12/11/2025
Every year many thousands of people are severely impacted by Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Toxicity (FQT). This malady is contracted by taking fluoroquinolone antibiotic medications such as Levaquin or Cipro. There are many debilitating symptoms associated with FQT, which include but are not limited to fatigue, neuropathy (nerve pain), severe joint pain, brain fog, tendon pain and rupture, depression and anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, “floxie neck”, and many more.
Exacerbating the problem is the medical community’s general lack of awareness about FQT and the acute shortage of providers that understand FQT and actually know how to effectively treat it.
Heather Slusher, SunCoast Optimal Wellness’s founder, suffered a spontaneous tendon rupture, hair loss, and other significant symptoms caused by taking Levaquin and Cipro after surgery in the 1990s. Heather was unsatisfied with the absence of viable treatment options and the lack of knowledge about FQT in the medical community, so set out to develop effective treatments to combat the disease. In doing so, Heather ultimately healed herself, and now makes the treatment and healing of our Flox patients a focus of our practice and her passion. She is a founding member of the Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Awareness & Healing Alliance (FAAHA) as well as the organization’s Executive Director. We have several treatment plans available to our patients, and every treatment plan is customized based on the individual needs of each patient. We have a wide variety of effective treatments that we use to help our Flox patient’s heal, including intravenous nutrient therapy, supplements to replace deficiencies, Acoustic Wave Therapies for tendon and ligament pain and damage, Light Therapies for mitochondrial regrowth and cellular repair, medical massage, and bodywork to increase muscle function, and more.