Exposing the hidden epidemic of crippling, painful neurological adverse effects of antibiotics

by PF Louis

(NaturalNews) The adverse reactions from a certain specific class of antibiotics resemble the crippling adverse reactions of the vaccine injured. But there is much less notoriety among these agonized and debilitated victims of the Medical Mafia, except for one PBS Nightly News special from June 16th, 2011. (PBS, source below)

Most antibiotic victims are adults with no one to look after them. Unlike unfortunate autistic or paralyzed vaccine injured kids who have parents dedicated to taking care of them. Thanks to social networking and internet forums, these victims have some support.

Unfortunately, most of them are locked into the Medical Mafia system of harmful drugs and brain washed medicine. Their complaints are often disregarded as delusional, or they're misdiagnosed for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, or MS. And that's because their symptoms are similar, and worse. They often suffer from the constant pain of extreme neuropathy.

Very few adverse event reports make it to the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS). It's estimated by even the FDA that less than ten percent of actual adverse events make it into this system. It's not advertised to patients as the complaint department of choice, and doctors tend be averse to reporting adverse events from drugs they've prescribed.

So the forums and social network systems such as a facebook "wall of pain" containing personal stories and photos of current victims are their sole recourse and support. Most of them are motivated with the desire to warn others and curse the FDA. They don't have ambulance chasing attorneys - yet.

The most troublesome antibiotics

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics appear to be the most pernicious class of antibiotics causing the worst adverse effects. They are prescribed and sold as Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), Levaquin, Avelox, and Tequin. Apparently enough adverse event reports have gotten through, causing the FDA to issue a black box warning for Levaquin specifically and fluoroquinolones in general.

The black box is the FDA's most severe warning, but it goes only to whoever is prescribing the drug. It's up to physicians and pharmacists to sound the alarm for their patients and customers. But usually those alarms don't get sounded, even, according to many victims, when queried about their safety.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics seem to be popular. They are dispensed for minor infections when they should be used only for extremely serious infections, though there could be problems there too. At least the ratio of benefit to risk would be closer then. A professor of pharmacology at Indiana University was quoted as saying "you don't use big guns to kill mosquitoes."

Fluoroquinolone adverse effect symptoms

An unusual side effect, exclusive to this type of antibiotic, is tearing tendons. They may literally fall apart within days of using a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. The others are crippling losses of motor abilities, difficulty thinking, tinnitus, chronic insomnia, depression and anxiety among others.

The constant pain is the most difficult to bear. Neuropathy can be restricted to tingling, twitching, and numbness. But the level of neuropathy for many of the fluoroquinolone victims causes constant extreme pain throughout the joints and body. Oddly enough, these symptoms are similar to Lyme disease victims who clamor for life-long antibiotic use.

Adverse effects may show up after only one pill or not begin until a year or more after taking a series of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. If not treated, the adverse effects last long enough to ruin lives completely.

Perhaps alpha lipoic acid, especially combined with extra potent B vitamins, could do wonders for their comfort and recovery. Skilled homeopathic doctors could help them also. Unfortunately, most of these victims are stuck in a system that makes huge profits from selling solutions to problems they've created.

Sources for this article include

PBS report and individuals' videos here: http://healthmaven.blogspot.com/201...

"Wall of pain" - click photos for their stories http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...

http://www.naturalnews.com/034384_antibiotics_neurological_effects_toxicity.html