I was a fit and healthy doctor. Then I took a common antibiotic… and it nearly killed me. These are the horrific side effects I wish I’d known

I was just five minutes into my usual workout at the gym when my legs suddenly collapsed from under me. 

It was as though a bomb had gone off inside my body and I couldn’t get up.

After being rushed to hospital by my family, doctors performed a series of basic tests. But they couldn’t find anything amiss so I was sent home.

It was December 2016, and over the next few weeks, my condition deteriorated fast.

I lost 15 pounds of muscle mass and ended up confined to a wheelchair because I was too weak to walk. 

The brain fog, intense burning sensations and debilitating pain made it impossible to work – ironically as a doctor, having started my job as an internal medicine physician at a Las Vegas hospital just three months earlier.

By January, things had become so dire I wrote my will, unsure if I would survive.

How could this be happening? I was a fit and healthy 32-year-old doctor who follows a good diet and exercises regularly – and suddenly I was living a nightmare.

After researching my symptoms, I realized they had been caused by a common antibiotic Ciprofloxacin – known as Cipro – that I had prescribed to patients myself countless times for urinary tract infections, persistent coughs, and skin infections.

I’d taken the drug to help treat a stomach infection and hadn’t thought anything of it.

But after just three doses taken twice a day, my body betrayed me. 

I was aware the drug could cause side effects, but my medical training had led me to believe they would be minor and subside in a few days. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Ciprofloxacin is part of a common class of medications called fluoroquinolone.

More than five million Americans are prescribed this class of antibiotic every year – yet most are completely unaware of the serious, and sometimes life-altering, complications they can cause. 

The drugs are subject to three black box warnings from the FDA – the most severe warning the drug agency can place on a medication.

In 2016 – shortly before I took Cipro – the FDA recommended that fluoroquinolone drugs should only be used as a ‘last resort.’

In a notice, the agency said the antibiotic should only be used for patients with sinusitis, bronchitis or UTIs when there were ‘no other treatment options’ available.

This was because the ‘risk of these serious side effects generally outweighs the benefits in these patients’.

Yet despite the FDA recording more than 60,000 injuries linked to fluoroquinolones from the 1990s to the end of 2015, countless cases go unrecognized or misdiagnosed.

As I desperately sought answers for myself, I found an online community of thousands of people suffering the same debilitating side effects. Their stories became my lifeline, confirming I was not alone.

One of the worst side effects I experienced was the impact on my brain receptors, which plunged my body in a relentless state of fight-or-flight – that felt like a psychological nightmare.

Many patients who experience severe reactions to these medications call it being ‘floxed’.

Symptoms can be immediate, as in my case, or emerge weeks later.

Most antibiotics work by targeting structures in the bacteria, such as its cell wall, to weaken and kill the pathogen in order to eradicate the infection.

Research has shown fluoroquinolones, however, attack bacterial DNA and damage human mitochondrial DNA.

Since mitochondria are the energy producers of our cells, the damage may cause them to produce less energy, which disrupts many of the normal functions of cells.

To recover, I realized I needed to repair my mitochondria.

To do this, I replenished magnesium in my body, taking more than 2,000 milligrams (mg) per day in the beginning to help restore my tendons.

I also took supplements to reduce my body’s oxidative stress. This is when there are too many free radicals – highly reactive unstable molecules – in the body that are damaging cells.

Determined to heal, I also explored regenerative therapies and the turning point came in February 2017 when I received a groundbreaking stem cell treatment.

My doctor, the late Dr Mark Berman, who pioneered stem cell surgery in America, extracted tissue from my abdomen, isolated stem cells, and re-injected them into my abdomen in an attempt to revive my body.

I was completely awake throughout the procedure, with the stem cells injected just below the skin. It wasn’t painful but the treatment did take several hours to complete.

Stem cells have the unique ability to self-renew and develop into many different types of cells so can regenerate damaged tissues. They can also contain undamaged mitochondria.

Amazingly, it worked. And with the help of supplements, I began to regain my strength.

Within weeks, I was standing and walking again. And against all odds, I made what I believe to be a near-total recovery from Ciprofloxacin toxicity.

Today, I am healthier than ever and completely recovered.

But my horrendous experience transformed my perspective on medicine.  I no longer work in a hospital and now focus on helping patients through regenerative medicine.

Determined to help make a difference, I founded Regenerative Medicine LA, a clinic dedicated to treating individuals injured by fluoroquinolone antibiotics, as well as those suffering from autoimmune diseases, vaccine injuries, neuropathy, dementia, Parkinson’s, MS, and more. 

I also launched Regen Labs, a biohacking supplement line offering natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals. 

Knowing what I know now, I would never prescribe Ciprofloxacin again because of the harm it could do to patients.

Through my clinic, I am committed to helping others heal and ensuring no one else endures what I went through.

The medical community must do more to recognize the dangers of fluoroquinolones and exercise extreme caution before prescribing them.

I survived, I recovered, and now, I fight for others.

As told to Luke Andrews, health reporter at DailyMail.com