Doctors Deny Drug Side Effects

Thank you for the service you provide to those of us who've experienced "forced" usage of statins and other drugs by MDs. I've tried three different cholesterol-lowering drugs and had terrible side effects.

While on Lipitor, my knees hurt so bad I could hardly get up and down the stairs of my townhouse, and I'm used to doing so 20 times per day!! I now have a physician who realizes my sensitivity to medications and is very careful of what he prescribes for me.

I sincerely believe that the pharmaceutical industry has offered so many incentives and has totally brainwashed busy doctors into believing their medications are the "miracles" of this century. I read an article some time ago alluding to the fact that the pharm. industry was "medicalizing" the aging process by creating all of these drugs.

The fact that the severe side effects of the statin drugs have to be "learned" by the victims rather than the physicians is an absolute travesty. It's not only the statins, but the supposed "bone-building" drugs as well that can cause major problems for people. When jaw-clenching began while I took FOSAMAX for a short time, I conducted my own research and learned I needed to stop immediately! Thank you, again.

I took Lexapro for 4 days and suffered a terrible reaction. I was extremely agitated, and was sweating profusely from my toes to the top of my head. I was nauseous, had diarrhea, was shaky and unable to sleep. Fortunately, when I called my Dr. he told me to stop taking Lexapro immediately. The symptoms were gone within 24 hours.

I have taken Actos for my diabetes for a number of years. It was great for my blood sugar numbers, but one night I had to rush to urgent care for breathing problems. The Dr. said it was the fluid buildup due to the Actos and stop taking it. I have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. My cardiologist also told me to stop taking it. I have had no problems since.

i am on lisinopril for blood pressure. Been on it for about 6 months. I have been getting red small blotches on my feet. They are worse at the end of the day than in the morning. Is this a side effect from lisinopril?

It is ridiculous that physicians would not suspect statins to be the cause of muscle pain. Cerivastatin (Baycol) was taken off the market because it was associated with rhabdomyolysis, a serious and potentially fatal condition. They even say on the commercials, "Muscle pain is serious side effect and you should not continue to take Lipitor." It is scary that you cannot trust your physician with something that seems so common...

Stopping hiccups: when I was in the hospital for emergency surgery, I started getting hiccups. I asked the nurse how I could stop them. He said to fill my mouth with water and either lay down or put my head back and allow the water to trickle slowly down my throat. It worked great.

I had a sinus infection a few weeks ago, and the doctor gave me Levaquin 500mg. I took it for 2 days, and my back felt like it was on fire with my spinal column in constant pain.

The doctor called and told me to stop, which I had. Then the doctor gave me a shot of steroid, and antihistamines for 7 days. This finally relieved the pain...

I have tried all the statins, except the ones that are on the market in the past ten yrs. Yet my family doctor gives me samples of the new products every time I visit and I tell him I am going to trash them, but his suggestion is these won't cause muscle pain, and I take the folder and show him that the first thing is muscle pain.

He seems to get perturbed that I research the junk pills he is trying to peddle, I often ask how many Rx, he has to write before he gets another trip to France. That really gets his goat, but the perks that the companies give doctors now are all under the counter, such as it was when I was a rep in the health and beauty aid business. It's too bad that they don't do any research, just push the pills.

TV commercials should be banned just as cigarettes are. Americans take too much medicine. Basically the side effects are much worse than the illness.

I wanted to share with you my sister's experience with Lipitor. She is 81. Some time ago her doctor prescribed Lipitor for cholestoral control. Soon after, it seems, she began to lose her balance and fell several times, eventually breaking her ankle. She is now confined exclusively to a wheelchair. The closeness of her initial taking Lipitor and her consequent loss of walking is worrisome.

I just started taking Amlodipine Besylate as my doctor wants my blood pressure lower. I have managed to get it down to 138-140's with exercise and eating right, but he wants it lower and gave me a RX for the above.
It has been only a week, and I wake up at night itching badly everywhere. I don't see a rash, but the itching is really weird and it is worse at night, as probably in the daytime, I get distracted, though it is still there. Does anyone else have that symptom?? It started after I was taking this med. I am really tired!! and worried...

I started taking 25mg of metoprolol (on half of one pill per day) for prevention of migraines in February 2007. In July 2007 I noticed that I was losing a lot more hair than usual. By the end of August 2007 I was really, really worried about the visible thinning of my hair. I went off the metoprolol at the beginning of September 2007 since I found on the prescription pamphlet and my doctor indicated that one of the side effects of beta blockers, such as metoprolol, is hair loss (the prescription pamphlet indicates "reversible hair loss"). I'm hoping in another few weeks to stop losing so much hair and even begin to regrow hair (my fingers are crossed tight).

I am 63 and have very high cholesterol, as do my siblings. One of my sisters took a prescribed statin for a year and wasn't told by her doctor to come in for frequent blood checks. At the end of the year her liver tests were abnormal and they still are 3 years later. My doctor keeps prescribing statins for me, but I will not take them.

I have also been diagnosed with osteoporosis and took Actonel for about two years. I started having daily stomach aches and had several episodes of uncontrollable diarrhea. When I told my doctor I'd stopped taking the Actonel and why, she seemed angry and told me I'd be a lot sicker when I got fractures.

It bothers me a lot because I watched what happened to my mom with osteoporosis but truly I can't make myself take something that makes me feel miserable and reluctant to leave the house.

I am a very healthy woman, I exercise every day and eat really healthy. But I know it won't last many more years. And I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off to stay away from the medical profession as long as I can.

The United States and New Zealand are the only countries that have drug commercials on TV. Soon New Zealand is going to cut that out. Why should the drug industry push drugs on the public via their commercials? Would it not make more sense if they spent the money on more and decent research? The public has to write to their representatives, although we know, sadly, that the drug companies have very strong lobbies & that they support our politicians, but we have to keep trying.

I have just returned from Mayo Clinic. I found that I have allergic interstitial nephritis which caused kidney failure. It was a direct result of my being on long term xifaxan for possible small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Has this happened to anyone else? S

I took a megadose of Levaquin for 9 days (750 mg per day) for a sinus infection. Cleared the infection, but the resulting side effect left me with incredible pain and swollen tendons above and below both knees and in one sholder.

I have taken anti-inflammatories, pain pills, have wrapped and elevated and am in my 5th month of this reaction. Finally, after 4 months the pain is BEGINNING to subside. It has changed my life.

The first doc I went to when the symptoms developed told me to keep taking "that antibiotic" in case it was an infection he couldn't find. Eventually another MD friend found the info and let me know it was a "rare" side effect of the the Levaquin--and all Quinolones. Research on the internet reveals it is not quite so rare as they would prefer I believe.

There seems to be no easy solution other than time... Many articles that I read indicated that sterioids would make it worse.

LIPITOR: I experienced extreme weakness (not pain) in my legs while on Lipitor. It wasn't terribly noticeable until I realized one day that I couldn't stand up from a squatting position. I increased my workouts to try to "correct" the weakness--didn't work. I went off of Lipitor, and after about 6 weeks, I pretty much had the strength back in my legs.

ACTONEL: I also went off of Actonel (osteoporosis) after breaking a collar bone (the fracture wasn't because of the osteoporosis; I fell very hard--it would have fractured a teenager's collarbone): the fracture wouldn't heal--my primary care doc said to discontinue Actonel temporarily as it stops bone remodeling which is necessary for bones to re-knit (the osteo specialist I was seeing for the fracture didn't know that--I'll never go back to him!). After that healed, I went back on Actonel for 2 doses, both times experiencing deep bone pain. Freaked me away from pretty much any drugs. I take calcium, b vitamins, magnesium and Vit D and am hoping for the best with the osteo.

By the way, after adding the magnesium, I stopped having leg and foot cramps and a host of other aches, and felt better than I have in years. I take 250 mg twice a day. I don't know if it's helping the osteo or not. It's a worrisome condition, and I wish I had a better option to deal with it.

I have severe allergies and had been on Allegra for about a year. The contract I work on changed company ownership and our insurance got messed up for about 2 weeks, during which time I couldn't get my prescription for Allegra. Like some kind of miracle, my muscle fatigue and general lethargy went away after I was off Allegra for about 4 days.

Once our insurance got straightened out, I bought my prescription of Allegra (still not associating the muscle problems with the drug). I started taking it again. By day 2 I was once again in constant fatigue and muscle tiredness. Only THEN did it dawn on me what was causing it. Stopped taking the Allegra and just changed over to an occassional OTC generic Claritin. The Claritin causes some sinus pain but it is still better than the entire body fatigue from the Allegra.

My husband is now legally blind in his right eye and has a 30% sight loss in his left eye because of a medication called amiodarone. This medicine was give to him for A-fib (irregular heartbeat). We were never told this was a side effect. He was on this medication for several months--and lost his sight in 4 days after the initial problem. This has been verified by Duke Eye Center.

His optic nerve has been destroyed and he will never regain his eyesight. Please let other people know about this horrible side effect. I hope this never happens to another person. There were other options available to us but the doctor insisted he take this medicine.

My husband stopped taking the medicine when he started to lose his sight. The doctor told him not to stop. But if he had not done so he would have lost sight in both eyes.

The drug companies in this country should be ashamed of what they are doing to people for profit. Please let others know. It is too late for my husband but maybe not for others. If you need more info about amiodarone go on the web to any amiodarone sight and you will see the awful side effects.

Vinegar will cure hiccups immediately. You only have to ingest a shot glass of it and hiccups are gone. My great-grandmother taught me this remedy when I was a kid. I've given this remedy to many people over the years and have never seen it fail. Also I have never run in to anyone who had ever heard of this remedy.

My eye doctor prescribed Restasis for my dry eyes. I wasn't given samples, so mailed in the prescription to our pharmacy. I received six boxes of packaged Restasis drops, enough for several months.

I used the drops for two days, and woke up at 3:00AM with severe itching in my hands and legs. I had to get up.

I went on line on my PC, and checked for side effects. My itching was listed under rare side effects. I called the doctor in the morning, and he said to never use the drops again. I threw away over $200.00 worth of Restasis. No one wanted them!

My question was, why couldn't I have tried samples before ending up with several months worth of eye drops?

I was diagnosed with sub-acute (viral) thyroiditis last summer. After being hyperthyroid for 2 months, I became severely hypothyroid and started on Synthroid. I then developed terrible joint and muscle pain. This lasted 8 months. I stopped the medication after becoming hyperthyroid again and when I stopped taking the Synthroid, the pain stopped. I realized that the medication had been the cause of my symptoms. I had been on both the generic and brand Synthroid. My endocrinologist said that it is rare, but some individuals are allergic to the fillers or the dye in the Synthroid. After putting me on Synthroid 50 mcg tablets brand only (the only dose that does not have dye), my symptoms completely subsided. Finally I am pain free after nearly 8 months of agony. It may be rare, but physicians need to be made aware of this problem. I saw several physicians and I don't feel that they took me seriously.

In Dec. '06, I was prescribed cephalexin following surgery. After several days, I started having massive nosebleeds (emergency room three times and hospitalized two of those times).

In June '07 I was prescribed cefadroxil. I started having nosebleeds on day six. In July '07 I was prescribed levofloxacin and had no nosebleed problems. In August '07 I was prescribed cefadroxil again and nosebleeds started on day six.

At this point it was finally agreed that I should not use any of the cephalosporins family. All this was a result of a staph infection picked up following the Dec. '06 surgery, but that's another story.

I took lisinopryl for 6 wks and developed such a cough that I could not talk without uncontrollable coughing. I was up half the night coughing till I was exhausted. I went back to the doctor thinking I had a seasonal allergy cough, but she immediately said it was due to the lisinopryl and gave me another medicine. It has taken more than 6 wks to have that cough mostly gone. Several people I mentioned it to also cited cough with their blood pressure medicine, but none so bad as I'd suffered.

Please tell the person in today's column with the coughing problem that it likely IS being caused by the lisinopril. I went through the same thing -- xrays, TB testing, all of it. I finally suggested to my doctor that it was the drug. She promptly changed it, the cough was gone in 10 days, and I could finally sleep again. If the doctor won't change the drug, then he/she needs to change doctors!

I started taking lisinopril about 18 months ago, and I very soon developed a cough. It was extremely uncomfortable and occured with varying frequency: when I was driving, when I was asleep, when I was just sitting and reading--anytime at all.

I tried sucking hard candies and they worked to a certain extent, but they took time to do so. One day I was coughing and unable to stop, but I had no candies around to help. However, I did have a pocket pack of Listerine Cool Mint Breath Strips in my pocket. I put one strip on my tongue, let it dissolve, and the cough was gone. The next time the cough started, I used another strip and it immediately worked again. I kept packets of breath strips in my car, in my pocket and on my night table. I thought I'd try another flavor and bought some citrus flavor strips. They were no good at all. So I was back with the cool mint and, after a few weeks, I wasn't coughing as often or as much.

The frequency continued to decline, and now I use a strip maybe once or twice a month to stop a cough. The cool mint is pretty pungent and I wonder if it is acting as a counter-irritant. Anyway, the Listerine breath strip worked for me, perhaps it might help others.

I took Zocor for 3 and 1/2 weeks and developed neuropathy, joint pain, extreme fatigue. I went to at least 4 dr's and none of them said it could be the Zocor. The cardiologist who prescribed it said it was a coincidence that I developed these symptoms and told me to go back on it as these were not side effects of Zocor.

Until yesterday I have been taking either Lipitor or Crestor and Zetia for 5 years. My body aches all over, I experience muscle spasms, tingling, numbness and swelling in my calves and ankles, bottoms of feet are tender and Achilles tendons hurt so bad I can barely walk. I actually thought I must have a terminal illness because no one can feel this way and not be dying. If I found I have permanent damage to my nerves and Achilles I will be seeking legal counsel to try to get these drugs off the market. My doctor never once suggested that my poor health could be related to these killer drugs even though I have been having pain since I have been on them.

My daughter took Effexor for about a year for depression. (She had previously tried Lexapro without success.) While Effexor helped with the symptoms, she began being increasingly troubled by fatigue, weakness, faintness, low blood pressure, low body temperature, low pulse rate (even when exercising). Despite seeing her doctor more than once for these symptoms, and having the school nurse suggest she be tested for mono (negative), blood tests came back normal for thyroid and other components. The doctor did not associate the symptoms with Effexor, but they improved markedly when she discontinued the medication.

Also, she had significant withdrawal symptoms from Effexor, which have been noted elsewhere in literature and anecdotal reports. (We didn't learn of these until after she was using the medication.) She forgot her medication on an overnight trip and was almost incapacitated with fatigue, nausea, headache, irritability, etc. When she chose to go off the medication, the doctor gave her a regimen of gradual dosage reduction (as also cautioned by the pharmacist) that lasted a month or so, but she still experienced the same withdrawal symptoms over that month, just slightly less intense, and for another month or so when she was totally off the medication. She had a few instances of the shooting electrical sensations noted by others, but fortunately this was not frequent or persistent. Be careful with this drug! It was sheer willpower that got her off it, as she decided she didn't want to be that controlled by or dependent on any substance, so she put up with about 3 months of misery. Otherwise she would have been like friends who tried and failed repeatedly to get off antidepressants such as Prozac.

I've wanted to write about my experience with Zoloft for awhile now. It was prescribed to me after I complained to my gynecologist of feeling in great despair. He recommended Zoloft because he heard positive things about it. He was assured by the manufacturer that it had few side effects, and it was known to help women going through hormonal changes. I trusted him, because in the past he wouldn't recommend anything unless it had been out for a few years.

The effect of the drug did take away my feeling of despair. It also caused my sense of humor to diminish, and caused constant forgetfulness. I thought it was ok, because I needed to care for my family and had little time for myself. After six years my husband convinced me to get off Zoloft. I also became concerned about whether or not my GYN should manage this drug for me.

I bought a pill cutter and started to reduce the medication very slowly. My brain retaliated. I became extremely dizzy to the point of being bedridden. I thought I would not be able to withstand the withdrawal symptoms. Then I remembered having similar vertigo while on a cruise ship. Although the Zoloft vertigo was much worse than the sea sickness, the Travel Aide accupressure wristbands worked!

I'm now Zoloft-free and discovering caffeine to be the main culprit to my feeling of hopelessness.

I started on Chantix to quit smoking. I noticed I became very depressed even though I am taking an antidepressant which was working well. I started having horrible vivid dreams that were unlike anything I had ever experienced. I could not even distinguish between the dreams and reality they were so weird.

