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Statins: Lipitor and others


btdt

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I found one more statin article relating psych problems to these drugs.  I could not find a post dealing with just statins so I am starting one.  I picked Lipitor as part of the title as this is the drug I took.  Part of my demise. 

I know we have statin info all around the site in people's stories and many articles about them including spacedoc.com in my opinion a great site but thought statins deserve their own thread given the number of people having issues who may not know these drugs effects. 

 

http://kellybroganmd.com/article/cracking-cholesterol-myth-statins-harm-body-mind/

 

"review article called Neuropsychiatric Adverse Events Associated with Statins: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Prevention and Management discusses the state of the literature around the intersection between mental health and cholesterol control. Despite generally dismissing a strong signal for concerning psychiatric adverse events, the article seems to conclude the following:

  • Severe irritability, homicidal impulses, threats, road rage, depression and violence, paranoia, alienation, and antisocial behavior; cognitive and memory impairments; sleep disturbance; and sexual dysfunction have all been reported in case series and national registries of those taking statin medications.  Sound like the laundry list of rapidly spoken side effects at the end of a drug commercial? To anyone with a history of or current psychiatric symptoms, the role of these now ubiquitous medications should be appreciated.
  • The signal for lipophilic statins – simvastatin and atorvastatin – was stronger which makes mechanistic sense since these medications penetrate the brain and brain cholesterol deficiency has been implicated in bipolar, major depression, and schizophrenia.

Of course, none of these findings nor their suppression should be surprising because there is no pharmaceutical free lunch, and because Americans are so accustomed to interfacing with human health through the lens of a one pill-one ill model. We are yanking on that spider web and expecting only one thread to pull out.  This perspective would be less disturbing if it didn’t serve as the foundation for medical practice, determined by boards such as the American College of Cardiology and The American Heart Association , the majority of whom have extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry. An industry that has paid out 19.2 billion dollars for civil and criminal charges in the last 5 years alone.

So, the next time you hear of a doctor recommending a cholesterol-lowering intervention, tell him you’ll take that 1% risk and spare yourself cancer, cognitive dysfunction, myopathy, and diabetes. And then go have a 3 egg omelette WITH the yolks."

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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http://www.spacedoc.com/rest_of_my_story.html

 

When I first wrote of my personal side effects of Lipitor, my words were focused purely on transient global amnesia (TGA). This is because, in 1999, shortly after this drug was started by my doctors at Johnson Space Center as part of my annual astronaut physical, this is what I experienced. 

A year later, they re-started me on the same statin, Lipitor, at half the previous dose, saying that my first 6-hour episode of TGA was only a coincidence. Two months later, I again experienced TGA. For twelve hours I was a thirteen-year-old high school student who knew my subjects, teachers and every kid in my class (according to my worried wife) but with no memory for my entire adult life. I laughed when they told me I was married with children and a doctor. I could not have doctored a mouse and certainly had no children. I was thirteen! Fifty-six years of rich and fulfilled adult life had vanished from my mind as if it had never occurred.

After recovery and several years of research on statin drug side effects I considered myself to be lucky to have had only TGA, for when it is over, you are back to normal. Not so for most of the other statin victims in my bulging repository with their persistent neuromuscular problems, short term memory loss and ALS and Parkinsonism-like reactions. 

But now, having read thousands of reports from statin-damaged people, I wonder what the true effect of a statin really has been on my body? For suddenly, in two and one-half years, I have grown old, with weakness and easy fatigability, my coordination is terrible and my reactions are slow.

 

In just three years I had gone from a physically fit to a doddering old man wondering how all this could have happened so fast.

 My initial tiredness, weakness, in-coordination and leg aches and all that has followed were somehow triggered by my exposure to statins, just like the hundreds of other cases in my files. 

My total time on Lipitor was no more than five months at 5-10 mg dosing, low by today's standards. I had joined the ranks of thousands of other people whose physiology had been seriously compromised by statins. 

Research evidence about the more serious side effects of statin drugs began to flood the internet. Statin induced mevalonate blockade with the consequences of CoQ10 and dolichol inhibition now was documented by research rather than just suspected. 

