Antibiotics Survey

[Arron]

OK, I have been doing more studying and "crunching numbers" so to speak on common denominators between people and the onset of BFS.

We all pretty much know that a lot of people say they had a bad viral infection before the symptoms started and from what I have been seeing, there is also a delayed reaction or "incubation time" between the time of the mystery illness and the start of the twitches. We all get sick from time to time and with diffent illnesses. Be them bacterial, Viral and so on. I want to start a small survey so I can crunch more numbers and see if there is a link between people taking antibiotics within 3 to 4 months of the onset of BFS.

I never considered "my" bad sinus infection to be part of my BFS because it happened like 3 months prior to my symptoms, BUT I was on 30 days worth of high doses of Amoxocillin as well. I have read many other posts where people took antibiotics just prior to their onset too.

Now, I know that many other people say they had no viral infection before their twitching started. What I want to narrow down is how accurate that really is. Maybe someone wasn't sick 2 or 3 weeks before their symptoms started, but 60 or 90 days prior, they might well have been sick and didn't relate the two because of the time span. We certainly can't allow too much time span between the illness and the start of the twitching because we ALL get sick once or twice a year (at least), so we need to make a small window or "incubation period" between the two incidences. I think 60 days should be good but I would like to start off with 90 days anyway.

It may not be the illness at all. It "might" be some kind of build-up or intolerance to a certain strain of antibiotic that stores in our fat cells or something and releases some kind of acid or cause or alters some type of protein or enzyme that triggers micro muscle spasms. This would be consistent with the slow start, then the frenzy of symptoms, then a gradual reduction as time goes on. If it was something being released into our blood stream causing an enzyme or protein to cause these symptoms, it would most likely have good days and bad days and inconsistencies causing big twitches and little twitches and waxing and wayning.

Now, I really think it's too early to say one way or the other. We all pretty much over do it on antibiotics and doctor's unfoundedly hand them out like they were candy when we really don't even need them because antibiotics do NOT, can NOT and will NOT fight viral infections. They are for bacterial infections only. Now, with that, we need some type of time frame between the time anyone took antibiotics and the time the BFS symptoms first started. Being that we all pretty much end up taking some kind of antibiotic at one time or another, I don't want this falling into the category of the Herpes theory or stress theories, where so many people have it or have had it some time in their life or another, that it would be too easy to jump to conclusions right away. I mean, we certainly can't say that because we all eat, breathe and sleep and since we all do that and have BFS, one of those must be the cause. See what I mean? So with a 3-4 month time span or "incubation period" between the antibiotic use and the start of BFS, we should be able to narrow it down a bit better.

I'm not 100% sold on this theory yet either... It is just something I would like to investigate a bit further. So, try to list if you had any type of antibiotics up to 90 days before your twitching started and we'll see where this goes.

[Wittesea]

check out this article about antibiotics

http://www.immunesupport.com/library/bu ... &PROD=PH28

I was given Cipro in Jan 2002 while in the hospital. In february 2002 was when I first noticed the twitch in my legs.

[Nole]

I was on Zithromax for a throat infection, twitching started 1-2 weeks later. A nurse friend of mine said to me that anything viral,bacterial, can enter our systems and distrupt the nervous system and it can take quite a will for your nervous sytem to heal, if ever. Just a thought.

[javens]

I had a month long bout with bronchitis while I was in Europe in march 2002. I also had some chronic diarrhea in june. I was given flagyl(metronidozal) for 25 days. My twitches started mid july.

[Debbs]

I was on absolutely no antibiotics whatsoever, tho I do have PND which is seasonal I do not take antibiotics to control it. Last lot of antibiotics I have taken was when I was about 30 and that was for a boil. My twitches didnt start till I was 36 so I doubt that it had much to do with my twitches and jolts.

Debbs

[Arron]

Good so far. Even Debb's post. I want to hear from everyone, whether you had antibiotics right before your twitches started or you haven't had any for 25 years. I need to be able to look at ALL of the information and see what percentages there are. Again, I'm not sure one way or the other, but I want to do this survey to at least rule it out, if that is the case. Please post if you already havent. Thanks!

[Brian_B]

I dont know if I had antibiotics, but I know about a year before it started I had some severe GI bleeding and then had it on and off up until sept this year when they finally found out what was wrong and fixed it.

[tlotoxl]

i was on tetracycline in my late teens because my acne was pretty bad, but other than that... hmm.. i did take some strong antibioitics (amoxocyline and another one) when i had a bad ear infection in university, but that was over a year before the twitches got bad, though at the time i had a bad reaction -- shakes and confusion -- which i put down to mixing the antibiotics with beer and a japanese medicine. (oops... well, it was my graduation party and all...)

[jblack]

no antibiotics here...I stopped taking them years ago when I started hearing about the general resistance building up in the population. I didn't want to contribute to that unless absolutely necessary!

[Annie]

Arron, I was on low-dosage antibiotics (doxycyclene) for a chronic bacterial eye infection for two years prior to the onset of my BFs (yes, that's right... I was on antibiotics for 24 months). I subsequently quit the antibiotics, wondering if there was some connection to the BFs. I still have BFs (it's been about 6 months). I have no idea if there's a connection. It seems, however, if ABs were the cause, that my BFs would have stopped when I quit the ABs, which didn't happen. Annie

[garman]

I was put on a 1 week course of flagy and Motillium for a gastro intestinal infection. Infection disappeared, fasiculations began immediatley.
Regards,
Gar.

[michelle]

The last time I had taken antibiotics was 1.5 years before the twitching started. I was on a week of doxycycline for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Michelle

[tlotoxl]

(incidentally - i think that doxycyline is the antibiotic being tested on rats to see if it helps in cases of parkinsons and MS -- apparently its anti-oxidant properties (not its antibacterial properties) can help protect the nervous system. this suggests to me that doxycyline is probably benign, but who knows.)

[Jen]

I was on doxycycline for 1.5 years for an eye condition. I stopped the doxy because it was too hard on my stomach, and a few months later began a 15 day treatment with Septra. The twitching began within the next month.

[Arron]

Well, this is also another dead-end. Too many people that took antibiotics and too many that didn't, and yet with the same outcome. This is what is so puzzling about BFS. There doesn't seem to be "one" specific cause or any real common denominators.

I would certainly say that no drugs or antibiotics cause BFS after this small survey on this site along with the information I have from numerous other sites. It all came out the same on those sites as well... antibiotics and medications not the cause.