ZOLOFT! Never believe anyone who says this drug is NOT addicting. I have been on this drug for 9 years. I have experienced a sexual side effect, little to no sex drive, since first going on this medication. I decided to quit taking it, being told again, it was not addicting. That fact, in my opinion, is a false truth.

Zoloft may not be addicting like a narcotic, but it IS addicting. After one day of not taking this drug I experienced a dizziness unlike any ever in my life. I felt as though my head weighed 100 pounds which and made the muscles in my neck strain to hold it on. I could not walk across a room without holding onto a piece of furniture for stability. My blood pressure shot up to 190 / 105 and my pulse rate was 165. I was clammy, cold, and incoherent. My daughter, who works in the medical field, came to my house after a frantic call from me requesting medical attention. She took my blood pressure, pulse, and rushed me to the nearest ER. At the ER I was treated for a silent heart attack as those were the symptoms shown. After all seven hours in the ER, all tests returned unfounded. They could not find anything wrong with me. The following morning I woke with a pounding headache. My heart rate was still higher than normal and I was still very dizzy. By day three I felt total despair. I was continually light-headed with a pounding headache. I stayed in bed the following day due to the fact that I could not bear the pain in my head or the dizziness. On the sixth day my daughter called me and asked if I had stopped taking my Zoloft? I told her yes it had been 6 days. She demanded I take it immediately and call my doctor in the morning. She told me she was sure my illness was a direct effect of not taking the Zoloft. I was going through a physical withdrawal.

I did take the Zoloft 100 mg, and by morning, most of the symptoms were gone. By day two I was back to my self. All symptoms were gone. I get angry every time someone states Zoloft is NOT addictive. YES IT IS! Please read everything you can before ever stating this drug. It does work wonders for depression and panic attacks. But unless you are willing to take this drug for the rest of your life, do not start taking it.

My doctor gave me samples of Actos 45 mg. for my type II diabetes. They did lower my sugar, but I experienced nausea every day after taking it. I thought maybe I needed to take with more food but it just got worse. One night, I just started throwing up and it wouldn't stop. I called my doctor in the morning with concerns about the drug. My doctor didn't want to take me off of it so she lowered the dose to 15 mg. I am tolerating this much better but am worried nonetheless.

Methotrexate in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis has left my husband with numerous nodules on his hands, elbows, ankles, heels and, the list goes on... these could have been avoided completely, if the doctor knew that this drug should have been ceased immediately... if only one nodule appeared... instead this specialist... increased the dosage... PHYSICAL DAMAGE DONE... my husband and I found out about this side effect on our own... and, ceased this med ourselves... with no further visits to the specialist... NATURAL SUPPLEMENTS was our choice of resolution to further nodule development..

Doctors... even specialized doctors, do not always take prescribing their patients with drugs, or the adverse side effects... that have a negative impact on their patient seriously, enough...

If ONE RA patient is saved these growths on their physical being... our sharing will be worth your happiness..

I was put on Inderal 60 mg for hypertension and chronic tension-type headaches. After 3 months I was experiencing extreme fatique, exhaustion, joint pain, some muscle pain and other headache pain. After suffering and complaining to my Dr. for 2 months, he suggested I stop taking the Inderal. In 2 weeks my symptoms cleared up. Of course my BP went back to 132/90. What can I do?

I have been diagnosed with COPD. I was using Spiriva for about 6-8 weeks when I developed a urine retention problem.The spiriva did help the breathing problem but the side effects were more than I could tolerate. I am now on Advair 100/50 and I truly believe that is also causing side effects that are troublesome. I am waiting to see a pulmonologist but can't get an appt. till Dec. The advair does help the breathing but the side effects concern me. Anybody else have a problem w/ advair?? MFC

I opted for Evista when my GYN prescribed for osteo. I had pain in my legs that appeared as ganglia-like little lumps. I massaged these places to no avail.

By accident, I stopped taking Evista while away from home and unable to refill prescription. After some time I noticed that the pain in my legs reduced.

I didn't make the connection until a second round of taking then not taking Evista. I discussed the pains with my primary doc. He changed me to Fosamax. Now I have concerns about this drug too. Expensive--I have a deductible on my Medicare plan and recent mention of problems with various osteo. drugs on your show.

Like other women who have commented here, I prefer to not take drugs and stick to multi. Vit. Calcium, Magnesium, zinc and Vit. D along with exercise. However, a recent bone density test showed progression of bone loss. I am back on Fosamax after some time off the drug. Can I up my vitamins, minerals and exercises and drop the Fosamax?

I was prescirbed Lipitor for my cholesterol. I started experiencing swollen feet and ankles, extreme muscle pain in my left foot, pain in my right foot and burning sensations.

About 2 months after I started taking the Lipitor, I stopped it on my on. the swelling went away and some of the pain. I told my doctor about the symptoms and he dismissed them and gave me another prescription for another statin. I took it for about 2 weeks and all the symptoms returned.

It has been about 6 months and I still experience muscle and joint pain in my left foot. No more statins for me!

Seroquel is another drug that causes serious side effects. I started taking this drug in December of '06. The next thing I knew, after a few months of being on it, I was being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. This ailment doesn't even run in my family Seroquel is a very dangerous drug. There have been a lot of complaints on the internet about it. A large number of people have filed suit against Astra-Zeneca, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the drug.

I took Fosamax for osteoporosis for over five years and then Boniva for one year. I recently began experiencing shortness of breath when walking or exercising. I could not finish a treadmill stress test because a rapid and irregular heart beat was detected. After having a chemical stress test, an echo bardiogram and a heart cath, I was taken off Boniva, prescribed metoprolol and warfarin.

I am just beginning to be able to walk several feet without shortness of breath. Before all of this, I was an extremely healthy and active 67 year old woman. I had no other ailments and took no other medications. My blood chemistry was always excellent, I do not have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, and am not over weight. There is no history of heart disease in my family. I was in the habit of walking at least two miles each day. The shortness of breath and atrial fibrillation came on almost over night.

I understand that there has been some research showing higher incidence of artrial fibrillation linked to Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel.

I am a relatively healthy 54 year old female. Other then visits to my physician for well-controlled asthma, I rarely go to the doctor. I was put on Lipitor in Feb 2007 after a CT scan showed mild plaque in one of my coronary arteries. Within 4 months I could barely climb up and down the stairs in my house and all my joints hurt. In addition I had a spontaneous rupture of the tendon in one of my fingers. During a routine visit for my asthma I mentioned that I thought I was getting rheumatoid arthritis. My physician immediately stopped the Lipitor and the pain in my joints went away. Unfortunately I still have to live with a deformed finger from the rupture.

I began to take Lipitor in March 2007. I am a healthy 53 year old male. I suddenly started to be impotent. I stopped the Lipitor and it is no longer a problem.

ADVAIR:

I was given Advair for asthma. Within 2 or 3 days, I began losing my voice. After a few weeks, I could speak only in a whisper much of the time. If I had to talk (interview, etc) I had to "warm up" to progress from a whisper to a semi-normal voice. I seemed to have "spastic" vocal cords--I'd choke when talking or trying to sing, and couldn't inhale, coughed like mad.

Within days of beginning Advair, I had muscle and joint pain all over my body, very bad cramps in my feet and legs (couldn't even walk or stand at times), could not sit still (if I sat for 10 minutes or longer, I was in terrific pain), was having hallucinations (visual and aural), and seemed to be "addicted" to the drug--I really COULDN'T breathe without the stuff.

I also was having problems with waking/sleeping. It's hard to describe, but I couldn't really tell if I was awake or asleep. I had a hard time waking up, and seemed to be in a half-awake/half-asleep "zone" for quite a long time instead of "wake up" in the morning and "go to sleep" at night.

I had frequent (daily) migraines after starting this drug, and couldn't stay awake more than a few hours at a time without taking a short nap (voluntary OR involuntary--I fell asleep sitting in the chair in my office quite often). My opthalmologist told me I had elevated pressure in my eyes--almost enough to be considered glaucoma.

When I decided enough was enough and quit taking the drug, many of the problems disappeared. I am left with a few "permanent" side effects: the pressure in your eyes does NOT go away. It goes down a bit, but it remains "elevated," according to my eye doctor. I used to be a soprano, could sing quite well. I can talk again, but can't depend on being able to sing at any given time. The "spastic" vocal cord problem seems to have stayed with me. Sometimes I can sing for a few minutes, sometimes I can't--I either am hoarse or I start to choke. Once in a while I have 'flashbacks,' too--hallucinations (visual and aural). Fortunately I know they're not 'real' and they go away quickly, but it can really "spook" you if you're alone late at night, reading or working on something, and see or hear something that "shouldn't be there" or "isn't there."

SINGULAIR:

I was given Singulair for asthma/allergies. After taking the drug I developed WORSE cramps in my feet and legs, WORSE migraines (so now they add a migraine drug to the other pile of drugs I was on!), and nightmares. Intensity of the nightmares grew, frequency of the nightmares grew, and persistence of the nightmares grew. These were not normal "bad dreams." These were realistic, horrible, weird, paranormal/occult horror-movie-type dreams, which was strange because I don't read that sort of thing, don't watch it, don't listen to it. The dreams were so frightening and horrible that after a few years--with them growing in intensity--I was literally afraid to fall asleep, day or night. I quit the drug, the nightmares started fading, and after about 6 weeks, I was nightmare-free.

Incidentally, my doctor was horrified that I quit Advair and Singulair "cold-turkey," but I was NOT going to take them any longer. I could not take the side effects. If that meant I needed an emergency inhaler more often, so be it. The big surprise was that after quitting both of these drugs my breathing actually IMPROVED and I have NOT needed the emergency inhaler, not at all. I used it when I caught the flu in 2005, and haven't had to use it since then! I still carry it, but my current "emergency" inhaler has not even been "primed" yet.... and it's almost a year old.

I recently had a reaction to a presciption of Diclofenac that I was taking for a strained rotator cuff in my shoulder. Within a few days of taking the medication I began to have severe pains in both of my arms, as well as feeling weak and naseous.

I am generally not a fan of taking prescription medication if I don't have to, but my shoulder was very sore and I have a 17 month old little boy whom I pick up and carry around regularly, so I took the medicine.

When I started having pains in my arms I looked up the possible side effects of the Diclofenac and decided to call my doctor. He agreed with me that my discomfort could be due to the medication and advised me to stop taking it immediately. He also told me it could take up to 48 hours to completely leave my system.

Well, sure enough I started to feel better a few days later and my arm pain is gone.

My wife and I got rather severe allergic reactions to our recent pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine shots, unlike our original shots 6 years ago. Our medical office say they will take that batch out of circulation and report it to CDC. Have there been other reports?

My elderly aunt (94) was having trouble sleeping, so we began giving her Tylenol PM to help her sleep through the night. She began hallucinating and screaming after taking the pill for about a week; she couldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time. I spoke with my doctor, and he told me Tylenol PM was one of the worst things anyone elderly could take; the side effects were as I stated above. Once we stopped giving her the Tylenol PM, hallucinations and panic attacks stopped immediately.

A good friend who is 86 was placed on a 3rd statin early this year & it was KILLING HER. She stared into her lap. Her legs stopped working when she sat--I could not get her off the commode or out of the car. (Yet she takes 1-2 walks daily in her assisted living home.) The MD treating her told her daughter (after he took her off all 3 Rxs) he did not know what to do.... but I bet he still charged for an office visit (!@&^%).

I have been taking Synthroid for approx. 4 months. One of the side effects of this medication is hair loss. Unfortunately this has happened to me and I would prefer the hypothryroidism (mild) than loss of hair. If I stop taking Synthroid will the loss of hair stop?

I recently decided to try Chantix to aid in my attmept to quit smoking. After just the first dose I experienced several side effects: dry mouth, headache, nausea and severe diarrhea. After that first dose I stopped after notifying my internist about the side effects. He was surprised by my experience but agreed I should stop. Of the dozen or so people he prescribed it to, I was the only one with such severe symptoms.
Next, I'll try the patch!

I am in good health at 49 except for my high cholesterol of about 280. After having problems with two different statins my doctor prescribed Zetia. After being on this for about nine months I developed severe pain in one hip. This pain persisted for most of the remaining three months that I took Zetia. My doctor told me this drug could not be causing the pain and was happy to prescribe strong pain medicines to help. Finally I stopped taking Zetia and gradually the pain diminished over the next four weeks. It has been over a year and the pain has never returned.

This is a story about ADVAIR 100/50. I developed a sore throat in late September of 2007. It came and went and then I developed "cold like" sinus trouble which turned by late October into a cold. Then in November 2007, at Thanksgiving I had a cough that I was trying to supress by chain taking cough drops, but could not - and I excused myself just before any coughing took place - most of the time. In December the cold moved to my upper chest which resembled bronchitis.

I finally went to the doctor. He prescribed ADVAIR 100/50 every 12 hours. (I think I had used Advair before with little help.) After I took it I noticed that my chest became extremely sensitive and major muscle aches and pains ensued. I could barely cough now to remove the mucus without feeling like somebody kicked me in the chest and ribs - like your worst flu like symptoms. I took it for 7 days faithfully - in much pain.

I told my doctor that it did not seem to be working and he told me the pain was from me coughing so much and he increased the dose to Advair 500/50 every 12 hours - and he gave me a Zpac (5 days worth of antibiotics) also.

I was reluctant to take the higher dose of Advair - so I did not. In fact, I removed the ADVAIR and immediatley felt fewer aches and pains. After one day almost back to my normal self with little chest muscle and rib pain. The antibiotics seemed to work on my cough until after the second day my coughing seemed to pick up again.

I started to doubt my first thoughts about ADVAIR. So I decided to try it one more time - the lower, original dose. Right after I took a dose of the 100/50 the aches and pains came immediatley back to my chest and ribs (within about 15 minutes) - very, very sore feeling (as I write this). (Try to shovel snow while feeling like this.)

My experience is that Advair does not work for me if even at all. ADVAIR sure knows how to SIMULATE the flu and make me feel like I have the worst flu without actually having one! (Very Interesting - for other drug companies to make even more money by selling pain relievers.)

My 12 year old daughter is on Advair, Zirtec and Singulair for asthma and allergies. She has been suffering from swollen feet and hands. Her feet get so tight she cries if you touch them. The doctors have done all sorts of tests and can't find anything wrong. Can it be one of the drugs?

In my early 40s I was on Zoloft. (Not for long.) In the first few days my hands began to tremble. I always had steady hands. I now have benign essential tremors.

I take cymbalta for depression related to severe pain from osteoarthritis in my rt hip. I have horrible sweating which is almost debilitating. Many times a day I have to change my shirt because my head and neck sweat so badly. My niece has the same problem and this is the only drug we have in common. I can be freezing cold and still will have sweating around my head and neck.

I suffered flu-like symptoms when switching from COREG to its generic CARVEDILOL. They didn't go away after three weeks, when I stopped taking that particular beta blocker.

I was prescribed Geodon for bipolar II disorder by my psychiatrist. I had previously taken other antidepression and mood stabilization medications (Effexor, Lamictal) with some degree of success. Although I really didn't want to take this antipsychotropic medication because of the associated possible side effects, I did, because I trusted my psychiatrist. Probably a mistake.

After two days of gradual increase in dosage on Geodon, I had a serious side effect. At 9:00 p.m. my left and right arm became stiff as if I had been punched. Within a couple hours, I started shaking throughout my body uncontrollably. I started having the chills. My heart was racing. This lasted throughout most of the night. Then, around 4:00 a.m. in the morning as some of these symptoms lessened, I started having hallucinations. I saw psychadelic colors, birds flying around the room. I tried to go to sleep. Then I started hearing voices and a song that kept repeating itself over and over again. The hallucinations ended after a couple of hours. But the shaking continued off and on for a couple of days.

My psychiatrist's only response was, "that's interesting," which infuriated me because it was a very scary experience for me... I have no history of schizophrenia or hallucinations myself or in my family. I have not had a hallucination since.

Someone who is being treated for depression and hypomanic symptons should not to have to go through something like that... I would advise anyone with manic-depressive symptoms to think twice before trying this drug or any others within the same family of medications.

When I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure, I had to go through a couple of medications because of very serious side effects. Adalast raised my resting heart rate to 120 beats per minute.

The scariest was Lisinopril. The morning after my second dose I felt a little bloated and constipated. The feeling got a lot worse during the day until I was extremely uncomfortable, I couldn't have a bowel movement or pass any gas. By lunch, you could see my stomach growing and by the time I got out of work, I couldn't even keep my pants buttoned!