Then mitochondrial mutations induced by statins began to be reported as the cause of increasing numbers of serious disabilities affecting neurons of the brain as well as causing muscle damage. Inhibition of CoQ10 was allowing free radical excess to mutate our mitochondria. The World Health Association reported excess ALS in statin users world-wide. A new word was coined, cerebromyopathies, and currently, reports of ALS associated with statin induced mitochondrial mutations are in the research news.

 

Bottom line CoQ10 help ... maybe dolichols

 

"Recently I discovered a source of dolichol supplement, derived from the needles of the arctic fir So what has caused my improvement? I think it is dolichols, mostly because that came first and I started showing improvement even before I began use of the Hypervibe, but it certainly seems to be speeding things up. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolichol

"Dolichols are found in eukaryotes, although similar polyprenols molecules are found in other organisms including bacteria. Polyprenols in bacteria do not contain an α-saturated isoprenoid and are typically smaller in terms of isoprenoid units or carbon length. Polyprenols perform similar functions within bacteria; that is, they function as glycosyl carrier lipids involved in formation of complex branched polysaccharide. However, the cellular process they are involved in is not glycosylation, but instead cell wall biosynthesis. Statins decrease dolichol levels in the body.[5]

Medical Significance[edit]

The Australian pharmaceutical company Solagran has been investigating the medical significance of polyprenols and their substitution with dolichols when ingested where there is a deficiency. Trials of Ropren (already pharmaceutically registered as a hepatoprotector) in relation to neurodegenerative diseases (including Alzheimer's disease) in both Russia [2] and Australia [3] indicate considerable potential as a safe and effective treatment."

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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dolichol phosphate the new idea to help

http://www.spacedoc.com/dolichols_glycoproteins_statins.html

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

There was a disgustingly biased study just out--statins led to a fourfold increase in memory loss within 30 days of use. It was a retrospective study of a big database, so they compared them to no meds and to people who took non-statin anti-LDL drugs. Those people also had a (nearly fourfold) rate of telling their docs their memories were impaired.

 

The lead author, the Chancellor at Rutgers, concluded, "either two classes of drugs with different actions cause memory loss, or this was just because people were overly worried and thought they had memory loss."

 

Idiot! Fool! Crook! Obviously low cholesterol is the culprit, and pubmed has lots of research on that, as well as depression. 

Rutgers put out a press release quoting this doctor and every paper that ran it Had the same headline: "Statins Might Not Be so Bad After All" or similar. Some hack who writes for the NYT did it too. 

The idiot crook doctor is a heavy hitter in the propublica database of docs on the take, of course.

 

statins might not cause memory loss Google search with all the stories listed.

2009: Cancer hospital said I had adjustment disorder because I thought they were doing it wrong. Their headshrinker prescribed Effexor, and my life set on a new course. I didn't know what was ahead, like a passenger on Disneyland's Matterhorn, smiling and waving as it climbs...clink, clink, clink.

2010: Post surgical accidental Effexor discontinuation by nurses, masked by intravenous Dilaudid. (The car is balanced at the top of the track.) I get home, pop a Vicodin, and ...

Whooosh...down, down, down, down, down...goes the trajectory of my life, up goes my mood and tendency to think everything is a good idea.
2012: After the bipolar jig was up, now a walking bag of unrelated symptoms, I went crazy on Daytrana (the Ritalin skin patch by Noven), because ADHD was a perfect fit for a bag of unrelated symptoms. I was prescribed Effexor for the nervousness of it, and things got neurological. An EEG showed enough activity to warrant an epilepsy diagnosis rather than non-epileptic ("psychogenic") seizures.

:o 2013-2014: Quit everything and got worse. I probably went through DAWS: dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome. I drank to not feel, but I felt a lot: dread, fear, regret, grief: an utter sense of total loss of everything worth breathing about, for almost two years.

I was not suicidal but I wanted to be dead, at least dead to the experience of my own brain and body.

2015: I  began to recover after adding virgin coconut oil and organic grass-fed fed butter to a cup of instant coffee in the morning.

I did it hoping for mental acuity and better memory. After ten days of that, I was much better, mood-wise. Approximately neutral.

And, I experienced drowsiness. I could sleep. Not exactly happy, I did 30 days on Wellbutrin, because it had done me no harm in the past. 

I don't have the DAWS mood or state of mind. It never feel like doing anything if it means standing up.

