About six months ago I started on statins to lower cholesterol. I now think these statins are affecting the way I think and act. At times I have a compete mental block and people comment that I cannot follow simple instructions. I get lost in my own world, unable to communicate properly with others. I would make a phone call and then have to ask who I had called because in the seconds it took them to answer I had forgotten who I was calling. I had been training for new work but failed to complete the training. My Mahal seems to have abandoned me and, within the last week, the work I have done for the past 5 years was taken away without notice. I have received no communication from the company whatsoever (I was self-employed). It set me thinking on what must be wrong with me and I thought back to when the problems started. It was in April this year that I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. The statins did their job and my cholesterol dropped from around 8 to 3.6. I also changed my diet and lifestyle, lost 12.5Kg (almost 2 stone) in 5 months. But I began to notice that when I wanted to learn something new that I would become obsessed with detail. Jobs around the house would take longer and longer to perform and that made be tired. Many jobs remained undone - so that carpet would not get cleaned, the lawn would not get cut etc etc. I have became totally intolerant of the world around me - even my cat rubbing against my leg causes me great annoyance. At times I really feel that I am going mad. I even have thoughts about jumping off the Humber Bridge. Last night, when I went late night shopping, I suddenly saw a cyclist with no lights. Instead of wanting to avoid the cyclist, my immediate thought was to actually want to run him down. Luckily, common sense prevailed. Today I have stumbled across a video on YouTube of a man in statin-induced psychosis. Apparently, the FDA has recently added memory loss to the side effects of statins. If my problems are caused by taking statins, the good news is that the symptoms will disappear just days after stopping the medication. I will be stopping the drug for a couple of weeks to see what happens.
Well, my friend, I have been on statins 18 days short of 3 years, and apart from lowering my cholesterol, they haven't caused me to have any strange side effects. Obviously I also get irritated by various things from time to time, but I put it down to general grumpiness caused by age aquired wisdom........ And my kids call it jokingly "VIctor Meldrum Syndrome"... No, I do not think you are going nuts.... But just in case.......... Don't stop anywhere near knives stands in supermarkets............
Sorry to hear of the problems with statins, sounds like a nightmare. I'm on blood pressure medication myself (not because of lifestyle, more 'inherited' high blood pressure) and one thing I've found with these pills is they have such varying side effects - in my case I had a severe skin rash which lasted many months. Each time I went back to the Dr to complain, he'd then try another type of tablet, only to have a different side effect. It seems there is no magic b.p. tablet that works for everyone, you have to try different ones. Some I have tried had zero effect on my b.p., others gave me weight loss, others gave me nightmares. Whats even worse, my doctor would recommend taking brand x of these b.p. medication, only for the skin specialist telling me to stop taking them because of the side effects. Just can't win.
I am on 6 different tablets a day, and one of them I have to take twice.... I am glad to say that I am not getting all those side effects, apart from weight gain.......
Have you read the leaflet that comes with the meds...??? Are your side effects mentioned on it...??? It seem that with the doc, is a hit and miss affair............ You need to see a specialist.
Yes, I read the leaflet as soon as I got the drug. That is how I learned, for example, that you should not eat grapefruit if you are on statins. The patient leaflet does not really make this point clear, but statins and grapefruit can be a deadly cocktail - but my GP never mentioned this or any other side effect. It has only been this year, I believe, of any acknowledgement by government authorities that statins can induce depression, anxiety, memory loss etc. There are reports of psychosis too, but this still fails to get acknowledged by the mainstream. Anecdotal evidence suggests that people on statins can suffer psychotic episodes shortly after starting the drug; episodes which cease just days after coming off the drug. Apparently, much of the brain is made from cholesterol and the brain actually produces its own cholesterol. Statins work by hindering the synthesis of cholesterol - in effect starving the brain of what it needs - cholesterol! With the other steps I have taken - exercise and a change of diet I would hope that I can maintain a healthy cholesterol level without using statins. I have already reduced the dosage from 40mg/day to 20mg/day and, as of today, I have ceased entirely. Still taking the BP medication though. One other thing about statins is that it can cause diabetes so, presumably, make existing diabetes worse. As I was also diagnosed with diabetes just before commencing statins I feel somewhat reluctant to continue with statins on that basis alone. My GP, started me on a fairly high does of statins, saying that in diabetes patients he wants to see even lower cholesterol readings. I will just see how my mood changes over the next few days and what my next cholesterol readings will be in a month's time.
Sorry to hear about your recent woes, Howerd. Can you listen to quiet music? Can you read books? Have you mentioned your feelings to your GP? Please get professional advice as you sometimes seem to be thinking erratically, if you don't mind me "saying". I think many of us often don't start to do jobs as the wish to do things perfectly often makes us procrastinate. This is a very stressful world at times and we need to find ways to "chillax" as the kids say these days. Take care
I have never been a great music listener but I have found quite a lot of solace in watching Youtube music videos recently. Not mentioned anything to my GP. I did have bout of depression 35 years ago but found the treatment worse than the problem. So, rather than going to my GP, who would probably want to give me some other medication, I would prefer to stop the statins for a few days and see what happens.