I called my doctor, but it was the weekend and they were not available, so I left a message. I went to the emergency room that evening because, by then, I looked as if I was 7 months pregnant and was in a lot of pain. I told the ER doctor that I had just starting taking Lisinopril and thought maybe that was the cause. He immediately dismissed it and had an X Ray taken of my stomach. He said my intestines looked full and prescribed a super potent fizzy laxative and said that would clear anything out by morning. I did not agree and tried to explain that the symptoms did not feel anything like constipation and that the swelling in my stomach went way beyond "just a little bloated". He acted like I was an idiot and went on to explain the intricacies of constipation to me and assured me the laxative would have me feeling better by morning.

I do not like laxatives and am always a little scared about taking them so I drank only half of the dose they told me to. A couple hours later I was in absolute agony. My stomach was still extremely bloated but now was bubbling and boiling and I still couldn't pass anything. I was in such intense pain and started vomiting as well. I spent the night in tears.

The next day my doctor called and told me to immediately stop taking the laxative (one half a dose was all I was willing to take anyways) and told me to stop taking the Lisinopril as well (couldn't keep anything down after the laxative incident so never took that day's dose). It turns out that there is a very rare side effect that they don't even list in the literature called abdominal angio edema (swelling of the intestines).

The laxative the ER gave me only complicated an already serious situation. Had the ER given me an MRI or ultrasound intead of an XRay, they would have been able to see the intestines were swollen shut, not full and constipated. Or, had the doctor listened to me when I said I thought it was the Lisinopril, he could have researched it a little more and found out that there really was a side effect that perfectly matched my symptoms.

It took 4 days after stopping Lisinopril for the swelling to go away completely. I had only taken two doses of the medication. Hopefully, if anyone reading this takes Lisinopril and has the same reaction they'll know what is happening!

I was switched from Tamoxin to Arimidex. After a few months, I began to experience bone pain. I could not even take the cap off of a bottle. I had no grip at all. I felt like an 80 year old woman at age 62. I saw an oncologist, who said I should go back on tamoxifin, since I tolerated it very well. Since then, I have read other similar posts on the internet about arimidex.

While my girls, 11 & 8 at the time, were on singulair for allergies I noticed within a couple weeks that they were both having concentration issues. I started receiving complaints from teachers. The youngest was lethargic and the older one was hyper and inattentive.

I started looking into singulair because it was the one thing that had changed recently. On singulair's website www.singulair.com they listed the side effects that the girls were experiencing but the pediatrician and allergist both chastized me for taking them off the medicine. They claimed that the medicine couldn't possibly cause the side effects. I finally printed the web page but they barely glanced at it.

We later had a problem with zyrtec causing other 'psychological' side effects. My youngest was seeing a psychologist who diagnosed her with severe seperation anxiety and depression. This time my ex-husband did the research but the information wasn't as forthcoming. He wound up finding (the most complete) info on Mayo clinic's website.

I took the girls off zyrtec and again the side effects went away. My little girl was not crying at the thought of me leaving the room and so on. And as a bonus my oldest said she stopped having fears about sickness and dying (something I didn't even know about until afterwards). And again I was berated by the doctors. The psychologist took me seriously but she saw the almost instantaneous change.

The thing that concerns me the most is how many kids out there are being prescribed anti-depressants or ADHD meds to combat side effects.

After being switched from Norvasc to Amlodipine Besylate generic + Diovan, my blood pressure began to steadily rise after being in control for 2 yrs. I couldn't figure it out, but began to think it was the generic. Dr. gave me samples of Exforge, a combination of Norvasc & Diovan, and my BP has gone back down after two weeks. Any info on this? PS my drug plan won't pay for the Exforge yet; they are reviewing it to give me the cost (which will probably be more expensive).

After taking Seroquel for four months, my feet, ankles, calves, and hands suddenly began swelling dramatically. A blood test showed decreased liver function and triglycerides at 450. At the advice of my doctor I stopped the Seroquel and the swelling went away the next day. I researched Seroquel online and discovered that these are some of the side effects. I will have another blood test and hope that my liver function and triglycerides return to normal.

After two weeks of taking Lunesta my feet were hurting badly enough that I told my doctor, and he insisted "That's not the side effects of Lunesta". I told him the pain started after I started taking Lunesta, but he insisted "That's not the side effects of Lunesta". I kept taking it because it did help me sleep.

After two months I woke feeling like my whole body was tingling, I was dizzy. I went to the emergency room, they told me to stop taking Lunesta. I stopped and started getting better within a few days, but my feet still hurt at times and my legs tingle. It might have caused nerve damage to my neck because during the two months I took it, I started having severe arm pain and had to go to a pain doctor for shots in my back and neck.

I am taking toprol-xl and have been experiencing problems with thinking, muscle weakness, gate. My problem is more with my inability to think clearly...

My doctor prescribed Nexium for gastritis and acid reflux. I am always sensitive to medication, but the first two days were fine. Then on the 3rd day I felt as if my legs were very heavy and it was a real chore to go upstairs. On day 4, I felt very drugged and sick, so I called the Dr. and told her I was not going to continue it. Now I have the situation under control by diet and was told to take a Zantac an hour before I knew I would be eating something that would provoke the acid reflux. I didn't know if others had this reaction to Nexium, but it was really a nasty feeling.

I started taking Chantix 3 weeks ago after a bout with pneumonia. I cannot tell you how bad the nausea is, and the forgetfullness is even worse. I have insomnia to begin with, so the doctor prescibed Zoloft along with Clonipen for sleep. I still have insomnia and the nausea is worse than ever, even with Mylanta. It seems that now I have a sweating problem. I sweat during the night and that wakes me up when I finally get to sleep, and I sweat during the day for no reason at all from places on my body I have never sweat from! Can anyone help?! Thanks!

Four years ago, I was having problems w anxiety and was prescribed clonapin, 1 mg a day. Over time, I am now up to 5 mg a day and want to taper off. My doctor claims that I am not addicted, but may be dependent.

When the clonapin in my blood plasma gets low, I start to have withdrawal symptoms. I can't go more than 4 hr w/o a clonapin. Also, my doctor has never suggested that I get routine liver profiles taken. After reading the literature, I have been doing this (out of pocket) and my liver is fine.

It looks like I may need to go to rehab. to get off this drug. I have never been dependent on anything and not only will I lose 1 month plus of work, it will cost my insurance co. My physician kept insisting on larger doses, despite my desire to lower the dose!

Readers, please take benzos. very cautiously even if they have the approval of your physician. In Great Britain, clonapin has been made illegal due to its misuse! Mike

I was put on Prilosec and then Nexium and had no problems. Nexium stopped being covered by my insurance and Prilosec went OTC, after the patent ran out . I was given omeprazole, a generic drug for Prilosec, which I have taken for about one yr. The reflux symptoms started coming back and I have been uncomfortable since then. I thought it was due to something I ate or was allergic to (I have developed food allergies over the last several years) but researching articles on drugs opened my eyes. It seems that omeprazole does not work like Prilosec!!

My husband also tried generic equivalent of Flomax, since the pharmacy started charging huge copay, but the generic drug JUST DID NOT WORK and he went back to Flomax, and pay the huge copay. When the doctor writes "no substitution", the pharmacy SHOULD honor the lower copay, but pharmaceutical companies don't really care and they can get away with anything!

I am going back to Nexium, since we have new insurance and their copay is high but not impossible. FDA should look much more closely before approving generic drugs.

My doctor started playing with my blood pressure meds about 2 years ago. I was on Antenolol and he switched me to Coreg. Lots of light-headedness, dizziness and very low energy. I complained to no avail. The COREG is good for you. Complaint after complaint followed until this year in October.

The Doctor said I was on the wrong med and cut the Coreg in half and added Diovan. Side effects galore. Racing heart, muscle ache, exhaustion with minimal exersion. More complaints to the doctor until I just quit Diovan.

He then sent me to the cardiologist who agreed I was on the wrong med. He cut out the Coreg and started Norvasc. I took Norvasc for ten days, lots of heart racing with irregular beats. After 2 office visits and two phone calls, the cardioligst stopped the Norvasc and restarted the Coreg. His reason was "worst case of adreniline rebound he has ever seen."

After restarting Coreg, just before Christmas, I had an ambulance ride to the ER with low blood pressure, low blood sugar, hypothermia and dehydration. ER Doctor said it was a virus. Hydrated me and sent me home. Two days later, Xmas Day, I was back in the ER. The ER did a liver function test and the reading was 1500. On December 4th, the reading was normal at 45. I was admitted into the hospital. The next day, my liver test was ovver 5000 and failing fast. The on-staff doctors had no idea what was wrong. After two days of tests and the real possibility of a liver biopsy via the jugular vein, the thoughts of meeting my maker were very real. After three days the verdict was back as to the cause of my liver failure. The cause was the NORVASC.

I had my wife look on the web and found a listed side effect stating "Norvasc can cause symptyoms of hepatitis and liver failure serious enough to require hospitalization." We showed that to my cardiologist and internist and both stated they had never heard of this. It is printed on the package insert and the PDR which all doctors have.

My complaint is that why do the doctors not know the side effects of the meds they prescribe. Had they known, I might not have ended up in the ER. The irony of all of this is now I am back on the Antenolol and the blood pressure is fine.

Please add my name to the list of people who have had muscle aches & pains while taking cholesterol-lowering drugs. I have been on Zocor, Vytorin, and Crestor and have had muscle pain & weakness on all 3. As a result, I have decided not to take them in the future.

My problem is not so much with taking the antihistamine drug Zyrtec, but like many other people, with attempting to STOP taking it.

After using this drug for about 3 years while having allergy shots, I first attempted to stop taking it in preparation for allergy testing. Within 3 days, the total-body itching was so horrible I was crying in pain, and preparing to go to the hospital for relief. Confused by pain, I forgot to not take the Zyrtec, and lo and behold, before I could get dressed and get in the car, my symptoms were GONE. Now, 7 years later, I have tried unsuccessfully at least 10 times to quit this drug, and the reaction is more severe each time.

Today while I was researching this problem online, I found a community of 1000s of people who have had the same problems I have, and discovered this drug is due to become available without a prescription in late January '08. How many more people will suffer this virtual addiction now?

Why isn't there anything about this in the press?

Accutane: triglycerides 400+ as well as severe depression

For the past two months, I've had to deal with a sinus infection, followed by pre-pneumonia, followed by plugged ears (which I still have). During this time, I've been shuffled around from one specialist to another, and each of them has prescribed antibiotics. Even when I tell them that the antibiotics cause me to have itchy hives on my face and neck, they go ahead and prescribe another antibiotic!

I think I've developed a resistance to all antibiotics because of them being over-prescribed during this two-month period, and yet the doctors keep writing out prescriptions! I'm sick of doctors not listening to me!

I have a problem with psuedoephedrine, too (it makes my nasal congestion worse), and yet they've all tried to prescribe it... even though I always list it as one of the medications that I have a bad reaction to. Do the doctors bother to read the questionaires that they always ask new patients to fill out? It sure looks like they don't!

Presently, I've stopped taking everything because I think I'm overmedicated. My ears are very plugged-up, but I have NO IDEA what's the best thing to do!

ACTOS Plus & JANUVUA - DIABETES MEDS-
Began taking them and joints swelled, pain like razors in them. Now they are telling me I have Rheum Arthritis. I never had a joint problem in my life! STAY AWAY FROM THOSE DRUGS- They can cause damage!

I started using an over the counter eyedrop we all know and love called Visine. I used Visine to help me with my occasional dry, red eyes. I used Visine for about 2 - 3 months maybe a couple times a week. Well now, I have red, dry eyes on a regular basis. I have tried everything to get rid of my dry, red eyes but thanks to visine they are with me forever. Since Visine is not kind enough to inform the consumer of the permenant change to your eyes from using Visine, I was hoping you could. My choices now are to use Visine every day of the week or look stoned. Visine needs to have a warning label on the box informing the consumer of the problem in using Visine.

Thank you.

I'm a 54 year old healthy, active woman. Two years ago my doctor said I had osteopenia and put me on Actonel, once a week. After one dose, I was in such pain I couldn't stand for anyone to touch me, and could hardly get out of bed for 2 days.

I called the doctor who said I had the flu and should try it again in two weeks. I felt so much pain (not flu symptoms) there was no way I was going to try it again. Then he tried Boniva. It worked well for about 6 months, then my heart would start racing when I was relaxing... including about 4 a.m. when I was asleep... which awakened me and prevented me from getting rest. It would take about an hour for me to get over the dizzyness and sick feeling. I wore a heart monitor for 24 hours... and it went from 44 to 147 in an instant in the middle of the night.

I've now just upped calcium, D, and magnesium... because I may break bones, but at least I won't be a couch potato from the pain.

I took Actonel for 2 years to build bone due to bone loss from osteoporosis (which I got from eliminating dairy products without taking calcium supplements). Actonel is taken one time per week, and after 2 years, I spat up blood two mornings in a row after taking Actonel the day before. I stopped Actonel 7 months ago, no blood since.

I HAD BREAST CANCER. THEY REMOVED THE SMALL LUMP, THERE WASN'T ANY CANCER IN THE LYMPH NODES, SO I HAD RADIATION TREATMENTS FOR 6 WEEKS. I WAS THEN PUT ON ARIMIDEX, 1 MG, ONCE A DAY. I HAVE BEEN TAKING IT FOR 1 1/2 YEARS AND SINCE THEN I'VE BEEN WEEPY, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS BECAUSE OF HOT FLASHES WHICH DON'T OCCUR DURING THE DAY TIME. ALSO I SUFFER FROM UTI'S, ALONG WITH LACK OF SLEEP AND FEELING SAD AND CRYING OFF AND ON OVER NOTHING. I AM NOT SURE I CAN CONTINUE WITH THIS MEDICINE FOR THE NEXT 3 1/2 YEARS EVEN THOUGH IT'S SUPPOSED TO PREVENT CANCER FROM RECCURRING.

I suffer from fibromyalgia and have terrible side effects from all sorts of drugs. It took awhile before my doctor accepted this fact. Antidepressants make my muscle spasms unbearable. I have a new doctor and must start all over again with getting this problem across to him, and it's very frustrating. Antibiotics don't agree with me either. Taking a new medication for me is like playing Russian Roulette. You never know what's going to happen and people think that I'm crazy when I say that I always break new pills that I have never had before in half. At least that way if there is going to be a problem I will only get 1/2 of the problem and not the whole thing!

I have been sufferring from high blood pressure for several years, and been taking norvasc and hct. Recently, l noticed my bp going up, above 140/90. My doctor noticed the change and dropped norvasc for adalat. However, while on norvasc, l had frequent stomach aches. I read from the medical dictionary that HCT tends to increase blood sugar levels in the long run. Therefore, when my blood sugar went up a bit, my doctor said, l am now prediabetic. I told her that l walk 30 minutes a day, eat right, and therefore the high sugar level could have been caused by HCT taken over 10 years.

The adalat came with constipation. I complained to the doctor and she told me to eat more fruits and vegetables. I also noticed decreased interest in sexual activity. The doctor prescribed viagara. Finally, l said enough is enoough. I am trying alternative medicine. I drink 2 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder everyday -- one in the morning one in the evening. Also, l take a tsp of apple cider vinegar diluted in a cup of water. I have increased my daily walks from 30 minutes to 1 hour. All these combined with breathing exercises have proven effective in lowering my blood pressure.

I was looking for a new physician during the exact time when I was experiencing tremendous stress because of a housing contract gone sour with fraud. When I went to the doctor my blood pressure was very high due to the aforenamed stress and my white coat anxiety. The physician changed my blood pressure medicine, which I had been on for a number of years, and also put me on Zoloft. And the real insanity began.

About three days into taking the Zoloft meds, I noticed that my vision was different. Colors looked alive and too bright. I could not focus, was restless, hyperactive, more so than usual, actually. I felt as though I might have been having an out-of-body experience for a lot of the time. It was most definitely surreal. When I called the physician's office, she refused to speak with me. Her nurse or office assistant told me that she said she had not prescribed any meds that would cause the symptoms I described to the person who took the call. It got so bad I found myself thinking of doing harm to myself.

Finally, I called the local hospital (this is RURAL country) and talked to someone who handled mental illness and drug overdose. I was admitted to the hospital so that they could take me off Zoloft in a safe environment and put me back on the blood pressure meds that I had been taking. I was so glad to be in the hospital!!!! Can you imagine?