In fact, I don't especially like moving. I'm a brain with a beanbag body.   :unsure:

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There was a disgustingly biased study just out--statins led to a fourfold increase in memory loss within 30 days of use. It was a retrospective study of a big database, so they compared them to no meds and to people who took non-statin anti-LDL drugs. Those people also had a (nearly fourfold) rate of telling their docs their memories were impaired.

 

The lead author, the Chancellor at Rutgers, concluded, "either two classes of drugs with different actions cause memory loss, or this was just because people were overly worried and thought they had memory loss."

 

Idiot! Fool! Crook! Obviously low cholesterol is the culprit, and pubmed has lots of research on that, as well as depression. 

 

Rutgers put out a press release quoting this doctor and every paper that ran it Had the same headline: "Statins Might Not Be so Bad After All" or similar. Some hack who writes for the NYT did it too. 

 

The idiot crook doctor is a heavy hitter in the propublica database of docs on the take, of course.

 

statins might not cause memory loss Google search with all the stories listed.

As one who used to defend journalists when they were under attack, I have greatly despised what they have become regarding their constant roles as Pravda for faulty medical studies.  No critical thinking whatsoever.  

 

By the way, you folks who have no idea what I am talking about regarding Pravda, do a google search to find out the role it played in rubber stamping all government activities under communist Russia.    Because our media rubber stamps all medical studies come heck or high water, that is why I used this analogy.

 

Regarding statins, h-ll would freeze over before I ever took one even if I felt my cholesterol was an issue.   There are way too many natural alternatives to be starting with a heavy hitter like this that has horrific side effects.

 

CS

 

PS - How insulting to discount people's reports of memory loss on a med.   But not a surprise unfortunately.

Drug cocktail 1995 - 2010
Started taper of Adderall, Wellbutrin XL, Remeron, and Doxepin in 2006
Finished taper on June 10, 2010

Temazepam on a PRN basis approximately twice a month - 2014 to 2016

Beginning in 2017 - Consumption increased to about two times per week

April 2017 - Increased to taking it full time for insomnia

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Here he is, Strom, a wealthy liar.

Strom_ad_sm.jpg

I know what Pravda is fo sho. There might still be elderly Russians would wouldn't like the term "communist Russia" because their Russia was bled dry by those voracious [oops, relapsing into early withdrawal] b-b-b-Boleshviks [call my last doctor!] 

I despise the thought that my father's sense of accelerated decline might be due to statins. All my life I could ask him anything about anything and he would start reciting an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge. All the ranks in the US and British military branches, every form of fermented cow's milk and how to make it and what it was used for, periodic chart of the elements, every pharmaceutical in use up until the 80s, etc. He had the massive database kind of brain, plus a good memory. Not so much, now. He also began feeling weak last year, and asked me if I've read anything about it getting better after D/C. (For some, yes.) 

 

It's bizarre how much suffering we put up with because medicine as a field has been regarded as infallible for so long. But has it ever been? I suppose that once it became lucrative it began drawing the wrong kind of people. Smart, bad people, and dumb, ambitious people. Bring back the country doc with his black bag and stethoscope!

2009: Cancer hospital said I had adjustment disorder because I thought they were doing it wrong. Their headshrinker prescribed Effexor, and my life set on a new course. I didn't know what was ahead, like a passenger on Disneyland's Matterhorn, smiling and waving as it climbs...clink, clink, clink.

2010: Post surgical accidental Effexor discontinuation by nurses, masked by intravenous Dilaudid. (The car is balanced at the top of the track.) I get home, pop a Vicodin, and ...

Whooosh...down, down, down, down, down...goes the trajectory of my life, up goes my mood and tendency to think everything is a good idea.
2012: After the bipolar jig was up, now a walking bag of unrelated symptoms, I went crazy on Daytrana (the Ritalin skin patch by Noven), because ADHD was a perfect fit for a bag of unrelated symptoms. I was prescribed Effexor for the nervousness of it, and things got neurological. An EEG showed enough activity to warrant an epilepsy diagnosis rather than non-epileptic ("psychogenic") seizures.

:o 2013-2014: Quit everything and got worse. I probably went through DAWS: dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome. I drank to not feel, but I felt a lot: dread, fear, regret, grief: an utter sense of total loss of everything worth breathing about, for almost two years.

I was not suicidal but I wanted to be dead, at least dead to the experience of my own brain and body.

