When "EDS" Isn't Really EDS
Two diagnoses are on a collision course in medicine right now. One is being overstated. The other is being vastly underappreciated. And the real story is what happens when they get confused.
Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or hEDS, has become one of the most commonly rendered connective tissue diagnoses of the past decade. Patient communities have exploded online, awareness campaigns are everywhere, and more people are arriving at the doctor’s office with this label already in hand.
In nearly four decades of clinical experience, the pattern was hard to miss: patients carrying an hEDS diagnosis who could not pass the basic screening test required to make it. No generalized joint hypermobility. No Beighton Score. The diagnosis simply does not hold without it.
But here is where it gets interesting. There is a drug-induced connective tissue injury that can look remarkably like hEDS. A widely prescribed class of antibiotics, the ones that carry an FDA black box warning, can cause real and lasting damage to tendons, joints, and connective tissue. The symptoms overlap substantially. The critical difference? One is genetic. The other is acquired.
Which one is the real diagnosis? And what happens when they get confused?
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Authored by Gerard Guillory, MD
Gerard Guillory, MD, is a board-certified internist who practiced for nearly four decades with a focus on functional, root-cause medicine. He is the author of three books on irritable bowel syndrome and the founder of It’s My Health, where he and his team put current health news in context and help members understand the underlying causes of chronic symptoms.
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