I went in to see the physician thereafter and SHE (i am female, also) said that I was not going to be a good patient for her (I had questioned her about her non-response to my call about the medicine she had prescribed and the side effects) because she wanted her patients to love her. Now how is that for "first do no harm"? Huh?

I was recently diagnosed with early osteoporosis and my doctor prescribed Boniva. I followed all the instructions (take prilosec a couple of days prior, stay upright, etc) and had no problems the first day. However, 36 hours after taking the Boniva, I lost my appetite, felt exhausted, and developed abdominal cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, and developed a low-grade fever. It felt like I had a severe stomach virus, and I ended up unable to go to work for a week.

I told my doctor, who said it could not possibly be the Boniva, but rather that it was indeed a stomach virus. However, on my second dose of Boniva, the exact same thing happened, right down to the timing. This time, the waves of severe abdominal cramping lasted for 5 days. I again missed a week of work, and I looked and felt like I was on death's door. This time my doctor was a little more sympathetic but told me that due to the age (58) at which I have developed osteoporosis, I have no choice but to take one of the other bisphosphonates and has prescribed Actonel. I personally am very worried about taking the same class of drug again. Surely there are alternative approaches to reduing bone loss. I take calcium + vit D and am a very active person. Unfortunately I believe some of my problem is genetic as my father had severe osteoporosis.

About Mirapex for restless legs. My husband took Mirapex and he got chest pains and his blood pressure went to 190. He went to the emergency room. It turned out it was not a heart attack. He found out that when he put his shoes on, his legs stopped shaking. He started sleeping with his bedroom shoes on in bed and his restless legs ceased.

Boniva (only one dose) caused so much pain in my hands that I couldn't even have a sheet touch them when I slept. It started the day after I took it. It has been over a year, and I still have pain in my hands and I wonder if it is the cause of some back pain that I have had for the past year. The pain in my hands isn't as bad as it was earlier, but I can't knit or open jars. I use a TENS unit for the back pain, as no one can find a reason for it.

I took Lipitor, and as a result, even saw an ENT physician, because I felt like I was choking on mucus all the time. It was so bad that I carried a plastic spoon to scrape the back of my tongue and throat to escape choking. Finally, I took it upon myself to quit Lipitor, and after the drug left my system (about 60 days), I was clear of the choking and have never experienced it again. I avoid drugs like the plague!

When I was using Nasonex, I thought it was a wonder drug, as I live in NC and the pollen season is always murder on my sinuses. Well, I began to have horrible chest pain and shortness of breath, and realized it was the Nasonex after initially thinking I was a goner! If I had gone to the Dr, I would have been sent for all sorts of unneccesary tests, and who knows, maybe heart surgery! When I stopped using the Nasonex, the chest pain and shortness of breath went away immediately. I found reference to this when I was desperate and searching for information on google! Many others reported the same side effects, which were not included on the packaging! Now I rely on sinus rinsing to clear the effects of allergies on my sinus.

I had severe leg pain after first taking Lipitor, Zocor and now Paxil. I'm wondering what if any connection there might be between the three drugs. Paxil was working wonderfully, but all at once my legs started aching just like when I was taking the other two drugs.

I have the side effects that are not listed in the side effects or adverse reactions portions of drug scare sheets. When given sulfa drugs or cephalasporins, I experiece uncontrolled weeping. I have found that I am not in this situation alone... I am an ADD/ADHD adult and most of my life I have had interesting reactions and allergies that have had doctors and pharmacists shaking their heads... it has become serious enough that I have very few antibiotics available for major illness... I pray they develop a different binding agent for flu and pneumonia shots...

I have been taking either Prilosec or Nexium for about 10 years for GERD. Mysteriously the literature on those two drugs indicate they are for short term use only, but we all know that for most of us, GERD is a fairly chronic condition.

Besides that, I don't think you will find this in the literature about the PPIs--Proton Pump Inhibitors--that they are being associated with benign "stomach" polys which must be removed during EGD procedures (the upper scopes) and biopsied. I've had mine removed twice, the last time being 6 or 7 and quite large, my doctor described them. I am unable to still find any information about Nexium causing the benign stomach polyps.

Now my GI Dr. wants to do another EGD in one year which will be again about May (ugh). Why isn't more information getting out about this side effect? I asked my doctor about reporting it to the FDA's drug watch agency and he replied, "that's not necessary, they are well aware of it". Now he has me take the Nexium every other day, and if needed Zantac or Pepcid on the alternating dates.

If all doctors have my doctor's attitude about reporting drug side effects, the FDA is not getting an accurate picture of how many actual patients are getting a given side effect. What's up that it's still not in the drug insert on Nexium? I think the patient should be able to report things to the FDA without having to use the doctor in certain situations. I'm an RN by education, and perfectly capable of reading the biopsy report on my stomach polyps, and reporting to the FDA what my doctor thinks is causing them. What say you about this? Also, I too, did not seem to get the same relief for my GERD from the generic Prilosec. I find all this rather disconcerting at the least.

Was taking Mirtazapine 45mgs for over a year for anxiety. At first it removed the anxiety and I was quite relieved. But a few things started happening -- 1. I gained 35lbs. 2. Even more serious was anything going wrong would go from frustration to complete blind anger with no in between. I lost my partner as she was fearful of telling me... Friends asked me what was going on with me about 2 months ago -- I was shocked... I didn't even see it. I stopped the treatment and within 2 weeks my friends are calling and coming over again and saying I am a lot nicer. I still feel the anger twinges, but am gaining control over them. I am now self-prescribed sunshine and balanced meals to maintain my sanity...

CHANTIX - supposed to be the wonder drug to help us quit a terrible addiction to smoking.

I took Chantix exactly as prescribed, and within 2 days, I was a changed person; irritable, wild mood changes, would even become violent with close family when things didn't go my way. I experienced terrible nightmares, couldn't sleep, wouldn't eat, began throwing up, yelling and screaming at everyone. I could not find anything that made me happy or relaxed. I couldn't concentrate on even reading a book.

I continued taking Chantix at the urging of my doctor and pharmacist who said there were no reports of such bad side effects. I continued and so did my decline. I eventually left my husband of 25 years; I despaired and thought I was going crazy; considered suicide many, many times.

My doctor put me on an anxiety medication along with a sleeping medication -- the dreams and insomnia caused by Chantix were horrific! I started seeing a therapist because I attributed all of these new symptoms to menopause; I have not had any problems with menopause for the past three years, and I thought my good luck had run out. The new medications helped me sleep, but didn't help with anything else -- I was not the person I had always been, and I was losing my mind!!!!

I stayed on Chantix for 9 weeks and was never able to put down the cigarettes. One good side effect of Chantix was that I did not, could not without getting ill, drink any kind of alcohol. I stopped taking the Chantix on 2/2/08 and still seem to have some lingering side effects after more than six weeks.

I of course reported this to my doctor, who was amazed when I handed him the research materials of adverse side effects. He immediately put me on an antidepressant and I actually am beginning to feel like the woman I have always been.

I know Chantix has worked well for many people, and for that I am thankful. For me however, it almost destroyed not only my life, but it caused undo hardship and pain to my entire family and my close circle of friends and to my career.

My elderly mother was given a daily tiny shot of FORTEO to encourage bone building to overcome osteoporosis. After one year she had improved from a measurement of -4.5 to -1.5, which is terrific. However, she also had a serious buildup of calcium in her blood so the shots had to be stopped. Her health care practitioner had found references in medical literature to such buildups in two other cases. The shots had been scheduled to be given over a 2 year period.

I was on Synthroid (lowest dose) for many years. At some point, my shoulder became terribly painful. I went through many tests and procedures with top line orthopedic docs... one suggested a frozen shoulder. I had been going to physical therapy for this and was told that I should be getting better, and they didn't know why I wasn't.

I providentially came across an article on the net by a California chiropractor (v. large practice) who decided to do his own study to figure out why certain patients were not responding to therapy. The common denominator? Synthroid. But it is not the actual thyroid that's the problem, it's the fillers.

It's a long story, but I decided to stop taking it for a little while and see what happened. After a few days, better. After a week, better yet. After a month, two months, I'm good as new!! Many other muscle aches receded as well.

I need the thyroid med (you can't just stop taking it if you need it), so I am on Armour thyroid (natural). My doc just upped my dose, and now I'm feeling more aches and pains and worry/wonder what I'll do if it gets worse.

What the heck are these fillers anyway, that can cause such side effects? My doc's great, very receptive, but I have had others who also treat any questioning re medications as an assault to their intelligence. Sickening.

I have a "flash anger" problem that seems to be part of having bi polar II. A couple of years ago, I realized the anger seemed to be related to taking Claritin 24 Hour Allergy Tablets. I stopped taking the claritin and the anger has been reduced by about 75%. Since then I've found other antihistamines also cause the anger. I no longer take any antihistamines unless absolutely neccessary.

I have had heart burn for years. I am a 48 year old female. I was put on Nexium for relief and then was switched to Prevacid.

I was getting discomfort in my upper stomach near the sternum. I had a endoscopy 2 days ago and it showed that I have lots (the doctor said bunches) of polyps in my stomach. He has biopsied a few and I see him in 3 weeks.

I have doen my research now and discovered that nexium and prevacid can cause all these polyps in my stomach. I stopped taking the prevacid and hopefully my own stomach acid will erradicate my stomach polyps now that I am not using prevacid. Anyone else out there with this problem?

Five years ago I took amiodarone for a minor heart arrythmia, afib. After a few weeks of the loading dose, I started to have serious problems: the worst insomnia of my life, low grade fever feeling (my body was running hot), stomach and back pain in my mid back, left side.

After another 5 weeks I stopped taking this drug and all of the symptoms went away except for the back pain. This pain has been constant and disabling. I can no longer work and as is the case with much back pain there's not a definitive diagnosis or explaination.

I can't help but think that this intractable pain is either directly or indirecly caused by this drug. Of course no doctor will agree that there is a causal relationship, but it's made me very nervous about taking medications. Since I now have chronic back pain this is a challenging place to be. Anyone else ever heard of this side effect?

I trusted my Dr. and didn't tell my pharmacist about my heart condition and Myastenia Gravis. Although those two prexistings are all over my charts, this Dr. prescribed Hyoscyamine for me.

In a short while, my heart rate increased and often pounded heavily. I was experiencing muscle weakness.

As soon as the cardiologist learned that this drug had been prescribed, he told me to quit taking it immediately.

Next, a visit to the Neurologist confirmed that this was a disastor for Myasthenics. I was experiencing severe weakness and difficulty in breathing.

I returned to tell the prescribing physician about the problem. He proceeded to tell me that this was a very mild drug and implied that I was mistaken. His answers bounced all over the place and he was very disturbed that I knew what I was talking about.

IMITREX - I have had migraines for about 35 years.
I was prescribed the "miracle" drug, Imitrex. It paralyzed my swallowing muscles and made me feel like my throat was closing off (although the nurse assured me it was not). It was a frightening experience. After about 6 hours I felt normal and did not try the drug again.

After a 12-week course of AC chemotherapy for breast cancer, I received twelve weekly infusions of Taxol. The Taxol WRECKED my feet, maybe permanently, and my fingertips are still numb seven months later. My big toenails turned black and fell off.

Lyrica is the only drug for peripheral neuropathy, I'm told. My dosage, 300 mg per day (100 every 8 hours, seems to keep a lid on the tingling. My neurologist tells me there's nothing for the numbness. He instructs me not to increase the Lyrica.

At this point, I believe I'm stuck with a lifetime of Lyrica and ugly toes as a consequence of undergoing chemo.

I was shocked to read the article about Singulair. I was put on Singulair and Zyrtex for allergy symptoms.

My headaches worsened and I was afraid to drive because I got so sleepy. I was under doctor's care to save me from my deep depression and was being treated for narcolepsy when a new allergist did more advanced allergy tests and determeined that I was not allergic to anything!

I stopped all allergy medicine and my 3 shots a week. I read that Zyrtex affected 5% of the people with fatigue but none of the doctors picked up on that. My fatigue became more tied to my sleep cycle and was not a major problem any more. My depression started to improve at this time too.

I had been taking generic prozac for a while but had switched back to name brand. Many things were going on physically so it was hard to figure out exactly what was at the bottom of my illness.

I have suffered chronic depression my whole life but had never been suicidal before. Knowing that my children would never forgive me if I killed myself, I prayed for death to find me. It's such a revelation to find that Singulair played a role in this, I never suspected that an allergy medicine could do this.

I developed drug-induced hepatitis after taking generic Maxide for less than a week. I had taken the same drug with no ill effects for over two years for high blood pressure, but was taken off it after losing weight, which caused my blood pressure to drop naturally.

Unfortunately, after about a year and a half at the new weight, my bp started climbing again, so the doc put me back on generic Maxide. As said, within one week I was suffering drug-induced hepatitis and immediately taken off the generic Maxide. It took six weeks for my liver enzymes to go back to normal.

I was given Neurontin to treat severe pain in my feet (the doctor never told me this was an "off-label use). When I developed extreme swelling in one foot and ankle the day after I began taking the drug, I called the doctor. He did not return my call for many days. When he responded, he said it could be a side effect of the drug, but if I didn't continue taking it anyway, he had nothing else to offer me.

After weeks of no positive response to treatment, he maxed out the dosage. My other foot and leg swelled up too, and both got huge. I called the doctor repeatedly, and got no response for more than a week.

It is now years since I took Neurontin. My feet are still in pain, not improved by "treatment" at all. BUT, the damage done by the Neurontin is permanent. And to add to my pain, the edema (swelling) in my feet and ankles increases and spreads the pain.

Then a slightly overweight male in my 50's, a series of physicians increased my Synthroid to 1.25 MG (what my sister, with no thyroid, takes). The first physician did a lab test; I do not recall the later doctors doing tests, at each dosage slight increase?

I later started takeing Mirapex (can't recall if a Synthroid conflict; controlled RLS well; but suddenly I would briefly fall sleep whilst driving. Within ten minutes or so; what I called "chemical sleep", would quickly abate), but because of price and sudden sleep problems, switched to eight carbidopa-levo 50-200 TB SAMYL tablets per day for acute RLS.

I complained to three physicians of strong static-electric like shocks "sparking" through me, full body length, about every five minutes, day and night. After three years of this, I wished for suicide, and told three doctors so; many times. None ever made a comment about the static-electric like problem.

One day I forgot my Synthroid; the next mid-day I realized I'd forgotten it, AND that the strength and frequency of the "shocks" were cut in half. In four days the "shocks" had ended. The lower half of my lower Caucasion legs turned a strong, wonderful brown (for about seven days; but never regrew hair there) and the large swelling was halved. A year later another self-discovery, ended the remaining swelling; but the hair was dead, and the veins remain stretched blue.

I think I had a Synthroid/levadopa conflict? Neither one might be at fault; but the two together, made me want suicide.

When I took my age 65 Social Security physical, I told the (same) doctor I was willing to start on the lowest dose of Synthroid; but when the "shocks" returned; we needed to go back to the lower non-shock dose. He said the new lab results showed I needed NO Sythroid. He doubted I ever did!

Five physicians increased my father's Parkinson medicine (he was on 1.25 MG of Synthroid too). After his second wife died, he moved to my home town. His new physician said dad was on so many drugs the new physician would take him off all drugs, to figure out what was going on?

I told the new the doctor he was Manic-Depressive and he had to remain on his unusually low dose of (forgot name, a "salt"?). Turned our dad NEVER had Parkinsons; and when the five times increased Parkinsons medicine stopped; dad's Parkinsons-like symptoms, likewise stopped.

Oh, Goodness! Thank you, thank you thank you everyone! I have been on Simvastatin since last June, and I have been sick 6 times since then, had all kinds of weird aches and pains, had bad tingling in my feet, my asthma suddenly started getting worse, dizzy spells, memory lapses of biblical proportions and so forth. I was certain the Simvastatin was causing it, but my doctor gave me the SAME brush off.

Two weeks ago, I stopped taking it, and I had the most wonderful symptom free week and a half (oddly, I started getting heartburn after stopping it, but all the other symptoms went away, and the heartburn seems to be responding to yogurt). So, just to test myself, I took one last night, and I have been miserable all day, hacking and coughing up this odd almost clear but bubbly phlegm, achy, etc.

I am calling him tomorrow to complain and to demand alternatives to bringing my cholesterol down than Zocor or that family of drugs.

Truth is probably that it would be best to improve my diet, maybe take some garlic pills, and get out and exercise.

Best wishes to all!

