Ciprofloxacin for Lyme Could Be a Disaster

Are you taking Levaquin or Ciprofloxacin for Lyme? Then you desperately need to read this information. So, you’ve had health problems for a long time, and finally, your doctor tells you that you have Lyme Disease. This mixed blessing means that you have a serious infection, but that they at least found a reason for your chronic health problems and you can be on the road to better health once you get treatment, right? Depending upon the treatment your doctor gives you, you could get better, or you could get another health disaster on top of the health problems you are experiencing from Lyme Disease.

Ciprofloxacin for Lyme Works… But at a Cost

There are several different treatments available for Lyme, with one of them being an antibiotic called Ciprofloxacin, also called Cipro. It is in the same family as Levaquin, also called Levofloxacin, which is also commonly used for Lyme. If you are unfamiliar with these drugs, please read our page on the Introduction to Fluoroquinolones.

While Levofloxacin and Ciprofloxacin for Lyme are effective, and thousands have used them for that reason, there is a possibility of having the harsh downsides of lifelong pain, disability, and even Death from the Fluoroquinolone Class of Antibiotics.  What might start out as a hopeful treatment for your chronic health problems could end up being a lifelong sentence of even more serious health problems. As one woman on LymeNetEurope.org put it,

Four pills [of Levaquin, a Fluoroquinolone antibiotic related to Ciprofloxacin] later, I began experiencing the most heinous, violent, vicious, painful, ugly and destructive constellation of symptoms you can imagine. You think Lyme/Bartonella is bad? Those two are a piece of cake compared to being floxed!

Certainly, this is not the experience of everyone who takes Ciprofloxacin or the Fluoroquinolones, however, I liken it to playing Russian Roulette with a gun that has a thousand chambers and only one bullet. While your chances of getting the bullet are incredibly low, would you still be willing to play? I would if my life depended upon it and there were no other options, but under no other circumstances would I be willing to take a chance like that.

Is There Anything Safer than Ciprofloxacin for Lyme?

There are safer antibiotics being used to treat Lyme, among them is Clarithromycin. But all antibiotics have downsides that include the destruction of Good Bacteria in the gut, and serious overgrowth infections such as Candida and Clostridium Difficile Infection, both of which can lead to long-term serious, and often unrecognized, health problems. Indeed, the enzyme Collagenase from Candida Infection damage tendons and connective tissue, and could be a contributor to the tendon and connective tissue damage the Fluoroquinolones produce.

Chronic C-Difficile can even lead to surgery to remove the colon,  or death as very real possibilities. Destruction of the microbiome of the gut that occurs with the use of any antibiotic is something that science is just beginning to realize may have more far-reaching health consequences that previously believed, as research of the microbiome of the gut is learning more and more about it’s importance.

Other Treatments for Lyme

Despite the fact that you will hear from many doctors that antibiotics are the only solution to Lyme Disease, there are other treatments being effectively used by many practitioners. Dr. Ron Grisante of Functional Medicine University has a Lyme Disease pdf devoted to discussing his methods of diagnosis and treatment for Lyme. As well, many practitioners are using ACS NanoSilver safely and effectively to treat Lyme. Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine did an entire Lyme Solutions Conference.  You do have choices, so be sure to educate yourself on your choices so that you choose the best one for you, taking into account the known risks of what you put into your body. Doctors do not give you all of the information you need to make an educated choice, so you need to be your own best doctor and do the research for yourself. Is  Levaquin or Ciprofloxacin for Lyme the best choice for you? Be sure to read the story over at MD Junction and see what you should do to prepare before you take that first dose of Cipro.