Lost a day

[nannipatti]

Monday began as any other day except I don't remember anything that happened from 12:45 until I came back to almost normal in the emergency room around 7:30 pm. I've been on statins for many years now, the past year or more I've been on 10/20 Vytorin. I drove out of our driveway at 12:45 Monday, attended a meeting which I'm told I took part in than when the meeting was over I didn't know where the hours had gone and was acting funny, when asked if I was alright I said I felt woozy. My husband was called and took me to emergency where I could not answer questions asked of me, I was giving tests which so far have appeared normal, I was completely unaware of what was taking place but my husband said I was completely relaxed and kept asking the same questions over and over again. Finally when I started coming back to normal or almost normal, I didn't feel surprised at the fact that I was in the hospital it was only later when I was released that I realized what had taken place and I had lost about 8 hours or more of my life.
So scary, the next day I was headachy with nausea, it feels a little better today but I keep waiting for it to happen again.
When I went to my doctor next day, I told him I thought it was the statins and he poo poohed me and said he thought I should continue to take them, I told him that I was going to stop them and he said I was taking the chance of having a stroke but it was up to me. I am scheduled for more tests next week, carotid artery, MRI, and echocardiogram, in the meantime I continure to be confused over whether to stop the statins or not, 10/20 doesn't seem like a high dose to me but I was wondering if I could half that and would appreciate any info that anyone might have.

[SusieO]

Nannipatti the decision has to be yours to make - not the doctors. What an awfully frightening experience! If you continue to take the statin and the problems with your memory only worse that would be a shame and will the doctor say he is sorry and make it better - I doubt it.

As far as the dose I was only put on 10 mgs of Lipitor and halved it to 5 mgs and I am still (3 yrs after stopping it) suffering memory problems (not like yours) as well as awful muscle problems in every area of my body (thank God so far my heart is fine).

Read some more posts here and do a bit of research - take the research back to your doctor. I have learned I have to be the one to decide what type of pill will enter my body - not a doctor.

I wish you all the best,
Sue

[cjbrooksjc]

nannipatti: The original precipitate for the formation of this site was 'Doc' Graveline's episode of transient amnesia. Read the Memory Loss and Statins topic on this site, and order Doc's book (my recommendation), and take control of your health. Don't rely blindly on your physician; they are, in my experience, often uninformed about Statin side effects. Sorry you had to go through this terrifying experience. There may be some other explanation for your episode, but unexplained amnesia is certainly one of the hallmark signs of Statin poisoning. I wish you well

Regards,

Brooks

[nannipatti]

[quote="SusieO"]Nannipatti the decision has to be yours to make - not the doctors. What an awfully frightening experience! If you continue to take the statin and the problems with your memory only worse that would be a shame and will the doctor say he is sorry and make it better - I doubt it.

As far as the dose I was only put on 10 mgs of Lipitor and halved it to 5 mgs and I am still (3 yrs after stopping it) suffering memory problems (not like yours) as well as awful muscle problems in every area of my body (thank God so far my heart is fine).

Read some more posts here and do a bit of research - take the research back to your doctor. I have learned I have to be the one to decide what type of pill will enter my body - not a doctor.

I wish you all the best,
Sue[/quote]

Thanks so much for the well wishes, so far my MRI came back normal and I am waiting for a few other tests as well, I do think it is the Vytorin myself and I'm going to try and do it the natural way as suggested in Dr. Gravelinge book.