Since being on Advair, I have sinus problems, cold symptoms, sore throat, bleeding nose, very painful and weak muscles to the point it's hard to raise my arms, hot sensations in my muscles and sweating. How do you get off this stuff without smothering. It says don't stop taking because it could cause death, and even says it could cause death if you keep taking it! What are we to do.... my doctor won't listen.

I am a 60-year-old, active woman with early onset osteoporosis. I took Fosamax for 3-4 months and had a very bad reaction to it. It's been 9 months since I took it, and the symptoms have been subsiding gradually, they're almost gone, but I still get intermittent pain in my legs; it is pretty sharp pain. I still cannot lie down in bed on my side (either side, but one side's worse) for longer than a few minutes because my hips start hurting so badly I must move out of that position.

Other reactions included: severe weakness throughout my body and severe leg pain. When taking this drug I noticed, after about 6 weeks, how difficult it was for me to walk when I got up in the morning. I was taking tiny baby steps to get to the bathroom -- I felt like I was 100 years old. When I went on a hike at the beach, I was astounded at how out of breath and exhausted I was after a short while. I had always been flexible and had prided myself on being able to squat Indian-style for lengthy periods; I couldn't do that anymore. Lying on the floor to exercise, I was terrified at how difficult it was for me to get up off the floor. Finally I put two and two together and quit taking Fosamax.

I was fine before taking Fosamax and I hope to eventually get my body back in the same condition it was before taking this drug. This drug did some damage to me, clearly.

Seroquel: Left me vegetative for a short time. I was not warned about the bizarre side effects. I can't remember much of what happened, obviously!

Also Topamax: DANGEROUS. Gave me damage in the language centers of my brain. Five years later, I am still trying to recover.

Why don't doctors take their patients' concerns seriously? Why do you suppose so many of us go to the health food store for supplements instead of to the doctor?

My son was taking inhaled steroids (Advair) from age 5 to age 10 for asthma. We stopped it just in February 08 when I started to put together some of the bad side effects. He was overweight, gets frustated easily, woke up often at night, moved around a lot while sleeping, sleep walking some, and broke his foot last year.

Has anyone heard of the long-term side effects of Advair in children? Can these drugs cause an imbalance with the adrenal gland? My doctor says that there would be other symptoms if the adrenal gland was affected.

My rheumatologist gave me a Lyrica script for my fibromyalgia. On the lowest dose I experienced violent jerking of my legs up to my chest! I therefore took the remaining pills and threw them out.

I had recent reactions to two different antibiotics taken for a chronic sinus infection. Two days' worth of Clindamycin gave me bloody stools. The doctor told me to stop taking that drug for 7 days and then to take Avelox for 7 days (400 mg pill a day). After 5 days of Avelox, I developed a fever of 101 and a fine rash on my lower legs along with carbuncles. I stopped the Avelox, and the fever and carbuncles disappeared after 4 days.

My 12 yr. old son was on Seroquel for 6 months, as a mood stabilizer (public schools complained about his behavior, he has an I.E.P). He went from 80 pounds to 105.

His weight gain looks very unhealty--it's all around his belly area and it looks like cottage cheese, his skin even started to flap undernearth his arm pit. He looked swollen. I called the doctor and he took him off. I wish now I never gave it to him.

I decided to homeschool my son and and keep him drug-free, since public schools think drugging your child is the only solution. Austin has been off seroquel for two weeks now and has lost 5 pounds already, he swims everyday.

I am a type 2 diabetic on insulin 10 units twice daily.
I take lisinopril, amlodapine, and a water pill in the AM. In the evening I take doxazocin and fluvastatin plus a baby aspirin.

Recently I have had a bad case of hives as big as oranges. The itching is driving me nuts. I think one of these meds is responsible. Dr says oh, but does not offer any ideas.

About two years ago I was prescribed Fosamax for pre-osteoporosis. After two months on the drug, I started having heartburn and acid reflux as well as arthritic symptoms in my hands. I still had the information sheet that came with the prescription, and all my symptoms were listed on the sheet describing the side effects. I immediately went off Fosamax and informed my doctor of my decision. I now take Citrical and have a regular exercise program. The arthritis has gone away, but am able to control the heartburn with Ameprozole and Tums. Be careful. The cure can be worse than the disease.

I stopped taking losartan and amlopidine for blood pressure, but I still get dizzy spells. I stopped taking them may 27 2008. When will the side effects totally go away?

Can someone help me?

Several years ago, when I was traveling to southern Africa, a doctor at a travel clinic prescribed Lariam as an anti-malarial drug. I took the Lariam as prescribed. After a few weeks of work and travel, I became dizzy and nauseous and had heart palpitations and wild, vivid dreams. These symptoms became more frequent and more intense over the next couple of weeks.

Then one evening during a work dinner I became increasingly disoriented, with severe heart palpitations, shortness of breath and profuse sweating and nausea. When I fainted, my colleagues rushed me to a hospital where I received excellent care. The doctors explained to me that the symptoms were side effects of the Lariam and advised that I discontinue its use immediately. (They then implored me to tell the doctors in the U.S. to stop prescribing Lariam for prophylactic use. Lariam was their last line of treatment for severe cases of malaria, and they were concerned that its casual use as a prophylactic would lead to resistant strains of malaria -- which, unfortunately, has happened.)

When I returned to the U.S. a few months later, I did some research and discovered that the neurological problems I experienced were common side effects associated with the drug -- something the doctors in the U.S. never told me.

Since that time 15 years ago, I have experienced several full-blown panic attacks and wonder whether the Lariam could be responsible; I never suffered from anxiety or panic attacks before taking it. I now take medication to control the panic attacks and have been blessedly panic-free for 5 years.

I was prescribed Lyrica for leg pain and multiple chronic pain problems including nerve damage. Even starting at the lowest dose, I was so dizzy (vertigo), I could not function. Time did not take care of this problem, & I was very disappointed. I had heard so many success stories from taking Lyrica. Then, when I read about side effects I found a large percentage of people have this same problem with Lyrica. Patients should be warned!

In January of 2006 I began taking Singulair for my allergies. Within 2 months, I started having severe burning pain and tingling in my feet. The pain kept me awake at night and walking was excrutiating. By the beginning of the fourth month, both my Achilles tendons were inflamed and causing unbearable pain. My feet and ankles looked deformed.

After several complaints to my doctor, she referred me to an orthopedist who promptly diagnosed acute tendonitis in my Achilles tendons as a secondary effect from the way I was walking due to acute neuopathy in my feet. He had no explanation for the cause of the neuropathy (exams and bloodwork showed nothing that would cause it).

Finally I raalized that the only thing I had done differently just before this all began was to start the Singulair. I looked up the side effects and buried in the literature was "tingling in the hands or feet".

I kept looking and found a reference to neuropathy as a side effect of Singulair. I didn't take my Singulair that night and the next morning, the neuropathy was vastly improved. Within 4 or 5 days, it was almost gone. However, the Achilles tendons were already so severely affected that, even with treatment, I had to quit my job and couldn't work for a year; I have still not been able to work full time.

In my research, I found that there may be a link between Singulair and Churg-Strauss Syndrome that often presents with neuropathy. Thank goodness I stopped taking that drug, but it drastically changed my life and earning capacity.

My twin brother and I both took Effexor for several years to help deal with problems of anxiety and depression. As we got up to the higher dosage levels (450 mg/day), we began to experience numbness in our feet, which we believed was a side effect from the drug that would go away after getting off the drug.

We now are both relatively healthy and no longer taking the drug; however, both of us continue to have tingling and numbness in our feet and I also experience weakness in my legs and tightness in my hands. These side effects seems to be getting even more noticiable as we age, but we have yet to find a doctor who can advise how to alleviate the conditions.

None of the doctors that he or I saw in the past (each had different doctors as we reside in different states) would even acknowledge that the numbness and tingling in the extremities that we experienced then could be a side effect caused by taking the drug, much less that the effect would be permanent.

Another warning! To those of you who have had serious side effects from "statins": please beware of the drug "Lopid" (Gemfibrozil). It is prescribed for "high" cholesterol and "elevated" triglycerides. It causes the same miserable side effects: severe muscle and joint pain and peripheral neuropathy.

My MD at least listens to me when I describe these problems but she offers no relief. It has been almost 3 months since I stopped taking Lopid. My feet no longer feel like they're "on fire" but the numbness and tingling remain. The excruciating pain may have subsided, but it is still hard to walk farther than across the room because of the neuropathy.

I had a similar "crippling" experience two years ago with Lipitor; most of the effects have subsided, but at the time, I was forced to retire from my job 2 years early! Because I couldn't walk! Will this ever end?

My psychiatrist prescribed lithium to treat my bipolar disorder. I thought that since it was such a simple substance, atomic number 3, that it'd probably be safe to take.

As I read a Wikipedia article my doctor had printed off for me, I realized lithium could be problematic.

So far, I've experience some weight gain, break outs and extreme fatigue that occurs a 3-4 hours after taking it. Through trial and error, I discovered I can't take it until the end of my waking hours, otherwise I will get drowsy. In fact, when I first started taking the entire dose in the middle day, I would get so wiped out I would be hanging onto consciousness by my fingernails and would have to stay wherever I happened to be, until I was reasonably safe to drive home.

Things were a little better in divided doses, but better yet when taken right before bed.

My son's experience with risperdal's side effects has been a nightmare. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1990 and responded well to lithium and Zoloft. In 2004 his doctor added low-dose (0.5 mg) risperdal to his medications in order to alleviate persistent irritability. After being on risperdal nine months, we noticed a dramatic change in his personality.

Lab results showed greater than 10-fold increase in his prolactin level. A brain MRI revealed the presence of a pituitary tumor. I researched the medical literature to see if there were any reports linking risperdal to pituitay tumors. In August 2006 a paper published by the FDA (in the journal, Pharmacotherapy) reported a strong association between pituitary tumors and risperidone. Please share this information with others.

I read in today's column about the lady who had bizarre dreams while taking Chantix. I, too, had this experience. Finally, I stopped taking the nighttime dose. I was still able to quit smoking (I have been smoke-free for 14 months now) without the weird dreams. Hope this may help someone else.

I took Lipitor for only 3 days and broke out in an extreme set of red welts that itched terribly. Having been through the "hives" of drug reaction with a member of the sulfa drug family, I knew what I had and stopped taking Lipitor immediately. My doctor thought I should have given it more time! Absolutely no way. Currently I am taking Naispan and testing to see if it will give any results in lowering cholesterol. If it doesn't, I am not going to take anything else. I'll just eat those bran muffins every morning for the rest of my life and quit worrying about it.

I take trileptal and Keppra for seizures (onset sudden at age 56-documented temporal site with cortical atrophy. I have had low Na with these meds so have to somewhat limit my water intake. I have ear ringing that comes and goes. I will have loud ringing for a few days and then it goes away for days. I take Calcium, Mg for sleep and soft stools, fish oil or flaxseed oil. I have stopped baby ASA and my hearing has been tested and I have seen an ENT MD. I also take only 5 mgm of Lisinopril due to dizziness with the seizure meds.

I am a type II Diabetic but my Hgb A1c is never above 6.2 and I use diet and excercise. My am fasting blood sugars run under 120 and mostly around 110 (since wt loss last year). ENT dx tinnitus-unknown cause. No hearing loss and rare vertigo when took Cipro or had 20 mgm of Lisinopril. Any idea why the ringing is episodic?

I was give Erythromycin for an infection and immediately started have heart palpitations and shortness of breath, my doctor didn't believe that it could be that drug, so he gave me something generic but still in the same family of erythromycin- I had the same reaction.

A couple of years ago I found something on the AMA website stating that erythromycin had been responsible for several cardiac deaths!!!

I was prescribed Zocor (name brand) for my elevated cholesterol many years ago. I am a female, 53 yrs old. I had increased pain and stiffness in my left hip and was referred by my primary doctor to a rhumatologist. He thought I had severe arthritis and prescribed Celebrex.

Yes, the pain did go away. Then Celebrex was said to have bad side effects and my doctor took me off it.
The pain was getting debilitating, I really thought about looking into a hip replacement as I was in constant pain that brought tears to my eyes. I had switched to a mail order prescription service with my insurance company and they sent simvistatin (generic) instead of the brand.

it was cheaper and I thought generics were always the same as brand. About 3 days later I noticed my pain was gone! (this was 18 mos ago.) I have not had hip pain since and told my Doctor of this miracle. He was slow to believe me but has since heard from other patients of pain from Zocor and switched them to generic. My pharmacist insists that there is no difference but I present my facts...I am walking pain free!

I have asthma and was given a rx for Advair. It worked well for my breathing problems but my skin became so thin, I started bruising badly. Then I experienced horrible damage to my skin with deep gashes from a slight bump. One day I leaned on the bathroom counter and several inches of the the skin on my arm peeled off.

I was seeing a specialist for my lung problems and he insisted this was not caused from any prescription medication I was taking. He told me it was thinning skin from old age. One day standing at the pharmacy counter with the bruises on my arms very evident, I asked the pharmacist, "Have you seen anything like this?" She said, "It appears it could be from taking steroids." She checked my meds and told me Advair contained steroids. I shared this news with my doctor and he still said it was not the medication I was on. I went to our local clinic where I received an rx for Serevent instead.

It took some time for the effects of Advair to leave my system. One day I stepped over a log and tore a huge chunk of skin off my lower leg. After a few days I was told I may need a skin graft. Fortunately, it eventually healed without a graft. My local health care provider, an ARNP, told me she had seen a few others whose skin reacted as mine did. After being off Advair for several weeks my skin returned to 'normal' and I no longer have bruises or serious gashes.

Hello
I am responding to the article dated 09/01. I have had breathing problems since 3/08. It was due to a very serious respiratory problem from an infection.

Given prescriptions of Advair & Singular
at the highest does created a a tremendous problem.

My hair has been falling out in clumps. When I wash my hair it is worse.

I visited my allergist and he said (of course) there was no correlation.

My hair continues to fall out, after I stopped the meds.

My hair is to the middle of my back, and has always been beautiful.

Can someone give some input?
I need some help!

After my second bone density scan showed progressive osteopenia my doctor prescribed Fosamax. I followed all dosage directions exactly as prescribed. 7 hours after I took the first one a painless lump appeared on my tongue. As it went down my tongue developed a bare spot surrounding the area where the lump had been.

I reported this to my doctor who suggested I try taking the Fosamax one more time (one week later). The same thing happened. My doctor immediately instructed me to discontinue the Fosamax. I now have what has been diagnosed as Geographic Tongue - a benign but somewhat annoying condition.

After seeing my internist and dentist regarding this I went to an oral surgeon. She confirmed the diagnosis. Geographic tongue is not listed as a side effect but I absolutely developed this because of the Fosamax. Has anyone else ever experienced this side effect?

My gastroenterologist recently prescribed Prevacid 30mg once a day for my gastritis. After a few weeks I noticed muscle pain in my arms and legs, headaches and neck pains and took tylenol for it but it still would not go away. I finally called the doctor after I read in the drug insert that those were all side effects. His nurse relayed the message that it was not due to the Prevacid but probably just a "viral infection" and stop taking it. He came to this conclusion without even seeing me or doing any lab work. Could it really have been the Prevacid? What can I take naturally to get rid of the gastritis? I've been taking Mylanta Supreme but know I cannot take it forever.

I'm writing about Lunesta. I have fibromyalgia and it is essential that I get a good night of sleep. After taking Ambien for years, it became ineffective and my doctor gave me Lunesta. Within three days, my scalp felt as if it was on fire and my hair started to fall out. I also felt so sad! I contacted the company and a rep told me that hair loss was listed as a side effect. But this was not just hair loss - this was extreme! When washing my hair in the shower, I had to stop mid-way to clear the drain. After stopping Lunesta, the burning scalp disappeared in three days. It has now been about three months and my hair is growing back. I literally had bald spots!

I have had trouble with three statin drugs and am now refusing to take them. I was unhappy with my last dr. appointment, I requested and got a referral to a dietitian for cholesterol lowering diet. I also stewed for several days, then took it upon myself to list all my meds (including the statins I'd been taking) and OTC drugs and their side effects. Out of the nine I was taking eight had muscle pain, cramping, joint pain, headache, memory issues, etc., components to them. All that on top of my fibromyalgia symptoms associated with muscle, tendon pain,I felt no wonder I was feeling so gosh darn awful.

