Reducing quinolone toxicity?

[Guest guest]

The fluoroquinolones have a lot of attractive features (especially

the newer ones with the C8-methoxyl group) but the damage

they can cause to tendons is not uncommon. Lots of people on

LymeNet have testified to the damage they've experienced. And

there's good data on PubMed showing just how toxic these

antibiotics are to chondrocytes, tenocytes, etc.

If you do use them, here are some things to consider.

The basis of the toxicity is still being worked out, but some of it

appears to relate to magnesium deficiency:

http://tinyurl.com/82hgt

PMID: 12019086

http://tinyurl.com/dpcyl

PMID: 11280370

http://tinyurl.com/bm26v

PMID: 10639347

But this article:

http://tinyurl.com/8dfjh

PMID: 15546943

suggests that magnesium (and other minerals) should not be

taken at the exact same time as the fluoroquinolone dose, but

the two should instead be staggered.

But magnesium is not the whole story. It turns out that

fluoroquinolones may damage tendons in part due to the

generation of ROS, reduction of glutathione, etc.:

This paper:

http://tinyurl.com/9azzh

PMID: 15478945

notes glutathione problems and that vitamin E and allopurinol

seem to provide some protection against fluoroquinolone

toxicity.

This paper:

http://tinyurl.com/9sqbu

PMID: 14569066

also discusses the role that these inflammatory signaling

molecules play, saying, " A likely hypothesis is that the

glutathione content falls rapidly so that the intracellular

antioxidant enzymes lose their ability to modulate the

overproduction of ROS. "

Perhaps, then, glutathione and/or other anti-inflammatory

agents, along with staggered magnesium supplementation,

may, to some extent, protect against tendinopathy in patients

using fluoroquinolones. However, if memory serves

fluoroquinolones can cause seizures and NSAIDs significantly

enhance this risk. Something about their respective influence on

GABA receptors, I think. Verify this if it matters to you.

I should say that I've taken only a cursory look into glutathione

and am not informed enough to comment on it more than I did

above. I am also not endorsing a model that traces chronic

illness back to anything that might be called, by the commonly

held meaning of the word, " stress " . That may be relevant for

some people, but it has nothing to do with my disease. My

interest here is related strictly to the possibility of reducing

fluoroquinolone toxicity.

Matt