsils and I accepted. Just before the operation, I became sick again, and since they could not operate on me with an infection, he prescribed a round of amoxicillin with clavulanic acid plus levofloxacin. It had been five months since I had taken the first course of levofloxacin. This was in February 2013. After the operation, a month later, my knee and jaw began to hurt on the left side of my body. The traumatologist told me he had nothing. The dentist took my wisdom tooth, did a root canal and made dental fillings on that side, but my pain continued. I finished the course and that summer was very stressful for different reasons.

At the end of the summer, I went back to take an antibiotic for a tooth infection. A week before the beginning of the course, in September 2013, I started to feel very tired, and one night, in the middle of the street, I got dizzy and lost my sight and I had to go to the floor for a while before recovering. That’s where the nightmare began. I began to have multiple symptoms: tachycardia, nervousness, dizziness, stomach pains, intolerances, etc. At the end. I had an analysis and they gave me a diagnosis: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. They started to treat it and at 4 months, when I was “stable” (in lab numbers), my left ankle started to hurt as if they were squeezing me with a chain. It was horrible and it started to go up to the knee, to the hip and shoulder and the pain in my mouth was worse. All on the symptoms were on my left side. The doctor said I had tendinitis, without more importance.

Over the next four months, I began to weaken. I had no strength, my legs were weak, and my mental exhaustion was increasing. I went through all kinds of doctors: rheumatologists, neurologists, internal medicine, traumatologists, and at the end, they concluded that I had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. That’s it. That is the best they could do and they offered no help.

Taking Matters into My Own Hands: The Fluorquinolone Connection

I began to read to realize that they are catch-all diagnoses, where they put people with multiple symptoms. Eventually, I found a doctor who began to treat the intestinal microbiota, to change my diet, reduce stress, etc. This was from 2014 to 2016. While it is true that I learned to manage crises so as not to live with pain 24 hours a day, I was stuck. I was still exhausted and had neuralgia on the left side of my body. So over these last two years I have tried other doctors, I have gone to neurologists specialized in amino acid biochemistry, but nobody knows why my health has declined so much. I have tried acupuncture, antioxidant therapy, etc. At the same time, I have not stopped reading, until I came to this wonderful blog two months ago, and suddenly EUREKA! Everything makes sense. Nobody had told me until now the dangers of fluoroquinolones. It is true that there are people who notice the problems of the antibiotic while taking it and have to leave it, it started a month later, but everything fits. My symptoms include:

Chronic fatigue which is very debilitating. I have been at home for 5 years, barely able to go out. I cannot study, work, or anything.
I have neuralgia / neuropathy ONLY on the LEFT SIDE of the body (no one gives meaning to this), from the head to the left toe.
Muscle weakness and rigidity
Tendinitis
Intolerance to histamine
Polyuria, urinary frequency
Sleep problems, sleep is not refreshing. I have epic dreaming disorder that does not let me rest. This problem of dreaming and getting up very tired has been a problem since since I was 16.
Problems with noise and light; I have to sleep with plugs and mask.
Alterations of the nervous system; I startle easily. I have a lot of intolerance to stress.
Problems with basic regulation of the body
Dizziness every time I get up when I’m sitting or lying down.
Recurrent pharyngitis / sinusitis / chest pain.
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
Mental exhaustion
Weight loss.
Intestinal problems, intolerances, dysbiosis, infection by chronic GERD.
Swallowing problems. (The left side of my throat is more inflamed on the inside and it is hard for me to pass the food. It gets stuck).

Surely there are more symptoms, but I forget.

At the Root of My Symptoms: Severe Thiamine Deficiency

After reading the work of Dr. Lonsdale, I measured my transketolase and the result suggests quite a deficiency of thiamine: activation TPPE 25%. So I’ll see if trying this I can improve, until now I was lost and I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Questions for Dr. Lonsdale: Hello doctor, first of all thank you immensely for your dedication and work, thank you for your research and your book, you are helping a lot of people. I was lost until I found Hormones Matter and read it. The activation of TPPE is at 24.98%. As I have read, this suggests quite a deficiency of thiamine. I’m going to look for a doctor who wants to help me treat my deficiency. I’ve read that you have to be careful with paradoxical reactions. But I have several questions that I would like you to answer if it is possible:

The urinary frequency since I was born could have something to do with thiamine deficiency? Would this suggest some kind of genetic problem?
Is supplementation with thiamine forever or only until the transketolase of 0? What is the time of supplementation with thiamine? When would I have to repeat the analysis of transketolase to see how it evolves?
Could it be that levofloxacin has done me irreparable damage and I always had thiamine problems? Or can it be something genetic? – What is the suggested treatment?
I have read about 50mg Allithiamine, with large doses of magnesium and a multivitamin, but how high should Allithiamine go – 200mg, 300mg?
What do I do in the face of a paradoxical reaction? Do I stop the supplementation a few days and continue again, or to endure the reaction and continue? I want to give this information to the doctor who will treat me, in addition to his book.
Does it make sense to have only neuralgia on the left side of the body? It is as if I had two bodies, the joints on the right side do not hurt, nor the nerves, only on the left side. I do not have anyone in the family with a similar background. My maternal grandfather was an alcoholic but he managed to quit. My maternal grandmother, 2 aunts and my mother have hypertension. And on my father’s side, my grandmother has always been tired from a young age, with pains and thyroid problems.

Thank you very much, Eva.

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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.

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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/