I found that Actonel can have a side effect of arthritis; and ibuprofen can cause back pain. I stopped all meds and OTC drugs not necessary to my life (i.e. Synthroid (it does have a pain component side effect), milnicapran (fibromyalgia research study drug) and baby aspirin. Virtually ALL pain, foggy mind, swollen arthritic joints, etc., are gone. In February my dr. and I will have more discussions. He does not know at this time that I have quit the other drugs.

I encourage everyone to cross match all side effects from every single drug and over the counter drug they take to find the common denominators. Be a squeaky wheel.

PEOPLE'S PHARMACY RESPONSE: BEING AN ENGAGED PATIENT IS ESSENTIAL, BUT STOPPING MEDICATIONS WITHOUT THE DOCTOR'S KNOWLEDGE IS NOT RECOMMENDED.

My pain mgt dr gave me a trial of the drug Ultram-Er, 200 mg for muscle pain. It was the worst drug I have ever taken. Nausea,dizziness, flu like systems,confusion and feeling so weak I could not drive. Mfg by Biovil Corp, Mississauga,Canada, distributed by PriCara, a unit of ortho-McNeil, Inc,Raritan NJ 08869, Lot 07G056P, Exp 06/09.

My dad took Chantix for less then a month which cured his craving to smoke BUT he has not had a good night sleep since (about a year now). He SUFFERS from very vivid and freaky dreams and nightmares...the doc said this could go on for another year!! Do not take this drug!!

I was put on Exforge for blood pressure. Immediately began to have nasopharyngitis. It got worse, I took it for 2 weeks. I was taken off 14 days ago and still have laryngitis. The sinus got better. I was told that my voice would get better over time. No idea how long. I am terrified that permanent damage was done. Has anyone else experienced this and gotten better?

I was prescribed Advair for asthma by a new allergist in late November, 2006. Two weeks later I woke up with mild joint pain in both thumbs. I was only 34 and had no history of joint problems. By January the pain in my hands had worsened and I also had pain in my hips that was so severe I had trouble walking. I looked up all my medications online and found out that one of Advair's side effects is joint pain.

I told the Dr. I would no longer take it so he put me on Asmanex. Of course he did the standard denial that the medication was causing the joint pain and tried to send me to a rheumatologist, which I refused to do. I'm not stupid, I know that I don't have rheumatoid arthritis. After a couple of weeks of taking the Asmanex the joint pain seemed to go away, then came back. Of course I found out that Asmanex also causes joint pain...the doctor had not even bothered to check before he put me on it.

So I went off the Asmanex and back on Aerobid. For most of 2007 I was in nearly-debilitating pain, almost unable to write my name, turn a doorknob or cut up my own food. After starting a regimen of vitamins and supplements for joint pain, I had made significant improvement by late 2008. Foolishly, I stopped taking the supplements and am currently in a flareup of the thumb pain.

I am taking the supplements again and won't stop this time. I have mentioned the joint pain to a couple of other doctors and they all did the "deny, deny, deny" thing too. It makes me sick. And don't listen to the healthcare industry employees who tell you that you can't trust information you find on the internet. The internet is the only place you can find the truth about these drugs.

I have for a long time thought that the medications I am currently taking was making my joints ache. I take Metoprolol (3,50 mg a day) and Lisinopril-hctz (3,20-12.5 mg)a day. I have been told that my coughing is a medicine cough but my physician has done nothing about it. She told me the medicine she has prescribed for me is doing a good job
keeping my blood pressure down and she will not change it.

She says, "Don't mess with a good thing". In the meantime, I am aching all over, can barely get around from pain in every joint, etc., but when I complain she just ignores me and says it is arthritis. Then I read in your articles where it is the Lisinopril that might be causing my hacking cough.

And the Metoprolol that could be the reason that I ache so much. I will have a serious talk with my current physician next week or switch doctors. Thanks for your articles. I want to get back to my old self again and I think your articles have let me see the light. Doctors aren't Gods even though they think they are. I used to be very active and now I am like an invalid in my own world. Thanks for your information.

Recently I've read some negative reports on Fosamax. I'm especially concerned about the risk associated with Fosamax and atrial fibrillation and the link of Fosamax to esophageal cancer. What is your opinion on this?

PEOPLE'S PHARMACY RESPONSE: WE TOO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THESE POTENTIAL RISKS. NEITHER HAS BEEN DEFINITIVELY SHOWN TO BE DUE TO FOSAMAX.

I have been taking 80MG of zocor since the last 15 years.
Recently I have been getting pain in my leg muscles. The Dr. advised the cut the zocor tables in half and take half in the night and half in the morning. with that I am slightly better. He said it would take at least a month to have an effect.
Let you know if it works. By the way I have been taking zocor since 15 years and only recently I am having this problem.

I was prescribed Nexium for GURD by my gastroenterologist. The first time I took it at night before bedtime and woke up from a nightmare where I was being choked. When I woke up I realized my throat was swelling give me a choking sensation and I was wheezing when I breathed. These symptoms lasted an hour but did not increase in severity. I had never had these symptoms before taking Nexium.

So I waited 3 days and tested it in the morning just in case it was something related just to a bad dream of being choked. An hour later I was wheezing when I breathed and had the same choking sensation like my throat was swelling. I called my physician's office and spoke to the nurse. She said to take Prilosec OTC instead. I wondered about this since I thought that Prilosec was similar to Nexium...however I never had a reaction to the Prilosec.

I rechecked the adverse reaction sheet that came with Nexium and searched online but never found any mention of difficulty breathing or choking sensations listed as a reaction.

I began taking Chantix 6 days ago. My doctor warned me about the depression side effects and I laughed. I am one of the most happy-go-lucky people you will ever meet, and the thought of a medicine hindering my ability to think for myself seemed like a silly concept to me at the time. I began taking the medicine and within the first 2 days noticed my cravings for cigarettes dropping substantially.

Unfortunately my mood swings were wild, and uncontrollable. Just the second day on the medication I was sitting with my girlfriend watching a movie and had the strongest feelings of sadness come over me that I've ever experienced. I felt like someone I love had died compounded by everything else in the world crashing down around me. This feeling, thankfully, only lasted for about an hour and I was back to normal.

The next day a similar bout ensued, this too lasting for about an hour. The following day however was the last straw. I was off of work this day. I woke up around 9 a.m. to the most horrible dream (a common side effect of this drug) and took my morning dose of 0.5 mg. I was experiencing the feeling of depression worse than felt previously, so I decided maybe I should go back to sleep. I woke up around 10:30 curled up and crying. Picture if you will a grown, 6'2 200 lbs. man crying like a little girl contemplating taking his own life to rid himself of the pain and sadness he was experiencing at moment.

I awoke, took a shower and got some lunch. All-the-while feeling no different. I called my doctor at 1pm and he warned me to immediately stop taking the medicine. Which I did. Just a warning to all, no matter what your views are on what you think you can handle, imagine yourself experiencing the worse type of sadness imaginable and multiplying this by 10. That is what I felt on Chantix. I am a "strong" "happy" person, and had no reason to feel this way, but when faced with the situation first hand I was not myself.

I was not the happy-go-lucky person my friends know me as. I was irrational in all thoughts and actions, and even in my slumber was adversely affected by this medication. I am now HAPPILY smoking again and would like to warn all who take this medication to beware, and have people monitoring them at all times on this medicine. Trust me. You cannot trust yourself if this medicine decides to claim you in the "10-15%" of affected depression cases.....

My Prostrate Cancer Dr. prescribed Flo-max before and after the Seed Implant Radiation Therapy. One of the side effects of the Flo-max was it could effect your eyesight, but I don't remember how now. It did effect mine considerably but just the opposite. I wore glasses for nearsightedness and astigmatism and after a week or two, I could see as good without my glasses as before with them. I could even pass my Drivers Test without them.

I notified the Drug Company and they acted like they were amazed but I don't think they believed me. I considered taking it all the time but my co-pay was $ 30 and it put me in the gap before the year was up then it would really get expensive. Now that I've quit taking it my eyesight has gone back the way it was.

Recently, a call in guest on People's Pharmacy mentioned a noticing that his mother seemed to show improvement in mental clarity when he missed her dose of Zocor. The discussion that followed and the symptoms described were very similar to our own situation with my Mother in Law. Year ago she had a cardiac arrest which resulted in brain damage giving her symptoms similar to alzheimers - however, without the prolonged deterioration.

Over the past couple of years her doctor at the nursing home prescribed Zocor as a way to assist with Cholesterol and possibility of improved mental functioning. However, what we have seen over the past year was a deterioration in physical (muscular) ability and mental decline to the point of near non-responsive behavior. You could describe her condition as near catatonic. My wife having medical power of attorney decided that the potential risks did not balance with the potential benefits and discussed stopping the Zocor with my Mother in Law's doctor. He was hesitant but agreed to trying a two week trial.

The results were nothing short of amazing. In a few days she began moving arms and hands feeding herself, playing bingo, etc. Her mental condition has also improved and she is again quoting rhymes she used to say all of the time, and a dramatic improvement in interaction with others around her.

It is very important that you observe and note changes in conditions to your loved ones who are on statins.

I was prescribed an inhaler named Spiriva for mild breathing problems a few months back. Within 3 months my belly blew up like a ballon along with a weight gain of 22lbs, all on my belly and no place else! I quit the drug 4 months ago and my belly is still blown up (4 inces on my waistline).

The doctor refuses to deal with it, refuses to accept responsibility for what's happened so I'm left with a serious problem. I can no longer fit into my clothing!

What do I do?
WWC>

For three months, I have been losing weight on a balanced meal program. When I saw my doctor 6 weeks ago, he praised the weight loss, but put me on Trilipix for elevated triglycerides.

Almost immediately, I stopped losing weight. About two weeks later, my fingernails were breaking, my hair turned to straw and started falling out, and my skin became like sandpaper.

He has now replaced the Trilipix with Lipitor, so I have been reading these posts regarding the statin drugs as cautionary advice.

It's awful when the cure is worse than the disease!

Incredible. I am astounded re the effects of medications resulting in life-changing experiences.
I am awaiting an ablation due to arrhythmia and the main reason I am doing this is to rid myself of medication. The side effects of rythmol, flecainide, cartia far outweigh the symptoms of arrhythmia. Far, far. I am sorry this has happened to you dear people.

Two weeks ago I went to see a foot Dr for a pain in my heel the Dr gave me a shot in my heel and now I can barely walk. My foot is purple and red and blotchy. I went to different Dr.s and so far nothing has been done to help me. If any one can help me please reply.

I went from Zocor to simvistatin a few years ago and I have had muscle pain for years but now not only muscles in legs and back ache but hips are aching to point of thinking of replacements. I have been exercising 5 days a week and I am sure the Dr. would tell me that's what's causing it but not when I have been exercising 5 days a week for 8 yrs. I hope you continue to be pain free.

I too was put on Lisinopril for high blood pressure. I rarely got sick before starting treatment for high blood pressure during an extremely stressful period in my life. Treatment started after a routine physical. I had not been sick enough to visit a doctor for 10 years prior for any illness. Had I not established a relationship with a new doctor for a physical I would never have begun high blood pressure treatment.

After starting medication I noticed bloating, swelling, aches I never had before and weight gain that would not drop regardless of whether I watched my diet or not. The periods of swelling lasted much longer and more severe than the usual middle aged woman experiences and when reported to my doctor it was brushed off as I needed diet and exercise.

For most of my life I was underweight and at the time of beginning treatment my weight was high average for my age and height, however, my doctor did not entertain my complaints and told me I needed to swim, exercise and diet. He refused to hear my complaints.

As the months went on the condition became continually worse. I was beginning to be short of breath, light headed, dizzy, continued weight gain, swelling, chronic pain which included my kidneys, back and joints, frequent urination, constipation, numbness (almost a paralysis feeling in my calves and ankles) but excruciating pain when touched or poked with a finger until tears, tingling of tips of toes, numerous symptoms and no answers. I had to demand my doctor begin taking tests.

Although each visit he asked what medication I was taking I always reported that lisinopril was the only medication or pills I take. He never mentioned side effects. There were a couple of things that came up slightly off scale in the testing but when the test was run again it came back normal, or so it was reported to me. Swelling and pain became increasingly worse and I had to go to the emergency room and they could find nothing wrong other than the swelling, pain and decrease in oxygen that I reported but no findings for the symptoms. I asked the nurse practitioner if the lisinopril could cause the swelling and she replied it could.

I went home that evening after having several tests, blood, urine, xrays, ekg, vascular and ultrasounds taken and decided not to take the lisinopril the following day. To my surprise, my feet and ankles were not swelling larger after my skipped dosage, but were shrinking so that for the first time in I don't know how long I could actually see my ankle bones and the veins in my feet and the pain was subsiding. I did not take it for the second day and the swelling is still to a minimum. I will continue to monitor how many days it will take to get the swelling back to completely normal.

I reported this to the Doctor's office. My doctor was away on vacation. Another doctor, after considerable urging, finally phoned in a different high blood pressure medicine for me to take. I will begin taking the other medication once I have been off the lisinopril for at least a few days so I will be aware of any side effects, if any, that may arise.

I felt as though I was terminally ill and had no explanation. I think it is unmoral and unethical. It is extremely bad practice for a physician not to acknowledge the complaints of their patient or to advise of the possible side effects of a medication, and especially so when they are remiss about taking tests for the complaints at hand.

If there is a natural remedy that someone is aware of that helps to reduce high blood pressure, I would greatly appreciate the input.

I had reactions 4 times as a child to penicillin G injections in the late 50's and early 60's with severe rashes, gastric and chest pains. The next antibiotics received more than 30 years later was for chronic prostatitis in the early 1990's. I became very ill with abdominal cramping, chest pain, severe right side pain, muscle pain, arrhythmia, leg sores, brown urine and lost 50 lbs in a month.

At the time I had no thought that the medicine caused this, I thought the prostate infection had simply spread. My regular physician was busy so I had to see the on-call physician who refused to refer me to a specialist and inferred that my illness was psychological. (This has followed me ever since despite several psychiatric exams finding to the contrary.) When I was finally able to see the prescribing physician again and told him I was suspicious of the tetracycline, he said that it could not cause my illness. (This physician's view has been refuted by a number of physicians since, off the record.) After 10 months of illness, an immunologist and expert on fungal infections found evidence of significant immune system damage. This illness very nearly took my life and has likely greatly shortened it. After a number of years of anti fungal treatment I slowly regained much of my previous health. Unable to return to physical work, during this illness, I enrolled in college and received a biochemistry degree.

Several years ago, what appears symptomatically to be the same illness, struck me a few hours after a large diesel exhaust exposure. Afterwards a breath or two of DE from a passing vehicle would initiate a new round of acute illness. This unfortunately rapidly turned into a medical fiasco similar to that of the previous drug induced illnesses. I pressed for a liver and prostate biopsy and Phase II metabolic enzyme testing.(This idea was bolstered by the observation that there was an ever shortening delay between exposure and symptom onset and because of control of symptoms that finally was achieved with n-acetyl cysteine and, after reading a very large amount of current scientific literature.)

My views have largely been contradicted by specialists I've seen, almost as if my views are some how threatening. Because I was not able to procure focused, state of the art metabolic enzyme testing; at my own expense I had a detox. metabolic test done by Genova Diagnostics. Their findings demonstrated, as I previously suspected, a Phase II deficiency. My thought in having the test was that maybe this could prompt a more in depth investigation. Instead I have been told by physicians that Genova is not reliable. (Their testing, in this area, follows long recognized laboratory protocols) The past drug reactions I've had have been so serious that I have refused further medications until the cause of my reactions is determined, even though, since the DE exposure, I have developed gastric ulcers requiring medication, degenerative heart disease, wide spread inflammation and vasculitis.

The point of telling my story is that some testing for drug sensitivity already exists, some general tests like those done by Genova have been around for thirty years. This type of testing could allow for recognition of unsafe drugs prior to widespread exposure, it could save individuals, such as myself, from exposure to personally toxic drugs, it would give us the tools to recognize drugs combining with environmental toxins synergistically in a dangerous fashion. It could save up to 100,000 prescription drug related deaths per year.

My wish is to use my experiences to make medicine and the environment safer for us all, while I still can, but bureaucracy and our for profit health care system make it very difficult to be heard.

Something anyone can do is to urge their Congress members to support and fund NIH research in the areas of Personalized Medicine and, research and action on dangerous environmental toxins.(ie diesel exhaust contains more than 18,000 toxic substances, many banned individually. As an example, one, benzo[a]pyrene has been determined to be extraordinarily mutagenic and known to be seriously carcinogenic since 1938 with 0.00 ppB considered safe by NIOSH, in drinking water. Currently 5000 tons annually are emitted into the atmosphere.) Maybe chronic illness is not such a mystery after all.

bjw, Myself, a friend, my sister in law, and other accounts I have read about, all had heel pain due to statins such as Zocor and Lipitor etc.

