Like the vast majority of people, you have probably taken an antibiotic at some point in your life.  And it probably helped you. However, a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones can cause permanent and severe damage -- this is known as fluoroquinolone toxicity, or, in the US, fluoroquinolone induced disability - FQID. This is a global health care problem that few know about -- or are warned about by their doctor. Why is that? In this episode, I chat with someone who has insight not only into the dynamics that keep this medical harm mostly hidden from the public, but has also been profoundly impacted by fluoroquinolones. Marc from Germany is just one of 10s of 1000s of people around the planet who have been injured by these antibiotics. Marc shares how he finally connected the dots between his declining health and repeated use of fluoroquinolones, and what he does to help alleviate the toxicity symptoms so that he has an improved quality of life.  The statistics of harm from fluoroquinolone toxicity are vastly under reported because the toxicity symptoms may not noticeably manifest until days, weeks or months after the antibiotic use. This makes it difficult for those affected to identify the cause of their symptoms, and a challenge for physicians to tease out….or even acknowledge. Symptoms include tendon rupture, aortic rupture, hypoglycemia, nerve damage, mental health issues and -- surprisingly to me -- a dysfunctional response to exercise known as post exertional malaise, the hallmark symptom of the neurological disease ME, or myalgic encephalomyelitis. As you will hear, Marc postulates that some people diagnosed with ME may have fluoroquinolone toxicity. Is he connecting more dots, that the medical system is missing? Connect with Marc: Twitter: @FQID2 Marc’s Doctor is Dr. Stefan Pieper https://praxisdrpieper.de Dr Pieper released a "Springer essential" at scientific publisher Springer in German with basic facts about diagnosis and possible treatment regarding FQID (Fluoroquinolone Induced Disability) https://springer.com Be a podcast patron Support Medical Error Interviews on Patreon by becoming a Patron for $2 / month for audio versions.  Premium Patrons get access to video versions of podcasts for $5 / month. Be my Guest I am always looking for guests to share their medical error experiences so we help bring awareness and make patients safer. If you are a survivor, a victim’s surviving family member, a health care worker, advocate, researcher or policy maker and you would like to share your experiences, please send me an email with a brief description:  RemediesPodcast@gmail.com  Need a Counsellor? Like me, many of my clients at Remedies Counseling have experienced the often devastating effects of medical error. If you need a counsellor for your experience with medical error, or living with a chronic illness(es), I offer online video counseling appointments. **For my health and life balance, I limit my number of counseling clients.**  Email me to learn more or book an appointment:  RemediesOnlineCounseling@gmail.com Scott Simpson:  Counsellor + Patient Advocate + (former) Triathlete I am a counsellor, patient advocate, and - before I became sick and disabled - a passionate triathlete. Work hard. Train hard. Rest hard. I have been living with HIV since 1998. I was the first person living with HIV to compete at the triathlon world championships. Thanks to research and access to medications, HIV is not a problem in my life. I have been living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) since 2012, and thanks in part to medical error, it is a big problem in my life. Counseling / Research I first became aware of the ubiquitousness of medical error during a decade of community based research working with the HIV Prevention Lab at Ryerson University, where I co-authored two research papers on a counseling intervention for people living with HIV, here and here.  Patient participants would often report varying degre