The symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity often mimic those of ME/CFS (Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome). Many people suffering from fluoroquinolone toxicity experience debilitating fatigue, and some are bed-bound and permanently disabled from this symptom, along with all the others that come along with fluoroquinolone toxicity. Both fluoroquinolone toxicity and ME/CFS are multi-symptom, chronic syndromes that are poorly understood and often disregarded by those in the medical community. Research into the mechanisms behind both fluoroquinolone toxicity and ME/CFS show that mitochondria (the energy centers of our cells) are likely related to both diseases, and so is autonomic nervous system dysfunction, mast cell activation, metabolomics, epigenetics, immune system dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, and other areas of human biology. Both fluoroquinolone toxicity and ME/CFS also have significant overlap with other diseases such as Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and fibromyalgia.
The similarities between fluoroquinolone toxicity and ME/CFS may mean that they have a similar root mechanism…. or they may not. The root cause of fluoroquinolone toxicity is, of course, fluoroquinolones. (The mechanism behind fluoroquinolone toxicity is much more complex and the answer to the question of HOW fluoroquinolones hurt people is still being uncovered.) Most people who have ME/CFS don’t report that their symptoms started with fluoroquinolone exposure (though there is almost certainly some overlap, and there are likely some people who have been diagnosed with ME/CFS whose disease started with a fluoroquinolone prescription). There seem to be a variety of triggers that set off ME/CFS in previously healthy individuals, including, but not limited to, mold exposure and sensitivity, and exposure to a viral infection that the body never fully recovers from.
While it is possible that there are many cases of ME/CFS that were brought on by fluoroquinolones, and thus are “actually” fluoroquinolone toxicity (labels, shmables), it is also possible that both diseases/syndromes have a similar underlying mechanism despite different causes, and it is also possible that though the symptoms and features of both diseases are similar, they are actually different on a mechanistic and/or cellular level.
Though the possibilities for differences between fluoroquinolone toxicity and ME/CFS are potentially significant, the similarities are obvious, and it is likely that research that helps ME/CFS sufferers will help fluoroquinolone toxicity sufferers.
There is a theory about the mechanism behind ME/CFS that has recently come to my attention that could, potentially, tie it more directly to fluoroquinolone toxicity. The theory, in a nutshell, is this:
Some people with ME/CFS have an underlying predisposition for EDS, and thus collagen synthesis is disordered and connective tissues are weakened. The ligaments of the craniocervical junction (where your skull meets your first vertebra) become weak and this leads to craniocervical instability (CCI) and atlantoaxial instability (AAI) (together, CCI/AAI). When people suffer from CCI/AAI their neck ligaments don’t sufficiently hold up their head and their brain stems are compressed into their spines. This causes many symptoms of ME/CFS. (I’m not sure exactly how – ask someone who has done far more research into ME/CFS and/or CCI/AAI than me.)
You can read about how CCI/AAI relates to ME/CFS in these two links:
- MEchanical Basis
- A new diagnosis to add to the list: I have craniocervical and atlantoaxial instability
How does this relate to fluoroquinlones?
It is well known that fluoroquinolone antibiotics (Cipro/ciprofloxacin, Levaquin/levofloxacin, Avelox/moxifloxacin, Floxin/ofloxacin, and a few others) damage connective tissues–including musculoskeletal connective tissues like tendons, cartilage, bone, and muscle, as well as other connective tissues such as ocular tissue (including the retina), eardrums, and cardiac/heart tissue. Multiple studies have found that fluoroquinolones are toxic and damaging to connective tissues. Given the wide differences in tissues that fluoroquinolones have been shown to deleteriously affect–from cartilage to cardiac tissue–it is reasonable to assert that they damage all connective tissues throughout the body. (Read any of the articles in the citations listed below for information about how fluoroquinolones damage connective tissues.)
Given that fluoroquinolones damage connective tissues (probably all connective tissues – see links below), it is possible that they weaken the tendons of the neck and thus lead to CCI/AAI. CCI/AAI then leads to multi-symptom chronic illness including all the symptoms of ME/CFS (which are too numerous to count).
