Cipro for mycoplasma pneumoniae

[Patrick*]

My IgG antibodies for mycoplasma are very high (1:512 IFA, where positive is >1:64), and one of my doctors wants to try two months of Cipro @ 500mg/day. I'm a little leery of this. It sounds like a serious amount of antibiotics, especially for someone with Candida issues. He thinks its more important to treat the mycoplasma.

Before I start taking the Cipro, I wanted to appeal to the collective wisdom here. Any experiences with long term Cipro, positive or negative?

I appreciate your help.

 

[CFS-FIBRO-LYME]

1) I think there are better drugs/drug combos for mycoplasma than Cipro. Like zithromyacin, doxycycline or biaxin.
2) Maybe IV abx would help address the candida issues; if not maybe add diflucan or nystatin? Or Intra-muscular?
3) As a LT abx user (oral) for many infectious agents including mycoplasmas, I can tell you that mycoplasmas are noted as something you can reduce but very hard to remove once infected on various sites, but most treating docs will say you can reduce to without key symptoms...but is a long term treatment protocol.
4) Mycoplasma pneumonia is walking pneumonia and if symptomatic can kill you, so I would treat it and I have treated it aggressively in my case.

Do a google search on Mycoplasma treatment and read up as you can to decide what you want to try, but I'd agree with you that Cipro isn't probably the first or best choice. Here's a sample of what I found for you:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1941994-treatment#aw2aab6b6b1aa
"However, macrolide or doxycycline prophylaxis should be used in households in which patients with underlying conditions may be predisposed to severe mycoplasmal infection, such as those with sickle cell disease or antibody deficiencies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_pneumonia#Treatment
"Second-generation macrolide antibiotics (e.g., erythromycin), doxycycline, and second-generation quinolones are effective treatments."

Zithromax is a macrolide and I mentioned doxy; biaxin is a combination abx and good overall for chest/throat infections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrolide

Even after years of abx, I am mainly housebound and have many of the symptoms I started with and even a few more picked up along the way....but I do think abx reduced my symptoms, as in they're less severe than they were.

As a Lyme and co-infections diagnosed person on top of fibro and CFS/ME, I did two abx 2x/day at doses around the 500-600 mg per pill per dose. Does that mean it's safe? No, but I don't have any clinical evidence so far of any additional kidney or liver damage from treatment. And I have done an ultrasound on my liver along with the traditional kidney and liver blood panels as standard operating procedure every month or two throughout treatment and since.

When doing high dose/long term Abx, a really good acidophilus supplement to use is Florastor because abx don't kill it as it is a beneficial yeast based product. It really helped me the most of those I tried anyways.

 

[CFS-FIBRO-LYME]

Patrick,

From your blog:

"Finally, Dr. C tested the four subclasses of IgG antibodies generally (i.e. not looking at antibodies for specific pathogens). Three of the four subclasses were normal, but subclass 3 was a paltry 12, where normal is 22-178 mg/dL. Dr. C says this "may be my Achilles heal." We'll see if the Equillibrant can change that."

I have low/below normal subclasses but subclass 3 has always been below normal ever since I've been tested (almost a decade). This indicates immune system impairment. This is common is chronic Lyme and I believe fairly common in CFS.

That means we have an immune deficiency disease and/or our immune systems are suppressed due to constant assault and over-stimulation. An overstimulated immune system produces excess inflammation and can lead to autoimmune diseases. I would point out that CFS and chronic lyme produce symptoms that would fall into both of these categories - under-immune produces opportunistic infections and doesn't clear acquired infections without abx or antiviral intervention and inflammation causes many of the aches, pains and swelling symptoms that are also common.

 

[Shellbell]

PWCalvin, please be cautious of long term use of cipro or any of the other drugs in the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics. There are a few of us here who had adverse reactions to these meds, landing us into the world of a CFS like state or developing ME/CFS from their use. I became severely ill 5 years ago from cipro and haven't recovered yet. My nervous system and digestive system were the hardest hit. I am on the mend now just in the last year, but it took me away from life as I knew it. There is lot's of info online about the adverse reactions that these drugs can cause and lot's of people out there who are very ill from them. Just type in adverse reactions to fluoroquinolones, and you will see a lot pop up. Even if you have taken cipro before and had no apparent negative reaction, doesn't mean that it can't happen down the line at some point. Plus, for some reason, many folks develop adverse symptoms days to months after stopping the drug. I don't want to see anyone go through what the rest of us have been through. Just be careful. These antibiotics are very powerful and can cause lot's of damage!

