GMA story

[nanato3]

here is a link

*http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartDiseaseCenter/story?id=4281162&page=1

[Allen1]

That's a great link nanato3,

I read quite a few of the posts and left one of my own. The amount of folks that are still being put on this rubbish is obscene, the only good thing is that there are so many posts going up about this issue, this means in real terms that so many other victims are now aware all that they have gone through is not their imagination or that they are just getting older.

[nanato3]

I have been on the internet all day reading articles , I had no idea so many were suffering because of statins.

Deb

[cjbrooksjc]

Deb: I did not see a way to leave a topic-related response. How did you accomplish that?


Brooks

[cjbrooksjc]

Allen1: My last post was intended for you; not Deb, mea culpa.

Brooks

[Allen1]

HI there cjbrooksjc,

at the bottom of the page where it says :-

Doctors Discredit Lipitor's Link to Memory Loss
123Next
| Read All 176 Comments and Post Your Own

just click on the {Read All 176 Comments and Post Your Own}

you will have access to the comments and at the bottom each page there is a place to type your comments, when done press the blue comment bar and it will give you the next page to enter your details to register or log on etc. I notice that the comment box is also on the main page but I didn't try that ok. If anyone is outside of America like myself then you don't need to enter anything for the ZIP code and you will be accepted. my quick efforts are as below, they could have been better but the main message is still there.

All the best to you John and family,

Allen

As it has already been mentioned in some of these posts other statins also cause memory problems. My poison was Zocor then its cheaper version "Simvastatin", after around 11 years of taking them and for most of that time complaining about forgetting peoples names, unable to remember what I was doing or saying, my doctor took me off them for a couple of months because my blood CK levels had started to go high. It was during that period that I was able to actually say a complete sentence and I had the brainpower to search for the reason I felt so exhausted and the memory problems along with everything else. Like most of the other folk who found out what was causing it I was totally shocked and surprised. Not one of the doctors I have seen for so many tests had mentioned statins and were completely unaware of the problems. Most of those doctors are now very aware that these "wonder drugs" are causing harm because I have told them in no uncertain terms, I also showed them what I had found out about them from various sites so there is no excuse to see anyone else go through this nightmare where I live.One year after stopping the Statins and I still have memory and physical problems, they are not as severe now, but they do limit what I can do and every day is different some good, some not so good. The doctors that say you must take these or you will die etc, well all I can say is they should be sued for causing unnecessary suffering to all of their patients by keeping them on a drug which is doing them so much harm.
Posted by:
Allenshere Feb-13

[cjbrooksjc]

Allen: I just wanted to commiserate a bit with you; nothing else.

I recall (hooray!) the memory thing as a particularly unique experience. You know how you forget a word and you can feel it cycling around in your brain (on the tip of my tongue), but you just can't quite capture it? That's what memory probs were like for me PRE-statins.

Under the effect of Zocor, it was like, it's hard to explain, but like the comedy schtick where the actor says something so utterly yet unintentionally offending that all you hear is night sounds, if anything... just crickets and silence? THAT'S what ZOCOR memory loss is like for me - absolutely nothing on the tip of your tongue, NOTHING - like someone turned the music off in the middle of the dance, and you're just standing there wondering! Such a strange feeling. Better now though, thank God, Graveline, Langsjoen, and this great family of friends. OK, that's it. I feel better now.

Best,
Brooks

[Allen1]

Hi there Brooks,

What you have described about statins is very much like my own sensations, at first the words were there but just out of reach then as time went by in the middle of saying something all that was there was darkness where your words should be. The nearest way that I can describe it would be like watching a videotape where someone had recorded a black image over it every now and then, the black image is when you can't recall anything you are trying to say, or anyone's name etc then the tape would go to a good part again but the word was still lost. Some of the time I also felt like I was drunk and even slurred when I spoke, thankfully that was not so common though, my main worry was when I used to get electric shock sensations in my head, something like you would see happening to a cartoon character about to lose control. they were scary to put it mildly.

An MRB scan of my brain showed white deposit here and there but nothing really out of the ordinary that would account for all the memory problems. The electric shock sensations don't happen very often now unless I feel under the weather and even then they don't last so long, although my thinking process works a lot better now it is still no where near as good as it was, plus if I get a little tired, my thinking ability sort of fades away.

