Part I, Be Aware of the Very Real Dangers of Quinolone Antibiotics: Tendon Rupture

Friday, August 27, 2010 by: Kerri Knox, RN
Tags: antibiotics, tendons, health news

(NewsTarget) Every antibiotic on the market kills bacterial pathogens using a different mechanism of action. Some act on specific properties of bacterial cell walls or by blocking certain enzymes that keep them from reproducing. Some antibiotics, like the Quinolone antibiotic family, kill bacteria by damaging the DNA and the energy centers of the pathogens so they can't reproduce effectively. While this mechanism works amazingly well to kill pathogens, it's not specific to bacteria. One of the casualties of this war on infection is that these Quinolone antibiotics tend to cause damage to slow-growing tendon cells- which has lead to lifelong damage and even complete rupture of these essential structures we depend upon for our mobility.

Quinolone and Fluoroquinolone antibiotics have been around for decades. They have been hailed as safe and effective treatments for some of the hardest to kill 'superbugs' out there and are even used extensively in the intravenous form for some of the sickest hospitalized patients. While these antibiotics may be life-saving in some situations and they DO kill bacteria extremely effectively, they do this by damaging the energy production centers and DNA of the bacterial cells. Unfortunately, they also damage the DNA and energy centers in the cells of the person taking them. This damage occurs to some extent in every person who uses them, but the vast majority of people simply don't notice the small amount of damage that occurs and are able to repair and replace these damaged cells without problem.

For a variety of different reasons, there are some people who DO notice this damage, sometimes as soon as a few hours after taking the first pill -with effects that can be devastating and permanent. Curiously, the cells of tendons and other connective tissue seem to be particularly at risk due to the fact that they reproduce slowly and have a poor blood supply. The damage that occurs can be as simple as a small amount of tendon pain that quickly goes away, all the way to full tendon RUPTURE- with the Achilles tendon being the most often affected. Researchers are unsure exactly what makes some people more vulnerable than others, but the fact is that they DO know that it happens. In fact, it's so well known that the FDA has placed a 'Black Box Warning', the strongest warning that they use, right on the packaging in order to alert doctors and consumers to this very real possibility.

While the agencies that are supposed to protect us are AWARE of this problem, they consider the risk too small to justify removing these drugs from the market. What is a small risk for the FDA, however, may not be for the public, who is unaware of the fact that a course of antibiotics for a sinus or skin infection could turn into a lifetime of disability from a severely damaged or ruptured Achilles tendon. Even though this risk is considered 'minimal', the millions of prescriptions written for these drugs every year have already been translated into tens of thousands of people who are now experiencing a lifetime of pain or disability from having taken a course of antibiotics that doctors, researchers and the FDA all consider safe.

Resources:

http://www.fqresearch.org/pdf_files/37.pdf
http://www.side-effects-site.com/quinolone-a...
http://www.lareb.nl/documents/ACR2001_920.pd...

About the author

Kerri Knox, RN is a Registered Nurse and Functional Medicine Practitioner.
With over 14 years of experience in health care, she has the unique perspective of being solidly grounded in Conventional Medicine and being well versed in Alternative Medicine.
She can help you to to find and repair the UNDERLYING CAUSES of illness using cutting edge in home lab testing that finds nutritional deficiencies, hidden infections and chemical and metal toxicities that contribute to ill health.
She can be reached through her websites at:
Easy Immune System Health.com
Side Effects Site