Commonly, after getting out of bed, or getting up from sitting, or riding in the car, one feels the need to shuffle when walking because of the pain. If you are on a cholesterol lowering statin drug, suspect it as a contributing cause. Even minor injuries, aches and pains etc. seem to never heal while on statins. (For example pain from repetitive work related injury, is much worse and won't heal. This can lead to surgery that may not have been needed if the statin had been stopped.)

In today's column 9/24/2009 I was ecstatic about your response to arthritic medications. I was diagnosed with RA and OA in 1998, was earlier housebound for six months, on a walker and a cane. I am 69 years old. I saw several doctors, 5 of whom wanted me on meds which I refused (thank goodness). I was given reluctantly, after 5 doctors refused to treat me, because I objected to medication, methotrexate which caused horrible side affects within two weeks of taking it.

I was then given steroids injected in my knees for swelling and pain. Over a two year period, I deteriorated to the point of almost a stroke or heart attack and lost 40 pounds. I have ONE kidney removed at the age of 30 from a congenital malady and lost my hearing from antibiotics over a long period of time before the kidney was removed

I finally said I am done, and found a naturopath with 13 years experience, who treats cancer patients. She did extensive testing (out of pocket expense) and a two-hour work up. My intern has been agreeable with this due to the miraculous results she has seen. I have been with this naturopath now over 2 years. My Vit D was so bad, that even the regular doctors were worried.

I was also found that certain foods were contributory to the inflammation and pain. I am strictly an organic food eater and after having the tests, I knew what I could or could not have. I was reactive to over 15-20 things and some foods related to the "families" of those allergens are part of the RA inflammation.

I am now over 66 on my Vit D test di OH 1,25 and took for 6 months 5000 IU's with calcium (I belong to a supplement company as a distributor) that has many things in it, I am off a walker and cane, and walk a little each day, even up hills. I am still not out of the woods, but progressing. I still have some severe health issues listed in your article such as the horrible digestive tract having now diverticulosis. I was recently tested for Celiac and do not have it, but paid for, through my naturopath, an expensive colon test which should be back this next week.

I am an avid medical researcher and have 12 publications from all the Universities, and hospitals, that have the latest up-to-date research and am pretty well informed. I am really impressed with your column and look forward to reading it when it is printed.

Thank you so much for allowing me to vent and give my experience.

I live in Sweden and most doctors are not interested in side effects. I have, during the years, found many interesting American books. I have just read "Our daily meds" by Melody Petersen which I highly recommend. If you want to know more about the book google her name and/or the title of the book.

The best thing one can do for yourself, and for people around you, is to "educate" yourself on medical issues, including medicines, and try to make up your own mind.

As a nutritionist, I feel it is important to tell clients who are taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs that there is a side-effect of lowering the production of Co-enzyme Q10 in their bodies. Especially when they tell me about the sudden onset of muscle pain and weakness. I encourage them to talk with their doctors about supplementing with Co-Q10 as well as milk thistle to protect the liver. One alternative product, red yeast rice, comes bundled with CoQ, silymarin (milk thistle), and ALA. It comes from NOW Foods.

I started taking Lisinopril a year ago and started having stomach pain. Six days later I started having diarrhea, nausea, and lightheadedness. A few hours later I started passing blood. The next morning I was still passing blood and went to the ER, spent 3 days in the hospital and had a colonoscopy. The gastroenterologist said it was ischemic colitis due to low blood pressure but my blood pressure had been low for many months. I think the Lisinopril caused my problems.

My husband took Prednisone for over 2 years for ulcerative colitis and the side effects were terrible. The worst one was loss of blood supply (necrosis) in his hip joints. He now has pain and will need hip replacement soon. He also developed a hole in his ear drum, eye problems, acne and facial swelling.

I got many Kenalog (a steroid) injections for bursitis. It helped the pain but increased my appetite and made me have nightmares. I am not a fan of steroids and will avoid them if possible.

I have been taking Amlodipine for several months and have been having severe itching, especially in the a.m. after I have taken the drug. The symptoms usually dissipate after about a half hour, but it a half hour of literal hell trying to calm itching that seems to have no real foundation. I think I may be allergic to the medication, it is the only basis I can find that could cause this reaction.

There is not redness, welts, etc. just incessant itching like you have a thousand fire ants roaming around your chest and middle biting you. I did tell my doctor about this and he told me that it was probably heat related hives due to my exercise program in the morning and then taking a hot shower. I have tried tepid showers and no noticeable change. I think it is the medication. Has anyone had any similar reactions on this medication?

My family doctor admitted to me that he, also, could not tolerate or take LIPITOR or statins! I have written P.Pharmacy a number of times concerning the horrid memory problems and muscle and bone aches on Lipitor.

My doctor told my husband and I to take Niacin. I have taken that, as well as Red Yeast Rice, and even Lecithin. Though the amount varies, I get memory problems with each. Maybe there is a connection/relation between lowering fats in the brain?

All these things reduce cholesterol and maybe also reduces fats in the brain, WHICH WE ALL seem to need... I also wonder if some of the people complaining of fibromyalgia might be taking statins.

I have hardly taken any medications myself but had relatives who did and that opened my eyes and forced me to start looking for information on the Internet and in books.

English is not my first language but I am very glad that my knowledge is good enough to visit the following sites and read interesting books, most of them from the U.S.

www.thincs.org

www.ravnskov.nu

www.spacedoc.net

www.askapatient.com

Google "Stopped our statins"

www.medications.com (not for medical news, but patient testimonials about different medications)

www.fqresearch.org
www.fqvictims.org
Google the words floxed/floxies.

www.worstpills.org (there is some free information as well)

Books:

The Great Cholesterol Con - Anthony Colpo

Cholesterol Myths - Uffe Ravnskov

Lipitor - thief of memory - Duane Graveline + more books

Bitter Pills - Stepen Fried

Overdosed America - John Abramson

Malignant Medical Myths - Joel F. Kauffman

How doctors think - J. Groopman

Our Daily Meds - Melody Petersen ( very interesting and readable)

Overtreated, Shannonbrown Lee?

Death by prescription - Ray D. Strand

The Truth About The Drug Companies - Marcia Angell

Good Caloris - Bad Caloris - Gary Taubes

The Antidepressant Fact Book - Peter R. Breggin

Toxic Psychiatry - Peter R. Breggin

Your Drug May Be Your Problem - Peter R. Breggin

Medication Madness - Peter R. Breggin

Hoping that the above will be useful.

The best you can do for yourself when it comes to health issues and medications it to try and form your own opinion.

Check Dr. Weil's web site. I am also having problems with lisinopril. My doctor at least listens to me and changed my medicine but like you I would like a natural treatment. I have seriously decided to change my diet and exercise more. good luck.

I've been on lisinopril for about 5 yrs, went from 5mg to 20 mg, during that time. I've put up with...pulsing up the back of my neck, hearing my pulse in my ears, visually feeling pulse in my eyes during slight exertion (walking upstairs), Vertigo (Room Spinning), headaches (back of head and neck), It built up slowly till I couldn't take it anymore.

Even "I" didn't believe it was the medication.
I finally decided to change meds and after 3 days I began to feel better. After almost 2 weeks, I can't believe how "normal" I feel now. Pain and pressure in neck and head totally relieved. I don't see these "side effects" in the list? All I know is that I stopped taking the pill and I feel better on another med. All the listed effects above are gone!! go figure. Just thought I'd post to see if anyone had the same experience. If so, Change your BP meds to something else. I personally don't like Lisinopril!! God Bless!

I'm interested in your alternative measures for keeping blood pressure under control, as I'm currently taking Norvasc and having some side effects.

You mention drinking 2 cups unsweetened coca powder every day. How much cocoa powder do you put in the cup, and do you use water or milk?

Thanks.

You mention breathing exercises as being helpful for keeping your blood pressure lower. What kind of exercises do you do? A description would be very helpful to get me started. Thanks.

I am 63 and have struggled with high cholesterol for years. It seems to be a hereditary problem in my family for the most part as I follow a healthy diet. I have been on and off Lipitor for years and at different dosages. At one time, I was put on Crestor and after taking 13 pills could barely walk!

A year ago, I was back on Lipitor and began to experience numbness and tingling in my hands and feet. Just before Christmas, I discovered that I could not feel hot and cold but did have all sorts of itching, burning and shooting pains in my feet that were making it hard to sleep or even tolerate shoes.

I went to a neurological center for testing. A pin prick test showed that the problem was present half way to my knees in both legs and in both hands. Initially they felt strongly that I was probably an undiagnosed diabetic. Blood work ruled out diabetes and other scary stuff, like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, ALS and MS. An EMG [electromyogram] ruled out neuropathy in spite of the symptoms. I asked if it could in any way be from Lipitor and they said there was a "documented connection".

I chose to stop the Lipitor again. When I returned to them a month later, I reported an improvement in the symptoms and retesting with a pin proved it. We agreed on a wait and see stance for two months. After that time passed I felt that I was 85% back to normal! My regular physician finally agreed that I should not take Lipitor or any statin again.

One year later, I still have some very minor nerve damage but am elated by the turnaround. My energy level has soared and now I actually feel like walking for exercise and do so regularly. I feel younger, more flexible. Next I tried not taking an anti-anxiety medication that had been prescribed for the heart palpitations and breathing issues that I also had experienced while taking Lipitor. To my surprise those symptoms were also gone.

I am a different person today from one year ago. I am so glad that I decided that my quality of life was more important than being afraid of dying because of the high cholesterol issue.

I had read a little suggestion in People's Pharmacy in the newspaper that made me question if the Lipitor was causing my problem. One would expect that a problem would become evident in a short period of time. Not so with me. Looking back, I now believe that the problem was coming on slowly for at least two years.

Thank you and your newspaper column for setting me on the right path to true health.

I to have been on simvastatin, and in about about 2 weeks of taking it I had some blood work done and found that my levels of cholesterol had dropped by more then 110 points, I can not say for sure if it was that drug but I also had a thyroidectomy done in April and had been getting increases in synthoid for several months.

To me it seems that the closer we got to my right level of replacement of thyroid harmone the lower my levels went...now the simvastin is something else... I stopped taking it because it made my elbow hurt so bad I could not stand to use it.

I called my endo gal and she said to stop taking it a week and see if it improved... well it began to improve but I talked myself into starting again after a week and now I have a swollen lymph node on my right collar bone, and everything I'm finding on the net says cancer? I stopped taking the statin about 4 days ago and my hubby says the swelling has already begun to go down... my elbow still hurts but not as bad as it was... I'm thinking its the simvastatin because I didn't have any problems like this before taking it so I'm done with that stuff and I'm going to watch what I eat and try natural ways to lower it.....I'm over it....

My doctor put me on amlodipine besylate 5mg to lower BP, my left shoulder started swelling with pain running up across my shoulder into my neck, 5 days later I have to go to the Emergency room w/ BP 215/115. My BP is still high but not as severe as soon as I stopped taking the medicine the swelling and soreness has gone away. I take toprol 50mg and lisinopril 40mg that has been working fine for years. I think the doctor should have increased the toprol... Any comments appreciated

Great set of postings.

Sorry to say though your physican spends on average ONLY 1 SEMESTER learning about drugs. Pharmacists' spend on average 8 SEMESTERS. Your physician knows about DISEASE, diagnosis and the body. Your pharmacist knows about DRUGS and side-effects.

Next time, Ask Your Pharmacist.

One friend lost her husband to ALS last year. He had taken a statin drug for several months but stopped due to severe side effects.

Another friend's husband was diagnosed with ALS last year after many trips to university clinics. The 3rd clinic, in Charlotte, finally correctly diagnosed him with ALS. My friend has 3 grown sons.

The doctors told her to tell her sons not to take statins as their father's ALS was caused by taking a statin drug. It seems some people are predisposed to ALS if they take the cholesterol drug!! Her husband, a truly wonderful man, is now dying a horrible death because of a drug!!!!

I have a new Dr because my other doctor has moved out of state. The new one wants me to take Diovan even though I've told her All BP meds and other meds make me very ill.

She is unwilling to help me work on the BP with alternative methods. Also wants me to take a statin. Time to shop for a new and enlightened Dr. not in bed with the drug detail men.

Drug companies no longer are guided by ethical principals. People are dying from medications and they don't even tell the truth or remove the offending drugs from the market.

Then there is the side effect of "it works as well as a placebo". There is an interesting article on antidepressants in the Feb 8, 2010 Newsweek. One inset listed medical problems that respond to placebo and those that do not. It is a fascinating article. I found it interesting that high blood pressure responded to placebos, but high cholesterol did not.

Some side effects are good though. Since being on Norvasc (amlodopine) my migraine headaches have disappeared.

I have asthma and was prescribed all the steroid inhalers (Flovent, Quvar, symbicort, aerobid, alvesco,) every one of them has a side effects to me. I have had muscle jumping at night, night sweats, tingling through my back and bad back pain. Now they put me on singulair and I have had back pain like it is on fire and tingling through my shoulders, and my back feels like bees are stinging me.

I don't know what to do but stop all medicine. I need something for my asthma but I would rather die then keep having all these side effects. Also, I have heart palpitations.

My husband and I were very healthy marathon-running 35 year olds. 2 months previous to this we had both just qualified for the cheapest life insurance for the healthiest groups.

My husband and I were prescribed Cipro (for him) and Levaquin (for me) for a stomach bug they couldn't diagnose. My MD said to me when I questioned whether or not I had to take it "well if its a virus, nothing bad will happen." Within half an hour after talking it we both had severe anxiety, insomnia (to the point where we were sleeping 2 or 3 hours a night), nightmares, diarrhea (we had episodes of it every few days and am still having diarrhea 6 months later even though I have tested negative for C. diff 4 times), strange thoughts, muscle pain, tingling, and shooting pains in our arms and legs.

I have never experienced anything like it in my life. AND neither of us had ever had any reaction to a drug before.

We were off work for about 11 weeks. 6 months later the symptoms are starting to subside although my husband still has tingling and weird nightmares and I have it occasionally. We have seen 9 doctors and they either outright deny or have not admitted that the Cipro or Levaquin could have anything to do with it. We finally saw an infectious disease doctor at a major hospital who said he had had 3 other patients who felt they had the same long lasting effects from either Cipro or Levaquin, but he couldn't find any evidence to support it.

2 other infectious disease Drs. suggested that we had ciguatoxin poisoning, but we had not eaten the types of fish that can cause it. When we pointed out that we both had started these symptoms within about half an hour of taking the medicine (even though my husband and I took the antibiotics 2 weeks apart from each other) they flat out discounted that it could be the cause.

We finally just decided we just had to help ourselves to get better and we started to eat a lot of live sauerkraut (which seems to have helped get our digestion somewhat back) and eat very healthfully (lots of greens and brown rice) and get a lot of rest. Seems to be the only thing that has helped. I will not take a fluroquinalone again.

Please try a Nasal WASH, neti pots or plastic bottles, a Dr. on People's Pharmacy radio show recommends it to his patients, my Dr. GAVE me one!!

Available at Walgreens and health stores around $16. I prefer cheap table salt over the packets they sell, and mineralized (celtic) sea salt burns too much. Dairy sugar laden products are bad for sinuses, a diet of fruits and veggies and LOW corn, wheat and dairy might help. Check for mold and dust at home. There are also homeopathic liquids and pills that are helpful, even though slow working.

To anybody taking metoprolol or related drugs and needs to be on them, a suggestion: take fish or cod liver oil. It works! My head of hair is proof. I was going bald and after starting and continuing cod liver oil my hair is back!

Five years ago, I had a sever reaction to the pneumonoccal vaccine. I almost died... It literally shut my lungs down. I could not breath for months. It was a bad experience when you had been in almost perfect health for years. This reaction left me with severe asthma. This was almost five years ago, and I still have daily problems. Be thankful you have no lasting results.

I've had the same problems you have, and found that I was being prescribed too much of a dose. Since I have cut Symbicort in less than half (I use the carrier to use my inhaler). I take 1 inhalation of one puff 2 x a day. If I get short of breath during the day, I only do one puff at night. I also use Spiriva 1xday. This seems to work pretty well with me. I hope this helps you somewhat. They do not know how to regulate inhalers.... do it yourself.