This weakening of tendons and subsequent CCI/AAI likely occurs more often in people with underlying connective tissue disorders like EDS. I suspect (though I have no proof of this) that there are many kinds of EDS that have not yet been identified, and that more people have the genes for a variation of EDS than those who can currently be diagnosed with the disease. It’s also possible that a genetic predisposition toward EDS is not necessary for fluoroquinolones to cause extensive connective tissue damage, and that they do so in everyone who is exposed to them (at varying levels, of course). Fluoroquinolones have been shown to damage dog and rat connective tissues, especially tendons, and human connective tissues exposed to fluoroquinolones have also shown extensive damage both in-vitro and through analysis of people exposed to fluoroquinolones. I have a hard time believing that all the rats, puppies, and people whose tissues were sampled all had underlying EDS prior to their tissues being destroyed by fluoroquinolones. However, it’s possible that underlying genetic predispositions, including those for EDS, determine how severely people are affected by fluoroquinolones. More research is, of course, needed.
Are fluoroquinolones causing CCI/AAI? And is CCI/AAI leading to ME/CFS? Given the large number of studies showing that fluoroquinolones destroy connective tissues and interfere with collagen synthesis, it’s quite plausible (even likely) that they cause CCI/AAI. How, and if, CCI/AAI is connected with ME/CFS is another question. But given the experiences of the authors of MEchanical Basis and A new diagnosis to add to the list: I have craniocervical and atlantoaxial instability, it’s a possibility that is certainly worth exploring.
Sources for the assertion that fluoroquinolones cause connective tissue destruction and disordered collagen synthesis:
Whoopsie. And I forgot to add that I was doing serial liver cleanses every two weeks for three years before I stopped getting poisoned by my own bile. So, someone needs to come up with hard answers not on the supposed biological half-life of FQs but their ability to be sequestered and released (and not modified as metabolic intermediates) so that theoretically the same molecule could poison you ten times in ten months, be re-absorbed, therefore never excreted, and ready to play havoc again.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3816311/#R49
anti-urease antibodies mimick connective tissue
I have read that fog victims cannot undergo any kind of detox, that you will just flex yourself over again, I don’t think a full on detox benefits us, I’ve read that it harms us, I’m 11 years out, still horrifically injured and unable to fully function, we need to be compensated , can we collectively write and call certain senators and congressman, this is continuing to this day, 11 years of total hell, my son in laws dr just prescribed him levofloxacin, let’s get organized, WE NEED TO BE COMPENSATED.
From what I’ve been reading one I think it could be due to microvascular changes in the brain that are consequential to the disturbed regulation of flow and pressure in the microcirculation due to the dysautonomia brought about by FQ induced peripheral nervous system damage (including autonomic nervous system)
Hello Awl,
In working with some folks with multiple myeloma, I found some really curious references one of which referred to cell culture that required MRA = Mycoplasma Removal Agent. Because the threat of infection of humans and the contamination of cell cultures for these monsters is epidemic proportions I was interested to find out that it was.
https://www.invivogen.com/review-plasmocin
It turns out that the industry uses a one-two punch to try to knock out mycoplasma with mixed antibiotics and….
CIPRO.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20135349
For folks at our level we are typically aware of things like mycoplasma and what they mean to overall health, but since they have been purposely marginalized by mainstream medicine who knows what a pandemic threat they are, consideration of them in ‘common disease’ states will ever be considered. Pretty much they are protecting their pet bug.
Yet, what has disturbed me for some time is that you can’t be a doctor yet not know what these monsters are and you can’t be Monster (I mean: doctor, this time) that prescribes CIPRO ***without*** having some specter of mycoplasma in the back hall because it is just a nuclear bomb when compared to a ‘simple’ UTI that has often been reported as the ‘reason’ why folks got CIPRO prescribed.
Methinks that for whatever other conspiracies might be going on around us that mycoplasma is the microscopic elephant in the middle of the room, yet no one is looking in the eyepiece.
Hello,
After I took Levaquin I was hospitalized for several days for a number of neurological issues. This included vision impairment from optokinetic nystagmus, a symptom which is specific to brain stem dysfunction. Later, I would be diagnosed with EDS thanks in part to a list of physicians posted on this blog and friend who directed me here.
I had to ask for a referral to neurosurgery, but after years of suffering partial paralysis, neuropathy, and dysautonomia; I was diagnosed craniocervical instability, atlanoaxial instability, and C3 instability. Finding this site and learning to advocate for myself likely saved my life from a serious dislocation and/or complications related to autonomic dysfunction. I have heard one other person with a story like mine and many other with other types of tendon problems. It isn’t only plausible, it’s my story.
For me the most disappointing aspect of my experience is the medical gaslighting I experienced. I knew it was possible for drug companies to act in their favor, but havining physicians betray and belittle my health was incredibly demoralizing.
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