 

[nanonug]

Before I start taking the Cipro, I wanted to appeal to the collective wisdom here. Any experiences with long term Cipro, positive or negative?.

I am currently taking a short term (10 days, 1g/day) of Cipro. Let me tell you that I would not want to take this thing long term: the potential side effects are numerous and nasty!

 

[Ocean]

I agree with Shellbell. My suggestion is to familiarize yourself with some of the sites and stories on flourquinolone toxicity victims first so you go in informed. Candida is nothing compared to what some people seem to have experienced from these meds. I think you're right to be very cautious.

 

[xrunner]

PW,

I tried Cipro for Bartonella. I stopped after less than two weeks due to tendon inflammation. Tendonitis is a potential side effect.
The other issue with this class of abx , side effects apart, is that they're very effective at treating certain acute infections and some drs prefer to keep them in reserve just in case.
I believe Garth Nicolson is one of the experts on the subject and has developed a comprehensive protocol for Mycoplasmas which is worth having a look at. It may help resolve some of your doubts or concerns.

As mentioned in another post, these kind of chronic infections are not easy to eradicate completely, if at all possible.
My experience with chronic infections, intracellular infections like Lyme and CPn, is that abx helped to a certain degree.
I had to bring in other forms of treatment in order to progress from a state of partial recovery to one where I feel I'm on a path leading to being cured or close.

Biofilm is an issue I found helpful tackling. It helped me progress further, when antibiotics alone could not help any longer. I found my progress plateauing after a few months of abx alone. I understand biofilm may be an issue for candida as well.
There are also herbals worth looking into it as an adjunct to abx which may help complement their antimicrobial activity.
In addition, if your macrophages are inactivated, the chances of overcoming intracellular microbes such as mycoplasmas are not the best. You may want to look into Nagalase testing for a clue to that.

In a nutshell, my experience is that if you build a package of synergistic treatments around abx, you can recover more quickly and go much further.

All the best.

 

[Patrick*]

Thanks for all this excellent information. As usual, PR has proved invaluable...

I'll certainly research it further, but I'm leaning heavily against taking the Cipro. I am completely asymptomatic for any kind of respiratory infection, so I'm not anxious to treat something based on IgG antibodies alone. I've never seen any information indicating what level of IgG antibodies might indicate a reactivated mycoplasma infection. If anybody is aware of that information, please let me know.

 

[kday]

I don't recommend taking Cipro. I was already sick, and already had CNS issues but it really added insult to injury. Made me much worse. It caused horrid "panic attacks" that lasted many hours to days feeling like I was dying the entire time.

As far as treating, I think colloidal silver is probably the most effective, but start REALLY slow. Slow as in 1/4 tsp of a good quality colloidal silver.

After you tolerate colloidal silver, you can add doxycycline. I would say be careful with doxycycline too, because you can't really start real slow and the die-off may irritate or damage the CNS.

I know colloidal silver is controversial, but even some farmers use it to save their chickens from mycoplasma infections since mycoplasma can spread between chickens and kill them quickly.

 

[satoshikasumi]

Beware of cipro, levaquin, factive. These drugs all cause neuropsychiatric side effects that can last for weeks or months even after you stop taking the antibiotic. The effect is like the opposite of taking a klonopin, ativan, or xanax- you can get severe anxiety, insomnia, digestive problems, and possibly seizures. If you are dependent on anti-anxiety medicine, cipro can throw you into withdrawals. There are much safer antibiotics for mycoplasma- you might ask your doctor to see if there is an alternative for you.

 

[ukxmrv]

I ended up in hopsital after taking Cipro. My heart rate went skyhigh and it was like an elephant sitting on my chest. A EEG showed an abnormal something but I can't remember the word sadly.

 

[richvank]

Hi, all.

Note that the quinolones have a molecular structure that causes them to chelate magnesium and a variety of other essential minerals. They also tend to deplete glutathione. Since PWMEs are already deficient in intracellular magnesium and in glutathione, this class of antibiotics can exacerbate things in ME/CFS.

Best regards,

Rich

 

[hjustein]

Please please dont take any Cipro. I was an extremely healthy 29 year old when I took 500mg of Cipro for 7 days. Now I am here, nearly 2 years later, still looking for ways to fix my broken body. Just don't do it.