160. I NEED TO TAKE AN ANTIBIOTIC. WHAT SHOULD I TAKE?

You are scared to death. But there is no other choice because you have a proven infection and the mild all-natural antibiotics will not clear it. This time you search frantically for a class with no adverse effects, but you do not find any. An allergic reaction to any food or drug is always possible but we do not discuss it here.

When you are floxed, any virus or bacteria that you catch will release a relapse. The infection will cause you to deteriorate rapidly and in a couple of days you will find yourself months behind in your recovery. Perhaps the release of white cells into the bloodstream or other mediators alters the status of the mechanisms of inflammation, cell metabolism and all the complex equilibriums of the body. So it is important to get as few infections as possible.

You have to discuss it together with your doctor and choose a class of antibiotic that is both effective against the bacteria and has as safe a profile as possible. Your search should be directed to avoid antibiotics with a high record of neurological or vasculitic adverse reactions. Medical literature has established that well: beta-lactams and the quinolones are the drugs most commonly associated with seizures and encephalopathy; the aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, clindamycin, erythromycin, polymyxins, and possibly ampicillin have the potential to aggravate neuromuscular disease; ethambutol, isoniazid, and chloramphenicol are toxic to the optic nerve; bismuth can cause a myoclonic encephalopathy, macrolids are linked especially with vasculitic events and also quinolone-wise with prolongation of the QT interval of the heart. Beta lactams have also been implicated with serum-like sickness, a condition very similar to floxing in some aspects. Sulfonamides can also release lupus, another illness that shares many similarities with the floxing syndrome. Penicillin is much studied and therefore many adverse effects have been found but it is still a choice. Some antibiotics cause total hearing loss or severe injuries to kidneys and other organs for certain dosages and to susceptible people.

Never use a quinolone eye drop if another antibiotic can do the job. The quinolone will kill the bacteria for certain, but at the same time it might damage your eyes irreversibly. And if the quinolone drop has been prescribed to you for avoiding infection after eye surgery, then remember that it will delay and impair healing.

After some study you conclude that some antibiotics seem quite benign like amoxicillin and others like chloramphenicol and nitrofurantoin (macrobid) seem equally if not more terrific than fluoroquinolones, but considering your battered state and the potential adverse effects there is not much to choose from, so in the end you have to take a risk. It is unlikely that a new antibiotic of a different class will give you so much damage as the damage you are sustaining from the quinolones. Hopefully, through careful selection or by means of a couple of attempts you will find one that works well for you with no more adverse consequences.

If you have had an intermediate or severe reaction, you should put a lot of emphasis on informing doctors, nurses, emergency rooms, medical offices, and hospitals that no other quinolone antibiotic should be administered to you for the rest of your life. Indicate in your medical records that you are unable to take any fluoroquinolone antibiotics under any circumstances, as you have endured a toxic reaction and must never be exposed to them again.

161. AVOID RE-EXPOSURE TO PRESCRIPTION QUINOLONES

Even if you have not been exposed to quinolones, do not take any quinolone antibiotic unless strictly necessary. Of course, do not ignore the possibility of suffering from a floxing syndrome if you have experienced the symptoms listed above and have taken quinolones in the past. One thing is clear: the effects of the quinolones are cumulative and once the reaction has been released, any rechallenge initiates an amplified response. The re-exposure will bring you devastating and possibly permanent damage that could become a life-long condition.

Do not allow yourself to be prescribed anymore quinolone antibiotics. Quinolones are also the active agent in many non-oral formulations like eardrops, nose ointments and eyedrops.

REMEMBER:

After any kind of reaction, if you ever take another quinolone, the side effects can be tragic and unmanageable.

Do not accept your doctor’s prescription for a quinolone antibiotic without having checked for other alternatives and/or safer, less toxic drugs; and never take a quinolone on the grounds that “according to his experience” quinolones are effective, well tolerated, with minimal side effects as antibiotics. His experience is reduced to prescribing quinolones in the "fire and forget" manner (handing them out like candy), and not caring for the patient’s adverse effects caused over time.

In general, and save very rare exceptions, the problems caused by quinolones are not properly identified, therefore the victims are potentially exposed to new and inmensely devastating toxicities. In this real example, reproduced with permission, a strong man was severely crippled by a second round of cipro.

[Original written in 2006] My husband took Cipro 500mg in 1998. The rupturing itself seemed to have stopped in the year 2001. He had a very athletic build. He still had all the other side effects such as tendonitis. They never did cease. Then in 2004, he was given a higher dose of CiproXR 1000. He took that full dose also. We had no idea at that time that he was allergic to Cipro. It took about a year both times before the ruptures began after taking Cipro. The first round of Cipro in 1998 damaged both his legs. The second round of CiproXR in 2004 damaged his arms. There are tears present as of this day in both his arms and legs. Operations that he had failed. By that, I mean that tearing occured afterwards involving the same tendon that had been operated on such as his right quadriceps that was reattached to his knee the tore midway up his thigh shortly afterwards. He has lost all his muscle tone he once had. He can barely get out of bed each day. He has no strength in his body. He still suffers the other side effects daily. It has crippled him in more ways that one. It's hard for a man who remembers how strong he once was and to see how weak he has become. At this point, seeing all the damage in his body, I don't think he will be safe from rupturing for many many years to come. I am not quite sure if he will ever be safe from rupturing again.