2015: I  began to recover after adding virgin coconut oil and organic grass-fed fed butter to a cup of instant coffee in the morning.

I did it hoping for mental acuity and better memory. After ten days of that, I was much better, mood-wise. Approximately neutral.

And, I experienced drowsiness. I could sleep. Not exactly happy, I did 30 days on Wellbutrin, because it had done me no harm in the past. 

I don't have the DAWS mood or state of mind. It never feel like doing anything if it means standing up.

In fact, I don't especially like moving. I'm a brain with a beanbag body.   :unsure:

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Here he is, Strom, a wealthy liar.

Strom_ad_sm.jpg

 

I know what Pravda is fo sho. There might still be elderly Russians would wouldn't like the term "communist Russia" because their Russia was bled dry by those voracious [oops, relapsing into early withdrawal] b-b-b-Boleshviks [call my last doctor!] 

 

I despise the thought that my father's sense of accelerated decline might be due to statins. All my life I could ask him anything about anything and he would start reciting an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge. All the ranks in the US and British military branches, every form of fermented cow's milk and how to make it and what it was used for, periodic chart of the elements, every pharmaceutical in use up until the 80s, etc. He had the massive database kind of brain, plus a good memory. Not so much, now. He also began feeling weak last year, and asked me if I've read anything about it getting better after D/C. (For some, yes.) 

 

It's bizarre how much suffering we put up with because medicine as a field has been regarded as infallible for so long. But has it ever been? I suppose that once it became lucrative it began drawing the wrong kind of people. Smart, bad people, and dumb, ambitious people. Bring back the country doc with his black bag and stethoscope!

WC,  I can't imagine watching your father decline like that.  On a related note, I know someone who takes a statin and I wonder if that has effected this person's memory.   Hers was superior to begin with so people probably don't notice any problems.   But I definitely do.   Unfortunately, she totally believes in conventional meds and would never listen to my concerns.

 

I totally believed in western medicine until I started questioning psychiatry.   Then I realized how stupid I had been.  It doesn't mean I think alternative medicine is better because it isn't.   I just don't think you can take anything for granted.

Drug cocktail 1995 - 2010
Started taper of Adderall, Wellbutrin XL, Remeron, and Doxepin in 2006
Finished taper on June 10, 2010

Temazepam on a PRN basis approximately twice a month - 2014 to 2016

Beginning in 2017 - Consumption increased to about two times per week

April 2017 - Increased to taking it full time for insomnia

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My father is 84, though, so some of it could be natural.

 

Yeah I was a snotty little science-head. Now that I have read so many drug trials and books about drug trials, I see no reason to believe anything in a medical journal.

 

There are still Chantix studies in journals like BMJ--two this year already year. One of the reviewers of one manuscript had a Pfizer COI (and Chantix is Pfizer's.) She was coaching the authors on how to be more convincing. I had to googled her. She written the most wrong-headed article about risks of pot I'd ever seen in MSM, except as a joke. Googled more. Vice had done a piece on people who get paid to write bad things about pot. She was one of them. The other reviewer of the Chantix study was a young professor with no COI listed. Fine, except I just saw a mention of him and the Pfizer shill doing some event or project together, though they live on opposite coasts.

 

The BMJ study was was radioactive with red flags for bias built-in. Dr. Glenmullen and an associate co-wrote a letter pointing it out the problems. Oh yeah--the subjects were a ton of medical records, and the some of the outcomes were adverse events that were extreme and rare, like hospitalization and serious car crashes. They had no idea who was actually taking Chantix. They only knew that it had been dispensed by a pharmacy. Some people would read the insert and not take it. Some feel suicidal within 2-3 days like me and stop taking it. In other words, worthless data. BMJ? Sure!

 

The other BMJ piece was an RCT I think. Meta-analysis of many? They saw not

 

A non-drug study in an NJ prison "found" that turning it into a non-smoking facility caused a huge drop in the death rate among their special needs inmates. That was not a study question. It looked like fishing in the data to find SOMETHING. It also said there were no other interventions to explain it.

 

I went to the website of the university medical group that has the contract to do health care at the prison. They had phased out Seroquel at some point during the multi-year study.

