Antibiotics and Rupture of Achilles Tendon

[zapmamak]

OK. So this may not be new news to some of you but it was to me so I thought I would just post it here since I think the BFR community should all know about this...

I saw my dad this past Easter weekend and he mentioned that some antibiotics make people more susceptible to achilles tendon ruptures and tears (he's a pharmacist, btw) Some of the more common antibiotics he told me to be aware of are:

Avelox, Cipro, and Levaquin, which includes their generic equivalents, Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin.

You can find more information regarding the studies and the risks here.

Hope this info was helpful...

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Thanks for bringing this up

Thanks for bringing this up again, Zap. It is so important for runners to know this stuff.

Remember, this is what I thought happened to me a while back. I either had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics I was taking for Rosecea or I caught a virus. Whatever it was, I was laid up in bed for weeks in a lot of pain and could hardly walk. I had burning pain in my left wrist, all the way up my arm, and into my left breast. The MRI only showed inflammation, no plantar fascia rupture. (The PF is a tendon). I also developed Achilles tendonitis while I was laying in bed for weeks! How does that happen? (I've never had AT before in my life, but I get it while I'm hardly even walking for weeks?) The antibiotics that cause this problem are of the quinolone/flouroquinolone family. The antibiotics I was taking were not of this same class though, so it's possible that I just had a reaction to the meds I did take (or the pharmacy gave me the wrong meds). I only started to get better a couple of weeks after I stopped taking them, but it's been a long road, and I still have problems today. If I don't take the anti-inflammatory I've been prescribed, the sunburn on the inside of the bottoms of my feet feeling comes back and is quite painful. My wrist and arm pain is gone though.

They say if you already have PF or AT, DON'T take a quinolone antibiotic. It can lead to tendon tears and ruptures. They say if you are a runner not to take them.

 

[zapmamak]

TJ - Now I remember reading

TJ - Now I remember reading about that... I totally forgot that you had something like this happen. How horrible! That must have been so frustrating! And to have to endure that for so long before it even got better must have been doubly maddening.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

It still is.  If I don't take

It still is. If I don't take the anti-inflammatories, say I forget a dose, I start to hurt pretty badly. As long as I take the meds consistently, I'm okay. The problem is, I'm afraid to stop taking them, and when can I be sure that totally stopping them at some point, the pain won't come back as badly as it had? It is very frustrating. Thank you for your concern.

 

[migangelo]

a good reason i don't take

a good reason i don't take meds. too many side effects that can be worse than what you originally take them for. sorry for you TJ.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Yes, I was taught a lesson

Yes, I was taught a lesson about being vain. Not worth it. I'll take my baboon ass-face over the horrible pain I've gone through any day.