ATTENTION EVERYONE!!! Please fill out this survey on BFR/MR and injuries

 1.  how long have you been

1. how long have you been a barefoot/minimalist runner (specify which)?

1 year



2. what is your average weekly mileage?

As i dont run in the winter, I would say 5km weekly half the year. (this should be higher - see 4)



3. what is your injury prevention regimen (stretching, foam roller, etc.) rate your use 1-10, one being very low, 10 being very dedicated?

Stretching, strenght exercises, massage and balance exercises. Dedication: 4 - should be a ten



4. what injuries have you sustained and when? (ex: week 4 of running barefoot/minimalist, PF) rate injury 1-10

Week 3 - stretched a ligament on the outside of the achilles. 3 weeks recovery. Rated:3

Week 8- TOFP - graduall recovery over 4 weeks. Rated:2

week 15 - Broke my ankle 3 years ago - thought everything was ok, but it now seems that loss of flexibility etc. Is making my calf hurt when running - rated: 6 Still no recovery - hence the low weekly milage.



5. how long did it take you to really overcome injury (back to previous mileage/week)?

Still not recovered (more than 8 months)



6 input: short response with information about injury (due to wearing regular shoes at work, VFF caused problem, TMTS, etc. this is subjective I know.



To much too soon and previus injury (broken ankle)
 
 1.  how long have you been

1. how long have you been a barefoot/minimalist runner (specify which)?

1 year



2. what is your average weekly mileage?

As i dont run in the winter, I would say 5km weekly half the year. (this should be higher - see 4)



3. what is your injury prevention regimen (stretching, foam roller, etc.) rate your use 1-10, one being very low, 10 being very dedicated?

Stretching, strenght exercises, massage and balance exercises. Dedication: 4 - should be a ten



4. what injuries have you sustained and when? (ex: week 4 of running barefoot/minimalist, PF) rate injury 1-10

Week 3 - stretched a ligament on the outside of the achilles. 3 weeks recovery. Rated:3

Week 8- TOFP - graduall recovery over 4 weeks. Rated:2

week 15 - Broke my ankle 3 years ago - thought everything was ok, but it now seems that loss of flexibility etc. Is making my calf hurt when running - rated: 6 Still no recovery - hence the low weekly milage.



5. how long did it take you to really overcome injury (back to previous mileage/week)?

Still not recovered (more than 8 months)



6 input: short response with information about injury (due to wearing regular shoes at work, VFF caused problem, TMTS, etc. this is subjective I know.



To much too soon and previus injury (broken ankle)
 
I believe my Achilles injury

I believe my Achilles injury was caused by the following antibiotic treatment I recieved for a cold/flue. I am copying the information from a Physical Therapist here or below.




[*]The quinolone group of antibiotics are used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, but weaken some people’s tendons. The weakness is most often felt in the Achilles tendon because it is one of the largest and most heavily used tendons. The weakness may be felt as Achilles tendon soreness, or if it is severe enough, can lead to a rupture. Ciprofloxacin (Cipro®, Baycip®, Cetraxal®, Ciflox®, Cifran®, Ciplox®, Cyprobay®, Quintor®) is an often prescribed member of the quinolone group. In addition to treating bacterial infections, especially urinary infections, it is also used to treat Anthrax inhalation.[*]Cortisone can make a weakened Achilles tendon feel too comfortable. A patient who has received cortisone shots in or near the Achilles tendon may be able to overly stretch or strain their Achilles tendon without any pain – until they stretch or strain it to the point of rupture. Cortisone steroids should not be confused with anabolic steroids, which have a separate set of risks[/list]


this injury was terrible I could barely walk and had a lot of swelling on my ancle. 7 weeks later and lots of massage and stretching and strength trainining I can finally walk again but the running is still not there for me. I copuld not raise my weight on my left foot and that scared the hell out of me. I feared teh worst a career ending injury. Now after 6 weeks if therapy I can again raise my weight but not fully recovered and there is still some pain.



I have done much more foolish things than try to start slowly after the flue and never had a problem like this. I am convinced the antibiotics played a major role in this injury.



