PART
IX:
EXTENSIVE
DAMAGE
65.TOXICITY GUARANTEED
Apparently there are not many
studies of clinical significance that provide a wide explanation regarding the
high toxicity level of quinolones. One can find medical reports suggesting that
everyone having a bad reaction to fluoroquinolones had a previously underlying
muscular disorder. We do not favor that theory. Also, there is no validity to
the claim that all people having a reaction to quinolones have a common flaw or
genetic component that make them more prone to suffer adverse events. The
medical community will start to understand something about fluoroquinolones
when they acknowledge that these antibiotics are just plain toxic.
Many of us have apparently not
had an adverse reaction to the first three, four, ten or even twenty courses of
quinolones over several years, but later on symptoms indicative of an adverse
reaction culminate to the point where the patient is completely intoxicated
from the quinolone. Many, many young, healthy and athletic patients just change
in a short period of time from being the idyllic human model for every drug
manufacturer, to becoming pharmaceutically intoxicated for many years or life,
and then are labelled as psychotic, a hypochondriac, or diagnosed with serious
neuropathies and pains that "were
just lying dormant" .
That is simply not true. The
fluoroquinolones are toxic from the first milligram. Some people have livers
that can metabolize more quantities of drug or body tissues that are more
resistant than others, but everybody becomes intoxicated. Each person has
different potential thresholds of resistance to the damage caused by
quinolones:
LOWER THRESHOLD
Has
been exposed above. It is delineated by strange bouts of tendinitis, abnormally
long recoveries after exercise, less sleep and poorer quality sleep, some small
throbbing pains in different parts of the body, occasional twitching, feeling
some stiffness, decreased tolerance to coffee, loss of memory, especially
short-term.
UPPER THRESHOLD
The
symptoms that you have experienced are those corresponding to the severe
reactions, intermediate reactions and mild reactions. It is too late to expect
a rapid resolution, and according to the level of the intoxication, long, hard
and miserable times may lay ahead.
The toxicity of quinolones acts
in two preferential ways:
direct chemical destruction (cartilage, cellular
functions and organs).
mild, long-lasting or irreversible matrix-vasculitis,
with neuropathic after effects.
Obviously, you will not find many
doctors willing to admit these two phenomena do actually occur. But the sooner
more research is conducted in that direction, the further we will advance in
terms of understanding the problem.
The following section of the
report deals with some of the most important problems caused by quinolones.
66. IMPAIRED HEALING IN THE FLOXED BODIES
This is another very distinct
characteristic of quinolone disorders, of which every doctor is unaware. Once
you become asymptomatic because you have been taking care of yourself and
restraining from exertional activities, you might well think that your ankle is
nearly recovered from an intermediate reaction (say in grade G2 according to
table 22 at the end of the report). But if not enough time has elapsed since
the ingestion of the drug (less than 2 years) then only a number of repetitions
of an exercise with your foot against strong resistance can bring you again to
Grade 9 (see same table 22). So,
returning to normal pre-floxing levels of activity is not indicated by a lack
of symptoms but by a continuously probing (trial and error) method, not without
relapses and danger.
While we all floxed persons know
perfectly well that our bodies have lost most of their capacity to heal from
bruises, cuts, blows, traumas, if you dare to comment it with your doctor, you
will see how a lunatic is stared at. Nevertheless, some studies have evaluated
this situation, but it is still universally ignored by doctors.
CIPROFLOXACIN
INHIBITION OF EXPERIMENTAL FRACTURE-HEALING.The Journal of Bone and
Joint Surgery 82:161-73 © 2000. P. M.
Huddleston, M.D., et al,
Background:
Fluoroquinolones, such as ciprofloxacin, have an adverse effect on
growing cartilage and endochondral ossification in children. This
study was carried out to determine whether ciprofloxacin also has an
adverse effect on the healing of experimental fractures.
Conclusions:
These data suggest that experimental fractures exposed to
therapeutic concentrations of ciprofloxacin in serum demonstrate
diminished healing during the early stages of fracture repair. The
administration of ciprofloxacin during early fracture repair may
compromise the clinical course of fracture-healing.
The floxed body has been depleted of nearly all
of its natural healing capacity. To function properly, the body must
continuously produce new tissue, especially cellular matrix, collagen and
fibrous cells. For everybody, the toxicity of the quinolones kills these
mechanisms, in a dose dependent manner.
So whenever you accidentally bump
a part of your body, especially the hand or foot (more distant areas and less
irrigated tissues) it takes an abnormal amount of time to recover. Small blows
that in a normal situation would take three days to heal, can take up to three
months of healing during the acute phases. A cut in the skin around the
Achilles will take the same time to close as in
any other area of the body, but ten to twenty times longer for the scar to
clear off.
When the athlete approaches
grades 6, 7, 8 and 9 (table 22), there is a lot of deposition of waste in the
joints and under the skin. That causes the waste to adhere to the joints and
worsen the symptoms. Massage helps to remove those deposits in most cases.