I am now taking Q10 as well as L-Carnintine but still waiting on the Doc's go ahead to try the Vinpocetine, some days I can type rather good but other days like today I may as well be hitting the keys with my elbows!

Trying to put sensations into words that make sense is not very easy but I think you will be able to see what I mean as a sufferer yourself.

All the best,

Allen

[cjbrooksjc]

Allen: Yes, I understand very well. My shocks came at night when, I, accustomed to resolving the day's issues while falling to sleep, would be treated to those white-lightning zaps that would jerk my body involuntarily (no more). Funny, I hadn't thought of it for a long time and it might have been lost had you not reminded me.
Thanks.

Brooks

[Allen1]

Hi there Brooks,

I wonder if extreme tiredness had something to do with those shock sensations because looking back it was mainly when I was feeling tired or stressed that they would occour. Mind you most of the time it was during the day when it happened for me and I did get exhausted so very quickly all the time.

Compaired to a year ago I am like a spring chicken, it is good to be able to think again and a lot of my aches and pains dissapear or lessen for days on end apart from the tennis elbow on both arms (mainly my left) but even that isn't so bad some days. There is still a long way to go for all of us but all we can do is take it one day at a time and hope that things keep improving. (hopefully not famouse last words)

All the best,

Allen :-0

[cjbrooksjc]

Tiredness, maybe, I really don't know... I was tired ALL THE TIME back then. I remain convinced that some common set of conditions exist for those of us who are so badly effected, and I hope to be able to puzzle something out in time. How else could some people take this junk for years and then become affected and others feel the effects almost immediately. Something (natural) must be happening to those effected long term that has already happened in the natural course of life to those effected short term. I just don't think it is a wild card DNA strand... maybe, but I don't think so. Here am I - my only educational background is economics and my productive life was spent as a project manager, still, I think some talents cross main stream professional barriers, and a solid approach to problem solving serves us all well. What seems to be missing is information, though the UCSD information sifting process has been on-going for some time and they haven't published anything really startling. I don't know - in my experience an obvious solution' is nothing more than a complex idea stated in simple terms, so maybe the answer will come from outside academia. hmmmm... I do ramble on. Feels good to rant sometime , as xrn puts it.

Best, Brooks

[Allen1]

Hi there Brooks,

when you think back to the time before stopping "statin therapy!" there was so many changes happening both physically and mentally every day. The pains that you had in one place would end up somewhere else a few days later and with having so much going on and aches and pains moving from site to site it was impossible to keep up with all the combinations of symptoms that were happening.

A for instance would be say my right hip area, there are 3 distinct areas of sensation where the pain would transfer between over a period of days. Area one was close to the spine, area two was between area one and near the edge of the hip and finally area three which continued from the edge of the hip to the front of the hip. Now that is just one example, you know all about neck, shoulder, arm and leg pains and how they would appear for days and either fade away or move elsewhere for a while. When I had my MI the pain was between the shoulder blades and it was very painful, the amount of times I have had similar sensations (apart from genuine angina pains) that were caused by statins is obscene.

You would tell the doctor about various problems, then the next time you see him he would ask how's the pain, but there have been so many changes since then that you can't recall what was said the last time you saw him.

The areas that become painful are the ones being starved of energy because your body cannot keep up with demand ie Q10 and/or Carnitine I believe I read elsewhere on this site about a year ago.

I am still having problems with mood swings, the getting very angry over things like stupid ridiculous questions on forms have had me ripping them up in a complete rage in the past, but I can often control that now to a certain degree. What I can't control is what happens while watching a sad or happy ending in a film especially a weepy one, I used to smile when my wife reacted that way to a film!

Sorry nanato3,

I didn't meant to hijack your post it just sort of turned out this way

[cjbrooksjc]

Alen. Yes, I won't belabor this more, but the mood thing is real. I am absolutely more sensitive than I used to be, maybe because feeling so bad after feeling so good for so many tears broke down some barrier somewhere in my psyche. OK, that's it for me. No more ranting. Hope you recover completely.

Regards,

Brooks