Low Back Pain Might Be From Your Antibiotic
While the Causes of Lower Back Pain can be from a number of different reasons, when no cause can be found, a little known cause of pain in lower back can be from a group of antibiotics known as the Fluoroquinolones that include common names such as Cipro and Levaquin. Yes, really, you could have back pain from the antibiotics you took, even if you did not take them recently. It’s one of the 4 Weird Reasons You Might Have Back Pain.
This group of antibiotics is extraordinarily toxic, and is known to cause symptoms as diverse as Infectious C-Diff Diarrhea to Vision Problems to a weird Chronic Brain Condition. If you are unfamiliar with the damaging effects of these drugs, please see the Introduction to Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics here. These serious and disabling side effects are slowly becoming more well-known, but the lesser and less devastating side effects of these Quinolone Antibiotics are still not accepted as problems that come from this damaging class of antibiotics.
Pain in Low Back from Antibiotics?
A great example of this is low back pain. Low back pain is so widespread, and these antibiotics are prescribed so often that it would be difficult to associate the two. It is, however, logical to associate the two since the major problems of the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics is that it causes connective tissue disturbances that can lead to problems like:
- A Doubling of the Risk of Aortic Aneurysm, a life-threatening illness
- Permanent Arthritis from joint lesions
- Chronic Cipro Tendonitis and even tendon rupture
- Problems with Bone Growth and Repair
These connective tissue disturbances are well-known problems of these drugs that have caused them to be limited to only life-threatening illnesses in children, whose growth plates in their bones are still made of pliable connective tissue that might be damaged permanently if they get fluoroquinolone toxicity.
Low back pain should also be a logical result of these drugs, and one study finally associated the two. The study ‘Fluoroquinolone toxicity symptoms in a patient presenting with low back pain‘ validated what many Fluoroquinolone Toxicity sufferers have intuitively known, that their low back pain is also a result of the antibiotics that they took.
Causes of Lower Back Pain You Haven’t Thought Of
So, if you have taken Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox, or any of the other Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics prior to the onset of pain, it’s quite possible that your symptoms could be due to fluoroquinolone toxicity could be one of the causes of lower back pain for you.
But how can you know for sure? You can’t. At this point in time, there are no tests to find out if your symptoms are due to Fluoroquinolone Toxicity, but if you have chronic low back pain, and nothing else is helping, the principles outlined in the Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Solution just might work to help resolve the pain you are experiencing. There are many reasons for pain, and reversible nutritional and lifestyle factors can also be reversible reasons for many different kinds of pain, including low back pain.
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I cannot recall the reason I was given levaquin around 2005 but it soon turned into a huge handicap making getting in and out of bed or car painful and nearly impossible.
Now, years later, I’m having a combination of lower back pain and high blood pressure which may or may not be related. However, the hospital lower back X-rays reveal a lot of lower spinal cord distortion described as possible arthritis.
Now I’m thinking that the apparently old lower spinal cord injuries are due to my bout with Levaquin.
Im in a similar mind ^ .Could this be the multiple pain issues i have.
I was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia on 11/3/16 and placed on 10 days of 500 mg Levaquin 1x per day. On the ninth day I woke up with severe pain between my shoulder blades and attributed it to the pneumonia. The tenth morning I woke up with extreme discomfort in my elbows and lower back. No position is comfortable. I didn’t take the last pill, but will this go away?
Hi Lauren. I had a very similar pain right after started treatment with coprofloxacin. The doctors could not figure out why the pain was. I was being treated for an stomach infection. My pain got to the point that I could not lie down or move. I had to sleep partially sitting up and for intervals of an hour or so. After many tests looking for arthritis, rheumatism, lupus, and other several tests, the internal medicine doctor concluded that it could have been caused by the coprofloxacin. I asked him what can I do and he said you can do nothing. Only try to control the pain with medications and hopefully your body will repair. I went to a naturopath and she told me after research she did that fluoroquinolones affect the collagen in our bodies and that is what tendons, cartilage, joints and blood vessels are made off.
The antibiotics affect every person differently but the treatment is the same through diet and exercise (once the pain is bearable) to regain the cartilage and tendons strength. I started a low inflammatory diet, acupuncture and started to add exercise back to my life. It took me a good year to be at 95 of the pain I once had. There were days I could not bear it and it had become almost hopeless but somebody that had the same experience told me to think that as long as everyday was less pain than the worse pain I had I was doing well!