During the months that follow the
acute phase, both mechanisms (healing and rebuilding) are slowly returning to
normal, especially the quality of the rebuilding, although the healing response
still cannot keep up with the requirements of our previous (pre-floxing) level
of activity. There are many scientific reports that show ciprofloxacin impairs
the healing of broken bones and connective tissue. Being floxed is not the best
time to undertake minor surgery that could be avoided or rescheduled for later.
So, during the acute phase it is
not possible to cope with strenuous or very repetitive activities. It is
normally advised to maintain some degree of physical activity, but always
testing and probing the limits, without surpassing them.
JEREMY NORMINGTON, DPT, DIRECTOR OF
PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION AT
Based on this research, Movin et al.
performed a histological evaluation on a healthy 49-year-old male who was given
ciprofloxacin as a prophylaxis after a routine appendectomy. After 2 weeks, the
patient developed localized pain at the right Achilles tendon and experienced
ambulation difficulties. The symptoms were minimal at rest and with normal
living. Several months later, the patient still couldn't take long walks or
run. A clinical exam didn't reveal a rupture, but the histological exam wasn't
normal.
A microscopic evaluation showed irregular
collagen arrangement, hypercellularity, and increased interfibrillar
glycosaminoglycans. These findings suggest deficient healing, and are similar
to pathological features of tendon overuse injuries.
Quinolones make it more difficult
for people to recover after exercise, and can cause them to develop a frank
intolerance or dislike to exercise. Pains and stiffness after exercise are very
characteristic of this toxicity. That is most likely due to a chemical damage
of the fascia (connective tissue) that exists between muscles and allows them
to run smoothly and independently. These injuries can last for many years after
the floxing.
67.AVOID ANY PHYSICAL TRAUMA
It has been previously elucidated
how a normal strain on a floxed person can have more serious consequences than
on a normal person. In severe reactions, small blows or edemas can cause a
flare up of minor neurological problems all over the body in less than two
hours; for example, twitching, lack of jaw coordination, tremors, as well as
local alterations much more intense than usual.
Severe impacts or traumas
directed against a limb (a quad or a calf for instance) can be devastating for
a floxed person. The inflammatory process in the area will affect the main
nerves and trigger a neuritis that can take several years to resolve. So, an
injury that in normal conditions would take up to 1 to 3 months to heal can be
a long-term threat, or become a chronically impairing condition for a floxed
person. This provides another clue for investigators because it is clear that
there is a link between the processes of inflammation and the exacerbation of
the floxing conditions. After the traumatic event, there is a release of
mediators in the bloodstream that induce alterations of the vessels all over
the body and also promote the arrival of immuno-complexes to the site of the
injury. Some of these compounds and mechanisms could be of the same type as the
ones that cause the damage induced by the chemical toxicity of quinolones.
For the examples cited, in the
case of a blow or strike to a quad, the neuritis can affect the whole upper
leg, from buttock to knee, providing strong, stabbing neurological pains to the
sufferer. A traumatic event in the calf can initiate a neurological response in
the outer (lateral) knee, and in the Achilles tendon.
If the trauma affects directly a
medium size nerve, we can be before one of the most dreadful situations that a floxed
person can face, and with more irreversible consequences. Probably the hit on
the already intoxicated nerve, will make it dye or loose most of its capacity
to heal, and a permanent dysfunction typically develops. Some cases have been
recorded within our data that show dramatic neuropathic injuries after normal
contusions, that by a chance impacted very close to a nerve.
68. ACUMMULATION OF BYPRODUCTS OF THE FLOXING
The skin is a very important organ of the body, well
irrigated by all kind of vessels, intricated with the lymphatic system and
nervous system and with plenty of connective tissue. There is also a predilect
zone for deposing fat stores. The skin has three layers: epidermis (outer),
dermis (intermediate), hypodermis (inner layer)
After a severe floxing, all layers suffer an insult
and many dermatological symptoms may appear, that we will not treat in this
part of the report.the epidermis (inner layer of skin).
The dermis is connective tissue (collagen,
fibroblasts, macrophages and inflammatory mediators). It also has blood and
lymph vessels, and finnally sensitive nerves and other nerves of the autonomic
system. So all the conditions are set for a disaster if a quinolone
intoxication occurs. The innermost layer (hypodermis) is also connective tissue
with a lot of fat. But the most dreaded influence of fluoroquinolones on the
skin is cancer. After taking a fluoroquinolone, great amounts of carcinogens
(substances that promote cancer) are produced when the skin is exposed to
sunlight (natural ultraviolet radiation).
figure 14
Figure 14. For whatever the real reason, that we can
guess from the precedent sections of this report, after the floxing, the skin
becomes less souple, it has also a different bightness in some areas, and a lot
of engrossment and adherences are felt beneath it. An expert physiotherapist
can point all these defects. A good exercise is to roll over sections of the
skin, setting in motion the deposits, that are somehow released and that
partially come back to where they were but some of them enter the blood and
lymphatic circulation and resetle somewhere or are metabolized and hopefully
excreted. Some floxed persons believe that this practice is detrimental for
them because stored quinolones are released again. The fact is that this
deposits tend to dissapear on their own in three or four years time, or one
year earlier if assited with this technique. Many chiropractors and physicians
can also feel these depositions as a sign that something is going wrong.