Disordered Breathing

[ian stephens]

I am a 48 year old man and I have struggled with cholesterol management for a number of years. 18 month ago I started to experience waking early in the morning gasping for air and experiencing a rapid heartbeat. Initially, I thought this was stress related and after a couple of months it went away. At that time I had recently stopped taking Lipitor due to some cognitive problems I was having and I didn't imagine that Lipitor would be implicated. However, I recommenced Lipitor last christmas and once again experienced cognitive problems and breathing problems and ceased it accordingly. I had a number of tests including a sleep study which revealed "significant sleep disordered breathing which was confined to rapid eye movement sleep" I am sleeping well again and not having these experiences. Has anyone else had this difficulty? My only other explanation is that it might be related to an allergen.

[JIMNSC]

When you first started, Ian, I first thought of sleep apnea but Lipitor may be the culprit. I too, have trouble sleeping and come to think of it, it has been since starting Lipitor. I know we can't blame everythiong on Lipitor - but - I am currently on the drug and preparing to discontinue it in the next three weeks. For now, I'm going to make a list of the ailments I have and see how each is affected once I've been off Lipitor for several months. Who knows? I could be writing a book!

[eml256]

you may wish to read dr graveline's recommendations for discontinuing statins before doing so.