I saw this post on Facebook and am including as received except for some formatting and grammar corrections.
You may have heard of or have some of the severe dangerous side-effects of the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics, of which the most common product name is Cipro, though more than a dozen other names are used when manufactured by other drug companies than Pfizer.
Just this week I took in 3 New Patients completely uninformed about this issue who were disabled, pain-ridden with:
1) A horrible tear of the Achilles tendon and
2) a woman with multiple MRI’s, each showing at least 3 tendon damages, partial and complete tendon tears in knees, hips, shoulders and injured spinal discs. She was being advised to undergo multiple complete joint replacement surgeries!
3) A woman crippled with pain in a great number of her joints who could not go up stairs, work out, sleep due to pain, or even perform normal daily activities.
All 3 had taken Cipro.
All 3 were prior to seeing me clueless that the problem(s) they suffered were from taking an antibiotic for a Urinary Infection! Who would even guess? Most are people who before becoming Cipro-damaged were of quite normal health.
Perhaps you have disabling symptoms, imaging findings or other clues to me that you have tendon damage, tears, and perhaps a partial or complete tear of your Achilles tendon in your heel.
I may ask: “Did you take antibiotics for an infection, maybe a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection), Respiratory Infection, a digestive difficulty such as diverticulitis, or numerous other infections where this group of antibiotics are commonly prescribed? Were you never warned of the drug’s dangers?” (The severest of labeling warnings of the FDA the “Black Boxed Warning” would mean that “Informed Consent” to which patients are entitled under law would require for the doctor and the pharmacist issuing this drug to you to inform you of its severe dangers.
Search the subject “Cipro Side Effects”. Find this immediately on your screen: “Is Cipro hard on your body? Ciprofloxacin can cause serious side effects, including tendon problems, damage to your nerves (which may be permanent), serious mood or behavior changes (after just one dose), or low blood sugar (which can lead to coma).”
What are the dangers of taking Cipro?
“Warnings: Quinolone antibiotics (including ciprofloxacin) may cause serious and possibly permanent tendon damage (such as tendonitis, tendon rupture), nerve problems in the arms and legs (peripheral neuropathy), and nervous system problems.”
What percentage of people have a bad reaction to Cipro?
“Psychotic reactions occur in fewer than 1 percent of people who take Cipro, but the drug is used to treat anthrax and plague.”
What does Cipro do to the brain?
“Cipro and Levaquin can cause serious damage to your central nervous system, potentially inflicting brain injuries and dysfunctions that affect your mental state. A few examples of the most common psychological changes include: Depression and anxiety. Paranoia.”
Are ciprofloxacin side effects permanent?
“Fluoroquinolone medicines (which contain ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, lomefloxacin, moxifloxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin, prulifloxacin and rufloxacin) can cause long-lasting, disabling and potentially permanent side effects involving tendons, muscles, joints and the nervous system.”
Why is Cipro not banned?
“Ciprofloxacin includes a black boxed warning in the United States due to an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture, especially in people who are older than 60 years, people who also use corticosteroids, and people with kidney, lung, or heart transplants.”
Note: Cipro and other names of its family of antibiotics are still prescribed every day to millions of people; they are not banned.
“The use of ciprofloxacin and other antibiotics of the class of fluoroquinolones … associated with disruption of the normal functions of connective tissue, including tendon rupture, tendonitis and retinal detachment.”
In case you’re curious, the development of this drug, its patent and the product issued under the name Cipro are from the great humanitarians at the drug company named Pfizer.
“They found that patients who received fluoroquinolones had a higher risk for aneurysms (formation of balloon-like areas in the aorta that weaken the integrity of the vessel), ruptures or dissections (tears in the wall) than patients who did not receive the antibiotics.”
2008: “The new warnings apply to fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics that includes the popular drug Cipro. The FDA has told companies that the drugs must now carry “black box” warnings alerting doctors and patients that the drugs can increase risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture in some patients.”
“Fluoroquinolones have carried similar warnings for years, but officials say they continue to receive reports of safety problems. A “black box” warning is the FDA’s sternest warning.
“We have seen continuing reports of tendon rupture so we are trying to increase awareness.”
Cipro can even disrupt digestion, cause severe metabolic disruption, mental illness, and is now being petitioned to the FDA to be banned for the side-effect of Suicide! Imagine an Antibiotic whose “side-effect” is you kill yourself! The listed dangers above are by no means complete. Just one Facebook group (“floxed” is the word invented for injured by Cipro) of sufferers has thousands of members!
I have a myriad of patients with this history and this miserable crime of being prescribed a crippling drug when another innocent (and cheaper!) old school antibiotic would serve as well or better. If you or someone you love is prescribed an antibiotic, check to see if the common old-school antibiotic ending is in its name: -cillin, -mycin, -cycline. If not, put it into the search engine. If in the first paragraph it is stated: This is in the family of antibiotics known as the Fluoroquinolones, run. Ask the doctor to prescribe instead a dependable and incalculably more safe old-school antibiotic for your infection.
I am reminded of a fine jazz musician-friend I see who looked it up and realized his crippling joint pains were from taking this drug, had spent years, a small personal fortune, tried numerous methods and bought expensive treatment machines before he found me and he was “fixed”, corrected for this nightmare.
Of my talented pianist patient-friend who was given Cipro which did not cure his infection in the lungs, but when he went walking weeks after getting out of the hospital, tore for no reason his Achilles tendon right off the bone, had to undergo a corrective reattachment surgery, and years after still couldn’t stand well on that leg until I corrected the problems for him.
Of my patient-friend who told me of the day his biceps tendon tore right off the bone and left the muscle dangling useless, who had taken Levaquin (another of the trade names) for an eye infection!
Now every week it seems new patients with this antibiotic-induced injury, damage and disability is the center of their pain, malfunction and joint damage/arthritic debility.
Don’t fall prey to this drug! If you have, you need workable help to get out of the hole it has put you in. Which is not so easy to find!