Saturday 24 November 2007

another experience with statin drugs

This was a comment to my previous posting 'an alarming experience with statins':

"Thank you for posting Dr. Graveline's experience of Transient Global Amnesia caused by Lipitor.

My own husband had multiple witnessed episodes of Transient Global Amnesia while taking Lipitor at only 10 mg/day.

Further, the Lipitor left him with profound short-term-memory loss. He started on Lipitor at 50 working as a corporate CEO. By the end of 4 years on Lipitor, at the lowest dose, his short term memory was measured at below the 1 percentile. He literally could not remember to the end of a sentence over 5 words. Keep in mind that "What do you want for dinner?" is a six word sentence - an beyond his ability to process, thanks to the Lipitor damage. He also developed aphasia, the inability to recall words, which prevented effective communication.

In addition he was left with Lipitor-caused mitochondrial damage, muscle pain, muscle wasting, chronic fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, and chronic insomnia.

A full DECADE after starting the Lipitor, he remains disabled, unable to function in his former capacity, or any other.

Extensive testing has eliminated all other possible causes - it was the Lipitor that destroyed his quality of life".

22 November 2007 17:50

1 comment:

FranLeigh said...

My husband's cognitive ability has also been adversely affected by 8 years of statins. First was Zocor, then Lipitor for about 5 years. Lipitor 10mg was increased to 20mg and that seems to be the impetus of cognitive decline, including several bouts of TGA. Statins were stopped over 3 years ago, memory improved for a time, but both short term and long term memory are affected now. The closest definition for his current condition is a class of dementia called: confabulation. When he recalls an event his brain fills in anything missing. Those experiencing confabulation aren't really aware they are 'filling in the gaps', but those around notice that details don't match-up. Very frustrating for both parties.

We are retired and in our early 60's, a time when we should be enjoying our retirement. I feel our lives as we knew them before statins, have been stolen from us.

Dr Duane Graveline's book, "Lipitor - Thief of Memory" is how we linked statins to memory loss, but unfortunately, we found out after too much damage was done.

Fran