Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics; HIV; Neuropathy; An Update

Today's post comes from a response by the author Lisa Bloomquist, to an earlier post about the same subject (The Real Dangers Of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics). Lisa was kind enough to provide even more information on the dangers of this sort of antibiotic, with special reference to people living with both HIV and neuropathy and that is reproduced here. Certainly worthwhile reading and following the links. If you're not convinced by now that an alternative antibiotic would be a better choice, then at least discuss the pros and cons with your doctor or specialist.
 

A couple things for the HIV positive community to note about fluoroquinolones

Lisa Bloomquist - 3/6/2014

First, the damage mechanism for fluoroquinolones is likely rooted mainly in mitochondrial damage. Here are a couple of articles about how fluoroquinolones damage mitochondria - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249743/?report=printable and http://www.bu.edu/abl/files/stm_kalghatgi.pdf

Some drugs that are used to treat HIV are also damaging to mitochondria. Per http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/22/toxsci.kft102.full, "Another example is the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) that are used to combat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. NRTIs act by inhibiting the reverse transcriptase activity required for viral replication. They have been highly successful in treating adults and in preventing transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their children, but unfortunately many NRTIs also inhibit the mtDNA polymerase γ. This has resulted mtDNA depletion- and mutation-mediated mitochondrial toxicity, and even death, in patients and in animal models (Benhammou et al., 2007; Blanche et al., 1999; Chan, 2007; Claessens et al., 2003; Divi et al., 2010; Kohler and Lewis, 2007). Similar effects have been observed with nucleoside analogs intended for other viruses as well (McKenzie et al., 1995). Thus, chemicals that damage mtDNA or alter its copy number can have very serious health consequences."

Mitochondria are a strange mix of vulnerable and hearty. They are damaged easily by many drugs and environmental toxicants, but the damage doesn't show up as a disease until a threshold for mitochondrial damage is crossed. Then it shows up as multi-symptom, chronic illness (like GW syndrome). It is likely that the damage is cumulative. So, people who are on the HIV fighting drugs mentioned should avoid mitochondria damaging drugs like fluoroquinolones like the plague.

Neuropathic pain is almost certainly a result of mitochondrial damage and ensuing oxidative stress.

Some other articles that I wrote that go into more info about what I said are these:
http://www.hormonesmatter.com/fluoroquinolone-time-bomb-mitochondria-damage/
http://www.hormonesmatter.com/mighty-mitochondria/
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/03/17/mitochondrial-diseases/

More info can also be found on my blog, www.floxiehope.com.