Candida Infection from Fluoroquinolones Could Contribute to Tendon Damage

A Candida Infection is a common side effect of antibiotic therapy, including the Fluoroquinolones. Candida, more properly known Candida Albicans is a yeast that is present in our bodies at all times and is ever-present in our environment.

Candida, like another bacteria called C Diff, is not ‘bad’, per se, nor does it cause problems in most people. In fact, it’s part of the ‘normal flora’ present in our digestive tract, and may even provide important functions in the body that science is not yet aware of. Candida only becomes a problem when the ratio of Good Bacteria to Candida yeast is thrown off-balance and Candida becomes more prevalent.

Yes, Candida Infection is Real

Yes, Candida infection is real, and can go far beyond the female yeast infections that are so common after antibiotic therapy that many doctors prescribe an antifungal to women at the same time they prescribe an antibiotic. While many doctors will say that a digestive or systemic Candida overgrowth infection is not possible, and dismiss symptoms of candida, there are hundreds of scientific references to Candida yeast infection ^{1   2   3}.

Could Candida Damage Tendons?

In addition to the well-known problems of fatigue, brain-fog, muscle aches, and other vague chronic symptoms experienced by those who claim to be suffering from Candida yeast overgrowth infections, these yeast also produce an enzyme that damages collagen ⁴.  This enzyme, known as collagenase, has been shown in studies to be able to damage the Achilles tendon cells of animals in a laboratory setting ⁵. While this Collagenase has been shown to damage human cells enough for candida to penetrate into the bloodstream and into organs ⁶, whether this translates to collagenase damaging human connective tissue in sufficient amounts to harm tendons is yet to be seen. However, in the case of the Fluoroquinolone antibiotics, adding collagen damaging yeast to the body can only do more harm than good.

When it comes to the Fluoroquinolone class of drugs, aside from their tendency to kill the normal flora of the digestive tract setting the stage for Candida infection, one of their most well-known Adverse Drug Reactions is that of damaging tendon cells, even going so far as to cause painful disability and tendon ruptures. This is not just ‘theoretical’, but is a problem that is widely accepted by medical literature to the extent that the Fluoroquinolones are required to put a ‘Black Box Warning’ on all of their patient labeling warning of the dangers of tendonitis and tendon rupture ⁷.

So, when you take a Fluoroquinolone, you are getting the very well-known risk of tendon damage from the drugs themselves, and the unknown risk of long-term Candida infection which continues to produce tendon-damaging enzymes long after the original drug was taken.

If you are interested in learning more about the Fluoroquinolones and how to recover from these damaging drugs, we recommend getting The Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Solution. We have worked closely with the authors and were helped immensely by this book and the personal attention we received from them. After spending over $25,000 on doctors and treatments that did not work, we began following the protocol and recovered function more than doing anything else we tried.

We do receive a small commission for each book that sells through the links on our site, and we hope that, if you do choose to purchase this book, you’ll purchase it through our link to help us keep this site running and support our efforts at continuing to educate about the Fluoroquinolones, and help those who were damaged by them. We recommend the book because it worked for us and many others we’ve spoken to, and we highly value the information it contains.