 

As for death rates, there was a graph that showed the special needs men's death rates has risen super high before the study. The "effect" the authors reported  was regression to the mean. THEN I found a sort of glossy brochure version of the same study (a PDF actually, but dolled up like a magazine. In it they admitted they'd gone fishing to get the"special needs" result. THEN: On the normal-looking research paper, the 2nd author was listed with a Pfizer COI. On the glossy PDF, they list two authors and  their COIs. Then they listed people who helped but were not authors. Ms. Pfizer had been dumped down there. No need to list that pesky Pfizer symbiosis. Oh yeah--some of the authors were based in that university/clinic. They can't claim ignorance of what I saw there.
 

2009: Cancer hospital said I had adjustment disorder because I thought they were doing it wrong. Their headshrinker prescribed Effexor, and my life set on a new course. I didn't know what was ahead, like a passenger on Disneyland's Matterhorn, smiling and waving as it climbs...clink, clink, clink.

2010: Post surgical accidental Effexor discontinuation by nurses, masked by intravenous Dilaudid. (The car is balanced at the top of the track.) I get home, pop a Vicodin, and ...

Whooosh...down, down, down, down, down...goes the trajectory of my life, up goes my mood and tendency to think everything is a good idea.
2012: After the bipolar jig was up, now a walking bag of unrelated symptoms, I went crazy on Daytrana (the Ritalin skin patch by Noven), because ADHD was a perfect fit for a bag of unrelated symptoms. I was prescribed Effexor for the nervousness of it, and things got neurological. An EEG showed enough activity to warrant an epilepsy diagnosis rather than non-epileptic ("psychogenic") seizures.

:o 2013-2014: Quit everything and got worse. I probably went through DAWS: dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome. I drank to not feel, but I felt a lot: dread, fear, regret, grief: an utter sense of total loss of everything worth breathing about, for almost two years.

I was not suicidal but I wanted to be dead, at least dead to the experience of my own brain and body.

2015: I  began to recover after adding virgin coconut oil and organic grass-fed fed butter to a cup of instant coffee in the morning.

I did it hoping for mental acuity and better memory. After ten days of that, I was much better, mood-wise. Approximately neutral.

And, I experienced drowsiness. I could sleep. Not exactly happy, I did 30 days on Wellbutrin, because it had done me no harm in the past. 

I don't have the DAWS mood or state of mind. It never feel like doing anything if it means standing up.

In fact, I don't especially like moving. I'm a brain with a beanbag body.   :unsure:

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  • 1 year later...

https://www.spacedoc.com/

 

Here are the facts on statins blog by a NASA Doctor who took statins and was damaged... mitochondrial damage if I recall correctly.  Calcium is the new heart damagers it would seem not cholesterol... there was a link to calcium on the space doc blog by another doctor I think I posted it before maybe in the mitochondrial thread. 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 2 months later...
  • Moderator Emeritus

This info about statins ain't new.

 

From 2011, Psychology Today:

(references to studies listed at bottom of article):

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-breakthrough-depression-solution/201106/low-cholesterol-and-its-psychological-effects

 

Sample:

 

A few years ago an excellent study was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Researchwith little attention from the press and essentially no reaction from my colleagues. The simple study followed nearly 4,500 US veterans for 15 years. At the end of the study the researchers found that men with low total cholesterol levels and depression were 7 times more likely to die prematurely from unnatural causes such as suicide and accidents than the other men in the study!

 

For many years, scientific studies have linked low cholesterol to depression and impulsivebehaviors, including suicide and violence.

  • 1993 study reported, "Among men aged 70 years and older, categorically defined depression was three times more common in the group with low total plasma cholesterol...than in those with higher concentrations..."
  • study of men aged 40 to 70 found that the men with long-term, low total cholesterol levels "have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms" compared to those with higher cholesterol levels.
  • Women with low cholesterol levels are also vulnerable to depression. A Swedish study involving 300 healthy women, aged 31 to 65, concluded that women in the lowest cholesterol group-the bottom ten percentile-suffered from significantly more depressive symptoms than the others in the study.
  • The vast majority of the research leads to the same conclusion; low cholesterol leads to higher rates of depression or depressive symptoms.

 

There are more studies listed in the article about aggression and homocide, "bipolar" suicide attempts.

 

And the uses of cholesterol in the body and brain.

 

Good little article.

"Easy, easy - just go easy and you'll finish." - Hawaiian Kapuna

 

Holding is hard work, holding is a blessing. Give your brain time to heal before you try again.