I did and that helped me a lot emotionally. Since then I have had more events of back pain but in different spots in my back. Initially they were in the upper back and shoulder blades. Almost right after it was my entire rib cage. Sneezing and coughing was brutally painful. About a year and a half later I had pain in the middle back and since July this year, about two years later, I started with lower back pain. I wish you all success in getting better. Try to be patient. My best wishes.
I just got off Cipro after being on it for 7 days.. My lower / mid back (below my back rib cage) feels achey. I am guessing it’s because of the antibiotic. I am hoping that it goes away after I detox a bit.
It’s not TENDONITIS, it is TENDINOPATHY. A pathological destruction of the tendons. They re-heal with disorganized scar tissue that causes the pain, damaged tissue and disability. Very different syndrome.
Emma,
Tendonitis is merely inflammation. Tendonopathy refers to tears and inflammation. The Fluoroquinolones can cause either problem and also can cause full rupture. Did you actually read our page on Cipro Tendonitis? We use the term ‘tendonitis’ colloquially, meaning that is what ‘regular people’ use and are searching for on Google, so it’s a term we often use, then we go on to explain what we mean and the actual damage that can happen.
My Sports Medicine doctor was just at an International Tendon conference and told me all about it. I’m not an athlete, but tendon injuries is something athletes deal with. This is not a sports or physical injury, but a CHEMICAL INJURY to the tendons. And not just the Achilles Tendon either. Rotator Cuff and Peroneal (Ankle) tendon can also be affected. This toxic drug and it’s toxic sister drugs need to to be taken off the market.
Emma,
These drugs are incredibly toxic, however, no one is suggesting they should be taken off the market. This site is a HUGE advocate of people who have been injured, but we definitely need antibiotics, as they can be life saving for many people. We only suggest they be used far more judiciously and only used in cases where life or limb is actually in danger and they are the only antibiotics that can kill the bacteria. Given the choice of dying or having the CHANCE of a tendon rupture, many people would choose the risk of tendon rupture. It’s about judicious use and choice, not about removing a life-saving drug from the market.
I discharge from my breast and been given 4x a day. Day two I get this back pain that never had before had to even go home from work. Pain is so painful that is not controllable. Today is my last day hopefully this back pain stops.
I had two bites (possibly from a spider) on my face that I thought may have been zits even though they did not look exactly like them but were very large the next morning so I tried to pop them, (which is definitely a NO NO) and I got cellulitis that spread all over my face and literally burned through several layers of my face. (Probably from dirt or bacteria I could not see under my nails, even though I keep them very clean) I started taking Clindamycin to kill the bacteria causing cellulitis on my face. The very next day I had extremely painful lower back pain and abdominal pain. I already have L4 & L5 disc problems and RSD in my right calf and ankle. The pain in my lower back is so bad it disrupts my walking, sitting, standing and lying down. This pain is so bad that I cannot lay down in the evening at all or even sleep. I do not know what to do. I was told that I must take all of the medication or the bacteria can come back with a vengeance. I only have a few days left of the medication. Do I continue to take after reading what this is probably doing to me? Please instruct me further.
Clindamycin is not a Fluoroquinolone drug. But we can’t advise you whether or not to finish a course of antibiotics or not. That is an extremely personal decision with a very personal risk to benefit ratio that we can’t discern for you. I’m sorry that sounds crass, but we are not doctors, and we are not YOUR doctor, and cellulitis is a very serious type of infection that could have lethal consequences.
I’m taking amoxicillin 875 mc twice daily for an UTI. I have 6 dosages left. I have developed a nagging lower back pain that wraps around to the front with a heaviness and pressure. It seems to be getting worse. Does this fall into the Fluoroquinolone drugs class?
No. Amoxicillin has problems of it’s own, and also causes allergic reactions in many people, but it’s not a fluoroquinolone.
I took one pill the next day i had ny back was sore. I am not going to take anymore
I just got off amoxicillin for an UTI. I have developed a nagging lower back/ mid back pain that wraps around to the front with a heaviness and pressure. It seems to be getting worse. What could be the cause and what could be the solution
I sustained a flesh wound from a dog’s toenail. My dermatologist prescribed a week’s dosage of Cephalexin. After two days of taking the antibiotic, I began having soreness in my back, around my rib cage and pain wrapping around my back to the
front of my body. The pain shifts from one location to another. I took all of the antibiotic pills, and two days later am still suffering from significant back pain.