Hi all
I have been suffering from a partly-delayed long-term adverse reaction to prolonged Fluoroquinolone antibiotics "therapy" for about 10 months now (last dose of FQ 10 months ago).
While I have improved a great deal since the "acute" phase, a lot of more or less debilitating symptoms remain and I still suffer from mild flare ups randomly
My remaining symptoms/damage are :
-tendinopathies/arthralgias all over but predominantly in achilles tendons, fingers, right shoulder and both knees (now have bilateral patellofemoral syndrome with grade 2 patellar chondropathies). Pain under right foot also, especially when walking barefoot. Joints cracking and popping (even those that never used to do this before)
-very tender spot in some muscles (more diffuse than trigger points). Also lots of trigger points and adhesions.
-random fasciculations of random muscles
-almost permanent crawling/buzzing sensation under skin at the calves (looking attentively you can see actually a lot of micro-fasciculations all over the calves)
-peripheral neuropathies, most notable being ulnar neuritis, with fingers often numb upon waking up
-"pressure" eye pain (waxing and waning but mostly resolved) and (sometimes severely) dry eyes (less and less often). Now 100% resolved : intense focusing (vision) issues (lasted a few months)
-many floaters in the eyes, increased photosensitivity, very marked increase in post-LASIK vision issues (starbursts and halos, loss of contrast sensitivity = messed up night vision)
-"brain fog" (sometimes intense), depersonalization/derealization (much better now, sometimes flares up but much less intense)
-IBS / intolerance to previously perfectly tolerated foods
-Impaired blood flow (almost perfect now, but was having abnormally cold hands and feet this winter)
-Intense muscle soreness following even light exercise
-Psoriasis-like dermatitis on the scalp (which disappears for a while after aplication of...vinegar! Then it comes back...)
-Much less energy...
-Vertical nail ridges (which I didnt have before, I was observing them since its an effect reported by many FQ ADR victims, they set in almost suddendly in about 1.5 months after the last FQ dose). Interesting to note that most of my older smoker friends have these and its also a known effect of Raynaud's (a lot of the FQ damages are beleived to be caused or amplified by ischemia of the finer blood vessels)
-Facial skin obviously less smooth/toned/elastic, suddendly aged appearance (happened almost suddendly about 2.5 months ago). (I hope this one is the fruit of my imagination, I dont dare asking ppl about it...)
I was a VERY athletic and strong 34 y.o. male before this, addicted to intense sports and never spending a single day without physical activity (and my knees had NEVER bothered me even when running, dancing, jumping or front-squatting 130kgs ass-to-grass). I am now a mere shadow of my pre-FQ self, weak and fragile, and feel like as if I had aged 30 years in 6 months.
Several ppl in this forum have had similar unfortunate experiences with FQ :
http://www.longecity...ience-very-bad/http://www.longecity...olone-toxicity/Now it's thought that FQ are able to cause all these effects primarily by screwing with mitochondrial DNA
from
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/10216214"Damage to mitochondrial DNA induced by the quinolone Bay y 3118 in embryonic turkey liver.""Quinolones are a class of antibiotics that induce damage to and loss of DNA from bacteria. The structural organization of bacterial DNA is more similar to eukaryotic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) than to eukaryotic chromosomal or nuclear DNA (nDNA). Antibiotics affecting the bacterial genome may therefore preferentially damage mtDNA rather than nDNA"http://www.ncbi.nlm..../pubmed/84407504-Quinolones cause a selective loss of mitochondrial DNA from mouse L1210 leukemia cells.http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC1797653/Influence on Mitochondria and Cytotoxicity of Different Antibiotics Administered in High Concentrations on Primary Human Osteoblasts and Cell Lineshttp://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/11195848Damage to mitochondria of cultured human skin fibroblasts photosensitized by fluoroquinolones.So with all this talk about C60 rejuvenating mitochondria in some way I had to try this...
BTW Im not so surprised that a mitochondria-rejuvenating substance can have amazingly positive effects overnight (and sustained), when a mitochondria-damaging substance can conversely have amazingly devastating and sustained effects overnight too! Some ppl have had even much worse symptoms than me from a SINGLE dose of Levaquin or other FQ antibiotic that settled in with great severity a few hours later then kept worsening for MONTHS (even sometimes culminating in death after years of pain and invalidity) after that unique, single dose! Just do a "fluoroquinolone adverse reaction" search on google, there are MANY, MANY nightmare stories... I am actually among the "luckyer" ones...
So I ordered a few bottles from the european lady that has been posting in this very thread...
My plan is to take 2 tablespoons the first day (like jg) then around 2mg worth of c60 the next days for about ten days... Then maybe wait a couple weeks, or less, or more, and resume with the same protocol with or without the initial "loading" dose... Depending on what deductions for an optimal dosing protocol will have emerged from the brilliant minds here.
I will keep you posted about the results (will probably start a thread for this). I'm not expecting any kind of miracle but obviously cannot help having great hopes in this experiment.. Any degree of improvement of any of the above conditions will be more than welcome...
EDIT :
C60, FQ and ROS : it is beleived by some that FQ keep damaging ppl long after the last dose because they remain for a very long time in some tissues (they do penetrate deep, hence their indication in prostatitis and bone infection. It is nown that the similar chloroquine remains for years in the cornea too). So any antioxidant property is potentially useful even long after discontinuation of the drug
http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC1426460/Involvement of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Action of Ciprofloxacin against Escherichia colihttp://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/14569066In vitro discrimination of fluoroquinolones toxicity on tendon cells: involvement of oxidative stress.
Edited by daouda, 17 June 2012 - 12:05 AM.