 

My suggestions are not medical advice, you are in charge of your own medical choices.

 

A lifetime of being prescribed antidepressants that caused problems (30 years in total). At age 35 flipped to "bipolar," but was not diagnosed for 5 years. Started my journey in Midwest United States. Crossed the Pacific for love and hope; currently living in Australia.   CT Seroquel 25 mg some time in 2013.   Tapered Reboxetine 4 mg Oct 2013 to Sept 2014 = GONE (3 years on Reboxetine).     Tapered Lithium 900 to 475 MG (alternating with the SNRI) Jan 2014 - Nov 2014, tapered Lithium 475 mg Jan 2015 -  Feb 2016 = GONE (10 years  on Lithium).  Many mistakes in dry cutting dosages were made.


The tedious thread (my intro):  JanCarol ☼ Reboxetine first, then Lithium

The happy thread (my success story):  JanCarol - Undiagnosed  Off all bipolar drugs

My own blog:  https://shamanexplorations.com/shamans-blog/

 

 

I have been psych drug FREE since 1 Feb 2016!

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It is new if you consider I took the liptor to treat the side effect of raised cholesterol caused by effexor... in 2004/5 ... it is me that is old I did not learn about the problems with lipitor till I was long off the drug.  Since raised cholesterol is a very common side effect from SSRI type drugs it is likely many here will be presented with a cholesterol lowering drug like lipitor important information to this day. 

peace 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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and because I just found this

Dr. Sherry Rogers From Dr. Rogers' January 2014 Total Wellness Newsletter 

Statin Side Effects 
"Statin drugs like Lipitor work by poisoning the gene that controls the enzyme in the liver to make cholesterol, HMG CoA reductase. The tocotrienols, however, control the same enzyme but without poisoning your gene and without poisoning your seleniumzinc,vitamin EDHA, and other critical nutrients. And they do it without producing potentially lethal joint and muscular aches (lethal statin-induced rhabdomyelitis) or producing sudden amnesia (which could cause a fatal car accident) or hurrying you toward cardiovascular disease, cancers, Alzheimer's, and more (see The Cholesterol Hoax for life-saving details). "
 

"

" sudden amnesia " now there is something I can relate to. 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

The TRUTH about Blood Pressure and Cholesterol.

 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 3 months later...

If someone I know is on these is there a safe way to taper off? Or is it like like everything else

Was on 30mg (Lexapro) for 7-8yrs20mg for 3 months (This was my choice my Doc wanted me to drop much faster)15 mg 2week10mg 2 weeks 5 mg 1 week0 since August 24th . PPI Dexlant  30 mg taper has begun. Cutting 20% currently.  using zantac as needed.  Benzo is currently 0.10mg 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just stopped taking them they were part of the cocktail I quit when I quit antidepressants... I did live but the wd effect cannot be sorted as there were just too many variables as you can imagine. 

 

I was not having any signs that I needed them when I started taking them .. no chest pain nothing like that.. I had a blood test and bam was on lipitor 

WARNING THIS WILL BE LONG
Had a car accident in 85
Codeine was the pain med when I was release from hosp continuous use till 89
Given PROZAC by a specialist to help with nerve pain in my leg 89-90 not sure which year
Was not told a thing about it being a psych med thought it was a pain killer no info about psych side effects I went nuts had hallucinations. As I had a head injury and was diagnosed with a concussion in 85 I was sent to a head injury clinic in 1990 five years after the accident. I don't think they knew I had been on prozac I did not think it a big deal and never did finish the bottle of pills. I had tests of course lots of them. Was put into a pain clinic and given amitriptyline which stopped the withdrawal but had many side effects. But I could sleep something I had not done in a very long time the pain lessened. My mother got cancer in 94 they switched my meds to Zoloft to help deal with this pressure as I was her main care giver she died in 96. I stopped zoloft in 96 had withdrawal was put on paxil went nutty quit it ct put on resperidol quit it ct had withdrawal was put on Effexor... 2years later celexa was added 20mg then increased to 40mg huge personality change went wild. Did too fast taper off Celexa 05 as I felt unwell for a long time prior... quit Effexor 150mg ct 07 found ****** 8 months into withdrawal learned some things was banned from there in 08 have kept learning since. there is really not enough room here to put my history but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things especially any of the drugs mentioned above.
One thing I would like to add here is this tidbit ALL OPIATES INCREASE SEROTONIN it is not a huge jump to being in chronic pain to being put on an ssri/snri and opiates will affect your antidepressants and your thinking.

