Levaquin Antibiotic gastric side effects and yeast infections

by Lisa
(Pennsylvania, USA)

In the mid 1990's I was administered a strong antibiotic to deal with influenza symptoms. It could very well have been Levaquin, but I don't have any documents now as to what it was.

Shortly afterwards, I developed horrendous gastric side-effects. In a panic, I went back to my doctor who then prescribed me a Probiotic. He explained that the antibiotics destroyed the good bacteria in my gut and the probiotic would help with that. The probiotic actually DID help tremendously.

It always confuses me to this day why I wasn't warned about antibiotics destroying my good bacteria in the first place- and the need for a probiotic afterwards. If I hadn't called my doctor about the gastric symptoms, the remainder of my life would have been on a roller coaster of antacids and over the counter drugs to deal with gastric issues instead of getting to the root of the problem.

Since that time I have had periodic yeast infections and symptoms of tendonitis and wrist inflammation during menstruation, so who knows if possibly that particular antibiotic may yet be tied in with further insults to my body's health in those areas over time.

These days I don't go out of my way to ask for an antibiotic any longer. I have found a lot of success with anti viral oregano oil, raw garlic, goldenseal, hydrogen peroxide, lomatium herb, cat's claw herb, and other nutrients that support the immune system.



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Lisa.

Let's clear up some confusion.

First off, my confusion: Why were you given antibiotics for influenza symptoms? The flu is a VIRAL infection. Not bacterial. So antibiotics would have NO beneficial effect against a virus, other than a doctor making you feel better because you were given -something-.

As you said, antibiotics wipe out the good bugs along with the bad. And if the good bugs in your gut get wiped out or at least thinned out, that allows bad bugs better access. So things like Candida overgrowth and H pylori infection are FAR more likely to happen, because you have less defense.

See: H Pylori Bacteria

And once those set in, you have to get rid of them, they don't just go away.

LOTS of women (and men) suffer decades long and life long symptoms because doctors generally don't believe in probiotics or the context of how they work in a body and health.

That's why you were never told about the downsides of anti-biotics...because there's not much belief in the medical community that antibiotics are anything other than a miraculous, only-good pill. Such is not the case.

You -shouldn't- go out of your way to ask for antibiotics. They're not the cure all we've been led to believe. Especially when they're given for NON-BACTERIAL infections. It's better to give a placebo than an antibiotic if there's no bacteria involved.

Keep with the probiotics! Which includes good cultured foods like sauerkraut, kombucha, raw milk, etc.


I'm curious since you posted this here, have you taken Levaquin or some other fluroquinolone?



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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com