Thank you for tuning into this video. The question I get asked from time to time is what are the long-term side effects of fluconazole? Fluconazole is an azole antifungal drug commonly used by medical practitioners to treat vaginal Candidiasis, but also systemic or mucosal Candida infections.
It can be used sometimes for HIV patients or people with like full-blown Aids to keep on top of yeast infections. It can be used prophylactically to prevent yeast infection or it can be commonly used to treat vaginal infections and often used routinely dose after dose, month after month, even year after year. I’ve seen patients on this drug sometimes weekly or monthly for even 10 years at a stretch, which is ridiculous.
All too often, Candida becomes resistant to the effects of these azole antifungal drugs. It will build a stronger, new generation of succeeding Candida strains, which will become increasingly resistant to this drug. Just like antibacterial drugs, antibiotic drugs. When we look at them, we’re getting to the point now where we’re getting such major resistance with these bacteria that even the top shelf drugs are becoming ineffective with a whole lot of people. We’re getting to the point where we’re creating “super bugs” or bugs that are going to be resistant to even the strongest drugs, and that’s going to be a really big problem.
I’ve got a drug guide here which is commonly used in New Zealand called the MIMS New Ethicals. I’m just going to read out to you some of the side effects of fluconazole and then I’m going to discuss the long-term effects. What this drug actually causes.
It says here precaution if you’ve got hepatic impairment. If you’re kidneys are a little bit weak or tired, you need to be very careful with this drug. Careful also with prior arrhythmic condition like if you’ve got irregular heartbeat. If you’ve got electrolyte abnormalities like problems balancing potassium and sodium in the body. People with severe adrenal fatigue should not use this drug at all. Precautions with structural heart disease or underlying heart problems. How would you know you’ve got an underlying heart problem? You wouldn’t even know this.
Precautions with cancer and Aids. Precautions with previously associated fluconazole or associated hepatic toxicity. If you’ve previously been made sick on this drug, you shouldn’t really be taking it. Especially if you’ve had skin rashes. If you’ve ever taken this drug and you’ve had a skin rash or developed a skin rash, you should definitely avoid fluconazole.
Also, be careful if you’ve got fructose malabsorption. How would you know? Sucrase also maltase deficiency, lactose intolerance. How would you know you’ve got these conditions? You wouldn’t know half the time.
Precaution for women of childbearing age because there can be a danger with this drug during pregnancy. And women on this drug if they’re likely to conceive, they need to take precautions. You need to be careful.
Let’s look at some of the side effects of fluconazole. Common ones are gastrointestinal upsets, skin rashes, headaches, elevated liver function test. If your liver enzymes are going to be elevated when you take this drug, basically it means that your liver is becoming toxic. It’s becoming sick.
Elevated LFTs are commonly associated with a whole wide range of pharmaceutical drugs. The doctors will typically test for three or four different liver enzymes, and many of them are between defined ranges of about 0 to 30. The doctor believes if you’re anywhere between that range, you’re okay. But what about if you’re on the upper end of that range or slightly over? Many doctors don’t mind that. I think that’s pretty stupid because what they’re saying is they don’t mind if your liver becomes a bit toxic or sick or is starting to actually become damaged and spill these enzymes into the circulation.
That’s like basically the doctor condoning alcohol. Look, you’re showing some mild degree of alcoholic toxicity here, but we’ll be okay with that as long as you don’t make it too toxic. Gamma glutamyl transferase or GGT is the common marker that doctors look at for alcohol related toxicity, and I know quite a few doctors don’t mind if the GGT becomes slightly elevated. ALT and AST are other transferase liver enzymes. And again, these are the particular markers that we look at for chemical induced toxicity from pharmaceutical drugs, and many doctors again don’t mind if they become slightly elevated, which I think is pretty stupid. You don’t really want to make your liver toxic.
Let’s have a look at some of the further adverse effects you can get on this medication. Polyuria, so urinating too much, kidney pain, numbness or tingling in extremities, dizziness, seizures, skin itching, sweating, fevers, drug skin eruptions, sleeping disturbances, insomnia, nervousness, pain, female sexual dysfunction, menstrual disorders, deafness, respiratory disorders, high blood pressure, kidney and liver damage. Patient information. Finish the course. May cause dizziness or seizures. Do not drive or operate machinery if affected.
Why the hell would you want to take this drug when it creates all those potential side effects? Some are common. Some are less common. Some are rare. But I’ve learned from experience treating thousands of women and men who’ve taken fluconazole that a lot of these so-called uncommon and rare symptoms actually occur a lot more commonly than you would expect.
If you’ve been on fluconazole and you experience any of these kind of side effects, you need to immediately discontinue the drug. If you take fluconazole and you start experiencing symptoms after, you need to stop the drug. The long-term effects are kidney and liver damage, and that can create a huge amount of problems for you long term.
Taking this drug and drinking one or two alcoholic beverages is like a person not taking the drug drinking several alcoholic beverages. The damage on the liver compounds. Please understand that taking a drug like fluconazole, long term effects, in my opinion, create severe gastrointestinal damage, particularly liver damage, and that’s the last thing you want with Candida is to create liver damage.
The liver is the seat of improving the immune function of the body. It contains millions of kupffer cells which are basically immune cells. The liver also has an incredible amount of functions in the body, over 500 functions, in fact. It helps to restore your health to such a large degree that in my mind you’d be crazy to take drugs that impair its function. Particularly long term.
As you get older and your body declines, these effects compound even further. Please understand taking this drug short term or long term is not really a wise option. Have a think about your natural options when it comes to Candida yeast infections. Think about something that’s not going to create resistance and toxicity in the body. That’s a wise decision to make. I hope that’s given you some insight into the long-term possible effects of fluconazole.
Thank you for tuning in.