As I do not update much I will put my quit date Nov. 17 2007 I quit Effexor cold turkey. 

http://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/1096-introducing-myself-btdt/

There is a crack in everything ..That's how the light gets in :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Geese ! so u couldnt have known if you were having one or not !  **** I wanna get my dad off them Im reading horrible things about them 

Was on 30mg (Lexapro) for 7-8yrs20mg for 3 months (This was my choice my Doc wanted me to drop much faster)15 mg 2week10mg 2 weeks 5 mg 1 week0 since August 24th . PPI Dexlant  30 mg taper has begun. Cutting 20% currently.  using zantac as needed.  Benzo is currently 0.10mg 

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  • Moderator Emeritus

Here is what Consumer Labs says about D and Statins:

 

 

Statin drugs and vitamin D

If you use a statin medication for cholesterol lowering, it may very helpful to maintain sufficient blood levels of vitamin D for the following reasons:
 
Statins may work better when vitamin D is adequate:
A 6 month,placebo controlled study in China among people with high cholesterol and treated with statin drugs found that taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 tablets
significantly improved cholesterol levels. Approximately half the people in the study began with vitamin D blood levels below 20 ng/mL (i.e., vitamin D deficient)
and about another quarter had levels between 20 and 30 ng/mL. Mean vitamin D blood levels increased by 17.1 ng/mL in the treated group and by 2.4 ng/mL in
the placebo group (due to increased sun exposure because the study ended in June). Compared to the placebo group, which experienced slight improvements
in cholesterol levels, total cholesterol levels in the treated group fell by an additional 22.1 ng/mL, triglycerides fell by 28.2 mg/dL, LDL ("bad") cholesterol fell by
20.2 mg/dL, and HDL ("good") cholesterol increased by 8.2 mg/dL. Improvements were greater when excluding those who began the study with vitamin D
levels of 30 ng/mL or higher (no analysis was reported of just those who had been vitamin D deficient). The researchers noted that these results with vitamin D
may be limited to statin treated patients (Qin, Clin Nutr 2015).
 
Statin related muscle pain less likely with when vitamin D is adequate:
The risk of developing muscle pain (myalgia) and inflammation (myositis) while taking cholesterol lowering
statin drugs appears to be greater when people have lower levels of vitamin D (and keep in mind that severe vitamin D deficiency itself regardless
of statin use can cause bone pain and muscle weakness). A study found that, among statin users, the average vitamin D level among those without myalgia was 34.9 ng/mL, while the average among those with myalgia was 28.4 ng/mL (MichalskaKasiczak,Int J Cardiol 2015). 
 
A small study of people who suffered muscle pain while on statins and had generally blood levels of vitamin D averaging 22 to 23 ng/mL evaluated the effects of giving very large weekly doses of vitamin D2, ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 IU, with a goal of boosting vitamin D levels to 50 to 80 ng/mL. The researchers concluded that 88% to 95% of patients were able to tolerate statins without muscle pain at various time points in the study, although these percentages ignore those who had dropped out at earlier points due to renewed muscle pain. Over two years, 44 of the 146 patients (30%) experienced myalgia myositis and stopped statin treatment, and 70% were symptom free. The study was not double blind, lower
doses were not tried, and, likely for ethical reasons, there was no control group (i.e., patients not given vitamin D but restarted on statins) (Khayznikov, N Am J
Med Sci 2015). As noted in Concerns and Cautions, the dosage of vitamin D used in this study is very high and could be associated long term
safety risks.  JC SAYS:  SEE NOTE BELOW
 
However, based on the evidence, it would seem worthwhile to make sure you have adequate vitamin D levels if taking a statin.
 
Statin related decline in exercise performance is blunted when vitamin D is adequate:
 
While statins can lessen improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness that normally occur with exercise as well as reduce the content of mitochondria (i.e., the
07/03/2017 Vitamin D Supplements Review (Including Calcium, Vitamin K, Magnesium) https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/_/Vitamin_D/#statins4/25
"energy powerhouses") in muscle cells, vitamin D adequacy may lessen these negative effects. 
 
