ITS OVER

[garystil]

My problem first began on March 24th 2005. I thought I had the flu. No matter what I ate, it made me feel ill.

I began to keep a food diary and within 3 months I worked out that I could relieve my symptoms my minimising my intake of fructose and by eliminating sorbitol.

For the next 9 months, I was on a fructose restrictive diet, but I was still able to enjoy honey, bananas, nuts, cheese, yoghurt, salmon and oil and use psylliym husks as a bulking agent when I needed to. However, in March this year and particularly from July, all the aforementioned foods were bothering me and in the past month, I had been eating only rice, chicken, fish (all boiled) and green vegetables.

I had been taking statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) for the past 4-5 ears (since the age of 50), and on August 20th this year, decided I would stop taking them.

For the first 26 days it made no difference. In fact I felt worse.

It has now been 29 days since I stopped my daily dose of statins.

Yesterday and today I have eaten chocolate, potato crisps, sultanas, oranges, cream biscuits, caramel pudding, mince meat, bread, pasta and any other food you might care to imagine.

I have had no food intolerance symptoms.

The relief and joy that I feel is tempered by the knowledge that all of you must continue with your own battles. Besides, celebrations in the past have often been shortlived.

Although I am cautiously optimistic about the future, I now know that these statins impacted on my liver/intestines in such a profound way that my body was no longer able to digest and absorb many foods. As my body continues the "washout" of the effects of the statins, my tolerances towards foods continues to improve.

I will post this news on other forums and will hopefully continue to contribute something relevant in the future.

May you all continue to find the strength to carry on with your struggles.

Cheers,
Gary

[bucho]

I had a similar experience on Zocor (see my post in the Zocor forum). I too am a male in his early 50's. After a lifetime of being able to eat anything at all without problems, suddenly after 3 years on Zocor my digestion slowed and I would lie awake every night with stomache pain, sometimes vomiting, with no relief until about 4 AM. Also developed chronic diarrhea. That continued until I had stopped Zocor for about 3 weeks. But it took many months to figure out that Zocor was the problem. By the time I did, I had developed about a dozen additional problems, all very diverse, and frankly quite frightening. (See my post for the gory details.)

You mentioned a strange sensation in the lower legs. My lower legs developed a "pulsing sensation" with pulses coming about 4x my heart rate -- almost like a paint-shaker. Was your experience anything like this?

By the way, I'm about 80-percent recovered now, at five months off the stuff. But still a lot of fatigue after exercise.

[garystil]

Hi Bucho,

My sympathies for what you've been through!

Another 2 weeks have passed, and all is going well. I'm eating just about everything now and I'm having larger and larger amounts of fructose, and other foods that I was intolerant to, each day.

I didnt have any probs with my legs. In that regard, you've confused me with someone else.

Cheers,

Gary