Antibiotics and Chronic Fatigue
I’ve heard quite a few people blame antibiotics and vaccines for their chronic fatigue. In fact, I do too (to a certain extent).
Today I came across an article about Lyme Disease (the one from tick bites) that slips in a little note:
People who continue to have symptoms after treatment [antibiotics] are often said to be suffering from post-Lyme syndrome. They may experience muscle and bone pain, fatigue and mood problems — even though tests find no sign of a systemic infection.
This sounds very much like CFS.
There is some debate, the report said, over whether the problem is aused by Lyme organisms so hidden away in the body that drugs do not each them, or whether it may be a form of chronic fatigue syndrome.
I thought I could be right!
Not only do prolonged courses of antibiotics appear to do no good, the report said, they pose some risk because of possible side effects.
Like CFS? 
What does everyone else think? Have you linked Chronic Fatigue to any drugs that may have had an influence?
PS. I also think an ilness can have a huge impact, hence why many people call it “post-viral fatigue”…
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I was very healthy before CFS. The only time I ever had to go to the doctor, was for a physical before going off to school…or to tend an injury, or something along those lines.
After my diagnosis, the first thing we discovered, was that antibiotics reduced my symptoms considerably. It was THE most effective treatment that my doctors and I found. This was when I was still using western medicine as my only form of treatment.
I contribute antibiotics to the fact that I did recover from CFS. Recover of course is a relative term. I am not nearly as sick as I once was. However, long term use of antibiotics (and I believe 18 months is considered to be long term), has done some unfortunate things to my body. For instance, I now get frequent illnesses like mono, pneumonia, or bronchial infections and antibiotics will do nothing. Doctors will even prescribe “super meds” - combinations of different antibiotics, and NOTHING!
So I have started searching elsewhere for treatment. And while it takes me a lot longer to get healthy, its definitely a more “natural” way. Which makes me a lot happier.
Let me reiterate in stating, that I have no real regrets using antibiotics in the first place. I believe that I never would have been able to gotten as far as I have without that kind of treatment.
Wow, that’s quite a surprise for me.!
I’ve found the antibiotics to have an adverse affect on me too, and I’ve never heard of people with CFS benefiting from that, it’s great to hear that you did!
The (natural) MD that I went to swore off antibiotics and vaccines and everything, and to an extent showed me how they had made me worse, which is why I always thought they were.
It’s good to hear someone benefited from them in the short term at least
I’m quite sceptical of these sorts of things. When there’s no scientific answers people seem to feel free to come up with any theory without any real evidence (and then charge us plenty of money for unproven treatments!). There’s a medical doctor in my city who specializes in CFS and he believes it is caused by mercury fillings. I’d love to go to him because I have no fillings whatsoever!
The only thing that has been linked to my disease is a bout of mono when I was a teenager. There is very good scientific evidence for viral involvement in this disease, and I think that is the most likely answer. It’s not an answer we want to hear, though, because viruses are so hard to deal with. They tend to be permanent, and the drugs for them have nasty side-effects. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a medical guinea pig! That may be our lot in life, though.
Sylvia, after going to so many doctors, I can see how nobody would want to be a guinea pig for their theories and treatment.
I’d probably follow the theory about the flu the closest. However, my doctor pointed to mercury that the body stores in the bone marrow (because it can’t flush it out) that came from vaccines.
I didn’t believe her either, so I had some hair mineral test, and they came back saying I had very high mercury! She gave me homeopathics to flush it out, and that made me worse for a month, and then I got so much better!
It just goes to show that it’s more of a syndrome than a certain specific cause. It could be caused by so many things, but we all end up in the same basked, right?
Thanks for the feedback though, it has changed my view on antibiotics!