[nannipatti]

[quote="cjbrooksjc"]nannipatti: The original precipitate for the formation of this site was 'Doc' Graveline's episode of transient amnesia. Read the Memory Loss and Statins topic on this site, and order Doc's book (my recommendation), and take control of your health. Don't rely blindly on your physician; they are, in my experience, often uninformed about Statin side effects. Sorry you had to go through this terrifying experience. There may be some other explanation for your episode, but unexplained amnesia is certainly one of the hallmark signs of Statin poisoning. I wish you well

Regards,

Brooks[/quote]
Thanks so much for the response to my trip to lala land, I am getting used to the idea that it actually happened. My MRI came back normal and I'm waiting on a few other tests which I have a feeling will be normal as well. I do have Doc's book but never thought the memory loss would happen to me although I thought it was responsible for other symptoms I had.The doctors I have gone to are all statin oriented and seemed so sure of themselves, I was afraid to go off of them, but I have now and will start on the path of fish oil etc. and see what happens.
Thanks for the good wishes.

[adec]

Hi nannipatti, and welcome. I'm so sorry to read of your harrowing adventure. Though, I hope you will continue to read, post, and share your recovery with us. In my opinion, what you experienced is definitely some of the worst effects of statin drugs. You'll notice there are plenty of similar stories regarding transient global amnesia (TGA) proliferating this site, including this forum's host Dr. Graveline.

In my mom's particular case, her now FORMER doctor felt she was having mini-strokes during these amnesiac episodes. As you'll soon learn, whatever the test given (MRI, CT, EEG etc.) they ALL come back 100 percent negative, which then complicates detection and further confounds the woefully unprepared doctor. Many doctors are also unable to comprehend why cholesterol (and therefore CoQ10) is so vital for the continuation of everyday basic human function.

Initially, I had to switch to a more capable doctor because this one (insane?) doctor was resolute in misdiagnosing my mom with Alzheimer's. Any prognosis other than statin poisoning would have meant a host of unnecessary drugs, which would have further compounded an extremely serious brain and memory problem, among many other side-effects and complications.

However, almost two years since discovering my mom's problem, today she is 100 percent back to normal, in every way including memory. I attribute this (perhaps miraculous) recovery to her own hard work, dedication, and discontinuation of statins and starting a supplement regimen. To further your own recovery, I would also recommend this foundation of supplements. Coincidentally, these are some of the very vital compounds that statins deplete. CoQ10 can especially be depleted by as much as 25-50 percent, after just one week of statin therapy.

statin recovery (ASAP)
------------------------------------------------------
vitamin C 250-500mg concurrent with 150-300mg of CoQ10 (twice daily)
Aceytl L-Carnitine and Alpha Lipoic Acid (once or twice daily)
Fish oil (1000-2000mg)

heart and artery health
-------------------------------------------------------
vitamin K2 (Jarrow's MK-7)
vitamin D3 (gel based, Carlson's is great) (at least 2000iu daily)

To make things easier, you can find all of these products at Vitacost.com for a very reasonable price. If you decide on the all-in-one CoQ10/Acetyl L-Carntine/Alpha Lipoic Acid products as the most convienient method, make sure to especially take any powdered CoQ10 product with a fat for better bioavailability -- a fish oil or olive oil etc.
*http://www.vitacost.com/productResults.aspx?Ntk=products&ss=1&Ntt=lipoic%20carnitine

I would also recommend eating a balanced diet containing fresh fish (2-3 a week,) salads (2-3 a week) and at least one vegetable with every meal. Also switching to a more heart healthy oil, such as cold compressed Canola (can be found at most health food stores) and/or extra virgin or virgin olive oil is important to keep your lipid profiles in-check.

I hope this helps. And good luck.

[nannipatti]

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to respond to my post and offering such good advice which I intend to take seriously and apply it to my life.
My tests have all come back normal which is a good thing although no one seems concerned about how or why it happens, someone referred to it as a brain hiccup.
This morning on the Today show they showed a gentleman who had gone through the same thing as so many here have, it was identical to my episode. The prognosis seems to be that it happens in many many cases, doesn't do any harm and will last from 1 hour or more, could be brought on by stress or trauma of some sort and usually doesn't happen again.
Not once was statins mentioned, it happens so often one can't help but wonder why statins haven't been linked as a possible cause.
Thanks again for the very good advice.