We have recorded more than six hundred testimonies of this kind, corresponding to a not so long period.

162. RE-EXPOSURE THROUGH FOOD

All persons are currently being exposed to quinolones through the food chain. The inmense majority will not get any measurable adverse effects through their lifes. Very few, namely those that are sensitive to quinolones and would get a violent reaction to a single pill, but that have never taken quinolones as a medicine, will react to the quinolones ingested through food, that are a constant low dose exposure. These hypersensitive people will be diagnosed as having fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndrome, and other illnesses depending on what symptoms are more prominent on them.

All floxed persons after taking cipro, levaquin or their counterparts, and that were not hypersensitive to quinolones can heal more or less adequately eventhough they may be constantly rechallenged through food. Only two groups of people will have to check carefully what they eat:

Severe floxed persons through the medicine form.

Hypersensitive floxed persons (those that have a violent reaction after the first pill, without reaching the level of allergy).

Obviously, all floxed persons will benefit from a quinolone-free diet. The problem is that quinolones can potentially be almost everywhere: farmed fish, poultry, cattle, eggs, dairy and other products. The animal versions of fluoroquinolones and other antibiotics are widely used to help raise animals for human consumption. In almost all farms, antibiotics are used permanently as part of the diet of the animals because they keep the herd or flock "healthy", promote growth and have a little cost, allowing to put the final product on the market at a real low price.

Quinolones are extensively used in the farming of shrimps, fish and other seafood, and raising poultry. They are also used in all kinds of meat, and therefore are present in butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, and many prepared foods. Some years ago other antibiotics were preferred for mammals, due to the high cost of quinolones, but now quinolones are produced massively in Asia, at negligible costs.

The quinolones approved for animals are thought to be unusable for people because of their toxicity for humans, so taking those quinolones for animals through the diet of a floxed person, is a bad bet. Almost all information on the inadequacy of the use of quinolones in poultry comes from the concern of creating strains of bacteria quinolone-resistant:

QUINOLONE RESISTANCE IN CAMPYLOBACTER ISOLATED FROM MAN AND POULTRY FOLLOWING THE INTRODUCTION OF FLUOROQUINOLONES IN VETERINARY MEDICINE

Endtz HP, et Al. University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1991

The rapid emergence of resistant campylobacter may also have important implications for the treatment and prophylaxis of diarrhoeal disease. The increase of quinolone resistance coincides with the increasing use of fluoroquinolones in human and veterinary medicine. Extensive use of enrofloxacin in poultry and the almost exclusive transmission route of campylobacter from chicken to man, in The Netherlands, suggests that the resistance observed is mainly due to the use of enrofloxacin in the poultry industry.

Recently, fluoroquinolones have been banned in the USA for treating poultry, in order to avoid the proliferation of quinolone-resistant bacteria, not because any authority is concerned with the toxicity of the meat produced.

Here you have the list of quinolones licensed for use in food animals all over the world (table 23). Take into consideration that most fish in western countries comes from other parts of the world.

"Currently, several quinolones are available for treatment of animals, poultry and fish in many countries in the world. Available data indicate that they are also used for disease prevention in some regions. Quinolone production and usage is estimated to be about 50 tonnes for proprietary products (mainly USA, European Union, Japan, South Korea in 1998) and, because of their lower prices, about 70 tonnes for generic quinolones. However, available usage data, particularly for non-proprietary quinolones, are known to be grossly incomplete. For instance, data from China estimate annual quinolone consumption in animals in China alone to be in the range of 470 tonnes (annual consumption in human medicine in China: about 1,350 tonnes). "

According to some other studies consulted, the consumption of quinolones by the legal market has quadrupled in 2005 with respect to 1998. The illegal market is at least as big as the legal one, if one looks to the seizings of quinolones used illegally in animal farming that take place in Europe.

There are very few warnings about the toxic effects of antibiotics used in aminal farming.

FAO (FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION. UNITED NATIONS)

5.2.2.1 Antibiotic residues

With the increased use of veterinary drugs in food production, there is global concern about the consumption of low levels of antimicrobial residues in aquatic foods and the effects of these residues on human health. This concern is not limited to only aquaculture products but to all foods of animal origin where the use of antibiotics has become an integral part of intensive animal husbandry.

The potential hazards associated with the presence of antimicrobial drug residues in edible tissues of products from aquaculture include allergies, toxic effects, changes in the colonisation patterns of human-gut flora and acquisition of drug resistance in pathogens in the human body (WHO, 1999).

Table 24. Examples of antibiotics used in aquaculture.

Group	Compound	Comments
Sulphonamides	Sulphamerazine Sulphaimidine Sulfadimethoxine¹	Bacteriostatic agents (trout and salmon).
Potentiated Sulphonamide	Co-trimazine/Sulfatrim	Used for treating diseases in salmon and trout.
Tetracyclines	Chlortetracycline Oxytetracycline^1,2,3,4	Wide use in aquaculture. Used in salmon, trout, turbot and shrimp farming. Approved for prevention in lobsters in Canada.
Penicillins (Beta-lactams)	Ampicillin⁴Amoxycillin^2,4	Used to treat furunculosis in salmon and rainbow trout fry syndrome (RTFS) in Europe.
Penicillins (Beta-lactams)	Benzyl penicillin³	Used for yellowtail and sea bream in Japan
Quinolones	Ciprofloxacin	Used in shrimp farms in Asia
	Enrofloxacin