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It’s when I see stories like this that make me think genetic component to it or drug drug reaction.

I have a serious defect in a p450 enzyme. It can cause all kinds of problems. No one thought to test me. I discovered on my own..but now that I know..Drs are pretty much clueless other than “I have heard of It but no nothing about it”

Even though I got it officially confirmed and it’s in my records I am still treated like drug seeker if I bring up certain opioids won’t work on me.

The Hidden Cost of Healing: When Medications Damage Our Mitochondria

In 2007, my sister, Johanna, was a healthy emergency-room nurse. A routine prescription of Cipro led to her Achilles tendon rupturing without warning.

Then came 17 years of unexplained symptoms:

14 tendon ruptures total (10 in the last 3 years; 4 while sleeping)

Crushing fatigue that left me bedbound for days

Nerve pain, muscle weakness, and cognitive fog no test could explain

She was labeled “complex,” “rare,” or “idiopathic.” In 2024, a medical paper landed in my inbox. A local Nurse Practitioner helped connect the dots. Next-generation mtDNA sequencing confirmed:

Respiratory Chain Complex I deficiency — a hallmark of drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction.

Fluoroquinolones: A Hidden Mitochondrial Threat

Fluoroquinolones—drugs like Cipro, Levaquin, and Avelox—are among the most prescribed antibiotics worldwide. They are powerful and effective, but they also target mitochondria, the energy engines in every human cell. These synthetic drugs were designed to inhibit bacterial topoisomerase II (gyrase), which unwinds DNA during replication. Human mitochondria—descendants of ancient bacteria—use nearly identical topoisomerase enzymes. As a result, fluoroquinolones can poison mitochondrial topoisomerase II, causing double-stranded DNA breaks (Kalogeropoulou et al., Toxins 2020, DOI: 10.3390/toxins12050296). The outcome:

Energy collapse
Oxidative stress
Progressive tissue breakdown
In susceptible patients, the damage never fully heals.

There is a lot more to this story. She has created a website to collect and share information. And to ultimately get action by the FDA to make more people aware of the danger.

druginducedmito.org

Shortly, there will be a registry up...right now she is working with the website designer to find a way to get information with HIPPA compliance... Please share this info.