26. ARE YOU POISONED BY A FLUOROQUINOLONE ANTIBIOTIC?

If you have taken a course of any quinolone or fluoroquinolone antibiotic (Cipro, Levaquin, Floxin, etc¼) you have been chemically poisoned. Depending on individual conditions, and the dosage and length of the treatment, the intoxication will range from very mild and asymptomatic to very severe and disabling.

In a minority of cases, the patient notices the reaction immediately. In a vast number of cases, most symptoms, or at least the most severe ones, emerge during the last stages of the treatment, or weeks or months after the completion of the quinolone treatment.

Sedentary people tend to notice less adverse reactions because they do not use their body to full active capacity. Taking into account that at least one third of QTS presentations are predominately tendon-related or musculoskeletal, damage to their tendons, cartilages and muscles remains unnoticed.

Almost everybody can take low doses of quinolones without developing any symptoms of an adverse reaction (for instance, 250 mg daily of cipro for two weeks). Many people can take a 7-day course of a medium dosage of quinolone antibiotics (for instance, 750 mg daily of cipro) without perceiving any adverse effects. For higher doses (for instance two weeks of 1.000 mg of cipro), most people are also asymptomatic during their first treatments (remember that the damage is cumulative). For these latter doses, their cartilage, tendons, nerves and small veins and arteries have been directly damaged but not enough to make them symptomatic. That is the case of many sedentary people who deeply damage their joints as a result of repeated but short courses of quinolones. But the fact remains unknown to them since they are asymptomatic, and they do not use their joints beyond the pain threshold. Later in life, it manifests as early osteoarthritis, collagenous deterioration, or nervous system failures. In any case, this paper is not intended for these people.

Look to the following medical paper that seems to support the generalized toxicity caused by quinolones that we have been postulating since long ago:

JEREMY NORMINGTON, DPT, IS DIRECTOR OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION AT SIOUX VALLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL IN CHEROKEE, IOWA

Another study by Koeger et al. looked at tendons of asymptomatic fluoroquinolone users. Researchers observed hypersignals that indicated common increased cellular activity (4-out-of-10) in tendons of asymptomatic patients. This suggests that tendon metabolism is altered in the absence of clinical signs.

Many of us were healthy young athletes in perfect health with rock solid knees and hips prior to taking quinolones, but now have become crippled persons, with our cartilages half destroyed, our eyes barely functional, our bodies aching since several years ago and our whole lives stolen from us by a medical class that now turns its back on us.

For those that have developed symptoms like the ones described later, first of all, they have to check if they have ingested any quinolone antibiotics during the last three or four years. The damage caused by the quinolone antibiotics becomes evident at a point in time that ranges between the moment of the treatment itself from up to eighteen months later. If your symptoms fit with any of the categories listed later in this article, and you have taken fluoroquinolones in the past, then a quinolone induced intoxication might well be the reason for all of your recent physical problems. This report could help assist you in reaching a diagnosis.

27. SOME MEDICAL TERMS AND INFORMATION

This paper intentionally has a non-medical quality. However, it is necessary that you become familiar with a few technical facts regarding the floxing syndrome. Some are explained throughout the report, when they are needed. A brief introduction to the general aspects of an adverse drug reaction is included here.

The terms drug allergy, drug reaction and some euphemisms (hypersensitivity, intolerance) are often used interchangeably. If we take into account the immune response of the patient, a drug allergy can be restricted to the reaction in which special antibodies of the IgE type are massively released. This report does not cover allergic reactions.

Drug reactions can be classified as follows:

TABLE 7. TYPES OF DRUG REACTIONS
TYPE	Specific	Key feature	Caused by quinolones
IMMUNOLOGIC
*Type I reaction*	IgE mediated	Allergy	Yes, rare
*Type II reaction*	Cytotoxic		Yes, common
*Type III reaction*	Immune complex		Yes, typical
*Type IV reaction*	Cell mediated, delayed		Yes, frequent
*Specific T-cell activation*			?
*Other*	Chemical	Unknown	Yes, common
NON-IMMUNOLOGIC
*Primary pharmacological* *side effect*	Direct problem associated with the drug		Yes
*Secondary pharmacological* *side effect*	Opportunistic health problem		Yes
*Drug toxicity*	Toxicity to organs and systems		Yes
*Interactions between drugs*	Like with all drugs		Yes

Some classifications have been established in order to help discern among drug IMMUNE reactions:

TABLE 7-cont'd. TYPES OF IMMUNE REACTIONS
Immune reaction