Hope this helps someone.



Michael
 
Michael, I had the very same

Michael, I had the very same thing happen to me, and yes you are right. All of my research shows the fluoroquinolone and quinolone antibiotics are known to cause tendon and fascia ruptures to the Achilles and the the plantar fascia. I took some tetracycline antibiotics for rosacea, and began experiencing EXTREME pain in my left wrist, left arm, and both of my feet. It got so bad, I couldn't even walk without great pain. Each step felt like the tissue was tearing from the bone. I felt like I had a bad sunburn on the bottoms of my feet, my inner arch muscles mostly. I only started to improve when I stopped taking the antibiotics (although I had another 2 months prescription left! Why so long?). And even after stopping them, I haven't been back to my normal since. I also developed extremely tight calves I haven't been able to work out yet, and it's been well over a year and a half now. Although the antibiotics I took were not quinolones, I still had a very bad reaction to them. The med I took was Minocin (Minocycline). I have done more research and spoken to doctors and found that some people can have the same kind of reaction to some tetracyclines as quinolones. It just doesn't happen as often, so there's not a lot of literature on it. The lesson here for me is to only take antibiotics when they are truly necessary, AND always take probiotics with them.

Please search this site for the word quinolone, and you will see many posts I have made about this very concern. Doctors are supposed to ask their patients if they are runners or athletes and warn them of the dangers of taking quinolones. Sadly, they don't do this. What's worse is, many of them don't even advise their patients to take probiotics before, during, and after completing a course of antibiotics.

A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of the night/morning about 3:00 a.m., I couldn't sleep due to the pain in my feet (I also have Morton's Neuroma in both feet due to bad shoe choices in the past), so I decided to turn on the TV. I was switching channels when I heard the speaker say she had horrible wrist pain and inflammation and after taking high-dose probiotics, she no longer has the problem. Of course, I put on the brakes and watched the whole program. Her name is Brenda Watson, CNC, and she is a nutritionist. She has a book called The Road to Perfect Health which talks a lot about what antibiotics and inflammation can do to a body and how probiotics can heal the body. Google her site and/or get her book off Amazon. I started taking high-dose probiotics, 200 billion, per day for seven days, and now I'm on the follow-up (she recommends 50 billion, but I'm taking 100 billion), and I have noticed a slight decrease in the intensity of the sunburn feeling in the inner arch muscles of my feet. For me, it's going to take a long time to get well, maybe even a few more years, but with you, maybe you will have faster, better results. It's definitely something to consider.

Whatever you do, if you decide to purchase probiotics, make sure you don't buy the ones off the shelf. You need to buy the ones that are shipping and kept refrigerated to ensure efficacy. These are living organisms, and they must be stored chilled. Brenda sells probiotics on her site, but I don't get how she can do that and guarantee that by the time they've shipped to you, they will be as potent as they could be. If you can find a local herb shop, I would suggest you purchase from them. They should be storing them in the refrigerator. If they are not, look elsewhere.
 
TJ, thanks for taking the

TJ, thanks for taking the time to share your experience with the rest of us (moderate amount of sucking up, I know). I have been battling PF for over a year and wonder if the cypro prescription I took over the summer extended my recovery. I thought I'd turned the corner and was ready to hit the roads again, but noooooo.

After years of taking nutrition and health seriously, I'm left with the belief that the closer we can get to living without the abundance of chemicals that bombard us every day in so many forms, the better off we will be.

Michael, hang in there and I agree w TJ on her advice.
 
It does make you wonder,

It does make you wonder, doesn't it? I am completely convinced that the antibiotics I took caused my PF (first developed in shoes) to worsen and then cause even more damage to my feet, adding my wrist and arm to boot. Try the high-dose, and I mean high-dose, probiotics, Sara. What do you have to lose? A little money? So worth giving it a try.
 
I'd be happy to participate, but I don't see any active links?

ditto (Chrome and FF) except I see now that this thread was started a while ago and maybe the links didn't transfer correctly with the move from Drupal to the real internet?
 

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