A study in India among 28 people with type 2 diabetes who were vitamin D deficient (averaging about 10 ng/mL) found that, after 12 weeks of performing moderate aerobic exercise, those given simvastatin (40 mg daily) had an 8.4% decrease in cardiovascular fitness, but if also given vitamin D (60,000 IU weekly — which is a very high dose), the decrease was only 0.6%.
Skeletal muscle mitochondrial content decreased 3.6% with simvastatin but improved 12.1% if vitamin D was also given. Vitamin D alone, without simvastatin, increased cardiovascular fitness and mitochondrial content by 7.1% and 16.7%, respectively (Singla, J Diabetes 2017).
 
More vitamin D is needed to raise blood levels when taking a statin:
A review of clinical trials in which vitamin D was given to people aged 60 and over with low vitamin D levels found that statin users had a 21.4% smaller
increase in vitamin D blood levels than people not using statins (BischoffFerrari,JAGS 2017). It would seem advisable to use a slightly higher than normal
dose of vitamin D if you are taking a statin.

 

NOTE:  Stasha Gominek likes her patients to be between 60-80 ng/ml  (much higher than these studies) for maximum benefit to sleep and headaches.

"Easy, easy - just go easy and you'll finish." - Hawaiian Kapuna

 

Holding is hard work, holding is a blessing. Give your brain time to heal before you try again.

 

My suggestions are not medical advice, you are in charge of your own medical choices.

 

A lifetime of being prescribed antidepressants that caused problems (30 years in total). At age 35 flipped to "bipolar," but was not diagnosed for 5 years. Started my journey in Midwest United States. Crossed the Pacific for love and hope; currently living in Australia.   CT Seroquel 25 mg some time in 2013.   Tapered Reboxetine 4 mg Oct 2013 to Sept 2014 = GONE (3 years on Reboxetine).     Tapered Lithium 900 to 475 MG (alternating with the SNRI) Jan 2014 - Nov 2014, tapered Lithium 475 mg Jan 2015 -  Feb 2016 = GONE (10 years  on Lithium).  Many mistakes in dry cutting dosages were made.


The tedious thread (my intro):  JanCarol ☼ Reboxetine first, then Lithium

The happy thread (my success story):  JanCarol - Undiagnosed  Off all bipolar drugs

My own blog:  https://shamanexplorations.com/shamans-blog/

 

 

I have been psych drug FREE since 1 Feb 2016!

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  • 2 years later...

Thanks to you for the tremendous amount of research you have done to get to the truth about these drugs. Stunning findings. I looked for 20 minutes and found next to nothing of value. I did find a few things on the Telegraph, one:

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/10717431/Why-Ive-ditched-statins-for-good.html

 

This article is written by an MD. One thing jumped out: The results for women were crystal clear. The lower a woman’s total cholesterol, the greater her risk of dying, either of heart disease or anything else, including cancer. This reflects findings in previous studies.

 

I'm getting off as soon as I ensure vit D is high enough and I can find out how to taper off safely - particularly as I am in prolonged WD.

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  • 2 years later...
  • Moderator Emeritus

Youtube video 5 1/2 min:

 

10 Worrisome Things STATIN Drugs do you Your Body - 2022

KenDBerryMD

He gives links to research supporting these.

 

*Lower Vitamin K2 Production in Kidney

*Lower Testosterone

*Increase Diabetes Risk

*Lower CoQ-10

*Increase Liver Enzymes

*Lower Energy Level

*Lowers DHEA

*Worsens Memory

*Increase Shingles Risk 

*Increase E.D.

 

Edited by ChessieCat

* NO LONGER ACTIVE on SA *

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:  (6 year taper)      0mg Pristiq  on 13th November 2021

ADs since ~1992:  25+ years - 1 unknown, Prozac (muscle weakness), Zoloft; citalopram (pooped out) CTed (very sick for 2.5 wks a few months after); Pristiq:  50mg 2012, 100mg beg 2013 (Serotonin Toxicity)  Tapering from Oct 2015 - 13 Nov 2021   LAST DOSE 0.0025mg

Post 0 updates start here    My tapering program     My Intro (goes to tapering graph)

 VIDEO:   Antidepressant Withdrawal Syndrome and its Management

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