All inhalers cause me problems, but right now, I seen to tolerate the above better than any of the others.

I was given leviquin last year for pneumonia have had breathing problems since. The say I have mild asthma now but I still am having problems with the medicines. I feel that leviquin has done something to my lungs and no one seems to care. I have been to so many doctors to get help they all say it is in my head. I pray a lot to but that don't seem to help. Thank you for your suggestions.

I was prescribed Cipro after my kidney stone procedure. I spent one night and a day with my heart pounding and being fidgety beyond control. I had assumed it was just stress from the operation. But I spent a good, pleasant afternoon and evening yesterday, and then, last night, within five minutes of taking the next dose, my heart was jumping in my chest and I couldn't stop shaking.

This stuff is a monster. Why doesn't anybody notify us about this stuff? Yeah it's buried in the side effect handout that comes with the pills, but shouldn't this be mentioned BEFORE prescribing??

I do not believe this is only a problem with the elderly, this contains the same ingredients as benadryl and is a depressant. I have noticed this effect myself after taking benadryl and other similar medications.

I took Diovan in January 2010 for approximately 10 days. I ended up in the hospital with a severe reaction. I am working to get back to the healthy (other than a high normal bp) 58 year old women. All the doctors say "oh no" Diovan is way out of your system it couldn't be causing you problems like weakness and shaking. Well can't they understand that the damage was done. It is a drug company conspiracy in my opinion.

Has anyone ever had tingling in feet and hands from taking hctz?

My husband had same problem. I went to the Health Food Store and bought red yeast rice with CoQ10. It has dropped his cholesterol below 200 with no side effects. Also artichote pills lowered his trides over 100 points in a month. Make sure you deal with a reputable food store. Some of them are rip offs.

By the way, when he had his last heart cath (he has two stints going on 5 years now) and the Doctors at UAB told him his stints and vessels were wide open. They came back to his room wanting to know what it was he was taking. We know now most of them are taking Red Yeast Rice.... Ha, bet they wouldn't tell you. Hope you get well like my love.

I have COPD and take symbicort (1/2 child's dose) and spiriva 1x daily. The spiriva does slow the flow of urine, but if I drink cranberry juice and 5-8 glasses of water a day it corrects the problem. I took advair for a few years and my doctor refused to change it. I had a weird sensation in my head right after I took it (like I was going to pass out) ... it also blew me up so I looked like a walking balloon. I finally quit going the the pulmonary Dr. at UAB and went to an allergist locally and told him the doctors were going to kill me if he did not help me get straight on what I could and could not take.

DOCTORS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO REGULATE INHALERS. I am highly sensitive to chemicals and medicine. My allergist recognized this and let me regulate the medicine myself to see what works for me. I still see a pulmonary doctor locally, and he was amazed at how clear my lungs were. He now prescribes symbicort to almost all his patients, or rather the ones I know he has changed to symbicort. If you are having a lot of problems, you might consider going to an allergist. ( I go to the Atlanta Allergy Clinic) Good Luck. By the way, tomato juice is said to repair any damage to the lungs. I drink 2 glasses a day and I swear it has helped my breathing tremendously.

QUOTE:
"Instead of discounting patients' concerns about drug-induced symptoms, doctors should welcome such conversations."

If only that were so. Too many doctors blindly trust the literature from Big Pharma, and they dismiss their own patients' side-effects as merely "anecdotal."

Jim P.

It helps me to be able to report my frustration with my Dr's non-response to my bp drug, diltiazem hcl ER. Since I have been on this drug my sleep has been interrupted at least three (or sometimes 4) times a night as I have to get up to relieve myself. Faithfully I have reported this to my cardiologist for the past 2 -3 visits. He puts on a stone face and gives me his mantra, "this medicine does not have that side-effect." I quote to him from a Nurses drug book I used as a reference when working in the mental health field: "2% of patients may have polyuria,nocturia, frequency of urination" and apparently I am one of those 2%.

Also I take atenolol which he certainly knows about and being a beta blocker, the book says it may have additive effect to the diltiazem. I am angry, frustrated, and have decided to cut the dosage in half. I take 2 -120 mg pills a day and on nights when I did not take one before bedtime, I only got up once. Also I am thinking of changing physicians.

I also have a problem with urine retention, and when this happens I reduce Spiriva to every other day and it seems to clear up. I take Symbicort - 1 puff 2 x a day (child's dose) which has worked very well for me.

I almost died trying one inhaler after another and was told it was all in my head. I went to an allergist at the Atlanta Allergy Clinic and he solved my problem. Good Luck.... I also have COPD

Has any one switched from Cozaar to the new generic Cozaar made by Teva? Did you notice any difference?

I am afraid to take a generic drug, the brand names are bad enough!

Go to the health food store and buy you some Red Yeast Rice with CoQ10. When my husband had a heart cath a couple years ago to check on his two stents--he was told all his vessels were wide open and they ask again "what did you say you were taking". Two of his doctors are taking the Red Yeast Rice. He has had his stents for five years. Also, I have always taken tums daily (3-6). I have not signs of osteoporosis. Good Luck

Let's be careful not to put all doctors in the same basket. Remember these studies found some physicians, not all, tended to downplay side effects. Many of us really do listen to our patients and take side effects seriously, but also will look for other causes of symptoms - not all muscle aching is due to the statin; for example, it could be polymylagia, a pinched nerve, or multiple myeloma, just to name a few of hundreds of possibilities.

Obviously the easiest thing to do is stop the statin in those situations and see if the pain resolves, but I have also had plenty patients whose symptoms did not improve with stopping the statin and had another problem - so if you stop the statin make sure you tell your doctor, and if the pain continues get it checked out.

Regarding red yeast rice extract, I recently noticed that my patients on red yeast were no longer getting the benefits from it that they had in the past - that their cholesterol levels have jumped up. Turns out that much of the red yeast rice extract on the market years ago was being laced with lovastatin, a prescription statin drug, which gave it its effectiveness. So the writer's husband's response might have been unknowingly due to lovastatin that was in the red yeast. And for those on red yeast, remember that it works in the same way as statins (and is chemically very similar to statins) so can also cause the same side effects, including body aches and liver problems - so if you take this make sure your liver tests are monitored, and if you get body aches stop the drug. Coenzyme Q can help the aches whether it is a statin or red yeast.

Regarding other supplements, we have also found that many weight loss supplements contain amphetamines which naturally suppress the appetite, and can also cause serious side effects. Also, most of these weight loss supplements and every "energy" formula I have seen contains caffeine, though they may not label it as such. They might call it "guarana" or "guan root" among other things - basically all sources of caffeine.

If you have a heart condition you should not take any kind of weight loss or energy drug - just because it says it is safe of the label does not mean it is safe as these supplements do not undergo any standardized testing or quality assurance.

5 Tums a day contain about 1200 mg of calcium which is what the medical profession recommends for calcium supplementation, but there are clearly other factors that play a role in whether someone develops osteoporosis, such as family history, body size, estrogen status, etc....

Jim Kurz, MD
UNC School of Medicine

PEOPLE'S PHARMACY RESPONSE: THANKS FOR THE REMINDER THAT MANY DOCTORS DO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT THEIR PATIENTS REPORT. WE ALWAYS ADVOCATE WORKING IN A CLOSE PARTNERSHIP WITH A PHYSICIAN THE PATIENT CAN TRUST.

I was wondering if anyone has taken Chantix? I took it for about 2 weeks to help with my attempt on getting those nasty cigarettes out of my life... and the reason I say I only took them for 2 weeks is because I was having awful panic attacks! I felt like I was going to die! I didn't have depression like everyone else reports with this drug, just the panic attacks.

When I mentioned it to my doctor he acted as if there is no way that this drug was causing this to happen to me. He asked me if there were any changes in my life or major stressors--which there wasn't--and told me it had to be something that I probably just wasn't realizing.

I had panic attacks about everyday for 2 months, then it slowed down to about once every 3 months, and then down to about once a year. I still to this day have them every once in a while. I feel like these attacks are ruining my life. I am scared to do things sometimes that I am afraid might trigger these attacks! I feel that this drug triggered my attacks and now I am stuck with them!

The people Pharmacy is right on target. My beef is with Amiodarone/Sinvastatin and Diltiazem of which I was prescribed a most dangerous dose and took these three medications for over three months. A Pakistani educated doctor prescribed them to me this past Aug 2009, Had it not been for my skills I would have died a most mysterious death. You see my skin showed dramatic changes with dead cells everywhere, muscle weakness and that just the short of it. When I went in for a follow up at the VA this doctor noticed no problems, even when I had pictures of the damaged fingers and hands. Thank you for your attention to these bad medications. It is a horror show!

My former physician (whom I have mentioned at the People's Pharmacy website without naming him) recommended that I take Fosamax and calcium supplements. Unfortunately, I followed his advice and began experiencing symptoms of acid reflux and severe constipation. At that time it was also recommended that I undergo an expensive surgical procedure to "cure" my constipation.

I stopped taking the Fosamax and calcium (against my physician's instructions) and began employing non-medication, non-surgical measures to increase my bone health and improve my intestinal health. I never had the surgery (one of several surgeries which I have refused)- everything improved when I took control of my own health.

I am not suggesting that anyone reading this post disregard his or her physician's recommendations regarding medication or surgery. However, you need to be a savvy consumer of medical care. Any physician who refuses to listen when a patient complains of symptoms which are caused by prescribed medications has no business practicing medicine. Also, when physicians tell patients that they need unnecessary surgery (because the physician or the physician's best friend will benefit) is guilty of committing an aggravated battery and mayhem against the patient.

I realize that bad physicians are rarely prosecuted for the horrible damage they cause to patients - but, they should be. Good physicians should report the bad apples. Likewise, good nurses should report bad physicians and bad nurses. When I was young, I was an excellent Registered Nurse. I cared about my patients and they did well as a result. I reported the bad nurses and bad physicians. I eventually entered another profession. But, while I was nursing - I always reviewed my patients' medications and alerted them and the other nurses and physicians of situations where it was probable that the medications (or the combinations) were hurting rather than helping.

I know that there are others like me who care about patients. For those who don't - please imagine that the patient is your father, mother, son, daughter or maybe yourself someday. Please care about your patients. They trust you and their lives depend upon you.

There are two classes of statins. Hydrophobic, and hydrophyllic . Lipitor, Zocor, Zetia, etc. are representative of the first class. Pravochol (pravastatin) is representative of the second class. This is a very important distinction. Lipitor, and its hydrophobic relatives, but especially Lipitor, is a very dangerous drug. The incidence of muscular complications among the hydrophobic statins is much higher than for Pravochol, which is hydrophyllic. Pravochol was the first statin, has been studied the most, and has the best safety record. If you are going to take a statin at all, insist that it be pravochol, and not lipitor, zocor, etc.

I was prescribed 5 mg Lipitor cut in half for slightly elevated cholesterol. My MD said muscle pain is a side affect, and that is all she said. She should have said if you have any unexplained muscle soreness or weakness stop taking lipitor immediately!

Within a few days of starting that very low dose I began to have pain in the soles of my feet. In about a week I noticed my urine had turned amber. This alarmed me and I turned to the internet to get more information. I learned that amber urine is a sign of rhabdomyosis, the breakdown of muscle protein. I also learned that Pfizer had many law suits in the works related to lipitor and rhabdomyosis. That people had died from it.

I stopped taking lipitor immediately and sent my MD an email. It took me nearly three months for the pain in my feet to go away. I was hobbling around for the first three weeks after I stopped taking Lipitor. I was on the lowest dose imaginable for a very short time. Lipitor is a very, very dangerous drug in my opinion. Nevertheless, apparently some can take it without ill effect. I would not chance it. In my opinion, Pravachol is the only statin that should be on the market. Apparently the drug companies are making so much money from these statins that they can afford to pay out hundreds of millions in legal settlements and costs.

How to lower your doses of clonopin----

I was and still am on clonopin. I was up to four 1 mg pills a day and it wasn't doing anything so I decided to cut down to one a day and about 50 hours later I had a mean stomach ache and I felt jittery (like I just robbed a bank and the cops were outside of my door looking for me) so I went back to four pills a day and every 2 weeks I cut the does by 1/4 of a pill. I felt a little better and it took a few months to get back to one a day. I still felt a little jittery during that cutting down time. It will take a few weeks to feel normal again after you get down to one pill a day.

JOHN

Following a very serious pneumonia, my GP advised me to inhale once per day a capsule of Spiriva. I still had coughing spells bad enough to make it impossible to inhale anything powdery. Later, as soon as I started that medicine, I had trouble with speedy heart beats and cramps in my legs. My doctor said it was not related.

Then my stomach hurt so bad there was no position, no food or drink that could help. After a few more days I stopped the inhaling. My stomach still hurts, constipation is better and it seems that cramps are over too. I believe now that this medicine was not good for me, but my lungs feel irritated and dry. I will try steam and perhaps an ordinary sirop. It is hard when one's own GP can be trusted! Does anyone knows anything about Spiriva?

I just interrupted Spiriva without my doctor advice. I feel better but the weight taken in a week without eating much had not been associated to the side-effects of that drug. I had put 11 pounds in less than a week and was wondering why. Cutting more out of my meager diet did nothing. Now that I have stopped the drug, I will let you know. I feel stronger already to go for walks but my stomach is still hurting and even with a sip of water, my dry cough and excess of mucus in the throat is still there but slightly better. Never happened before in my life! The heart speed beating is now normal, and the cramps in the legs and neck gone now.

Virtually every ad for a statin drug mentions pain in the legs, OR weakness in the legs as a "rare but serious side effect". How do I research why this disclaimer is there? What did they find to make it necessary to state it? There has to be a reason for the disclaimer!!

I started Lipitor in 1999, switched to Zocor about 2002. My legs started weakening, slowly at first. My doctor dismissed it because I had no PAIN.

I am now 74, have severe loss of stability due to weakness in my legs, my legs often don't respond immediately when I try to walk, causing me to stumble and fall without a cane.

I have had brain MRI's, spinal MRI's, arteriograms, and neurology tests.

I have only been diagnosed with neuropathy, cause unknown. All doctors, while acknowledging they do not know the cause, say it is not the statin therapy.

How do I find out? Not trying to sue anybody, just trying to restore what was an active lifestyle, or at least, before I die, discover the truth.

PEOPLE'S PHARMACY RESPONSE:

Here is the problem. "Myopathy" which means "muscle disease" is an ambiguous condition. It is so broadly defined that it leaves a lot of wiggle room during clinical trials. Most of the major drug trials defined it very narrowly, often with the intent of only catching a life-threatening condition called rhabdomyolysis. This is diagnosed by measuring an enzyme (creatine kinase) in the blood. If the levels are highly elevated during a trial the subject is defined as having myopathy. If the levels are not elevated they are excluded from that data collection subset.

Because elevations of creatine kinase are relatively rare, all the official information about myopathy in the statin prescribing information suggests this is a rare event. In reality, though, myopathy is quite common, affecting anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of patients. This latter information has surfaced from independent research not part of the FDA approval process. There are many people such as yourself who experience weakness without enzyme elevation or even muscle pain.

Any doctor who dismisses myopathy as unrelated to statins has not done his or her homework!

I've been taking Restasis for about a year. Since I started, I've had several eye infections. My doc plucks eyelashes from the inside of my eyelids. I'm on prophylactic antibiotics and my eyes are still dry. I just learned that a side effect is increased hair growth on face and body. Maybe I should put it on my husband's bald head. I'm looking for more information so I have more ammunition when I tell my doc I'm not taking Restasis anymore.

I too have been suffering from muscular and joint pain that has become very painful. I also suffer from FBS and since taking simvastatin my condition has gotten worse. But my doctor insists that all my stiffness and muscular spasms are just in my head. Doctors need to be more aware of what is happening with this older medication as much as they are aware of the side effect of the newer medications.

Has anyone here heard of the prostate and hair loss drug PROPECIA OR FINASTERIDE?

It has ruined many mens lives because of long-term side effects, myself included, only now (years and years) after men have been suffering from all sorts of problem to this drug are some doctors helping to figure out what has gone wrong. The statin drug side effects do sound horrible, but I would love to see more awareness of Finasteride side effects.

www.propeciahelp.com

Very interesting about the reaction to pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine shots. Would be very interesting in the nature of the reaction. I too had what I thought was a severe reaction. My arm that had the shot got to hot I thought it would burst into flame. However, I was so cold I had to lay down and cover up as I was shivering. I didn't have a fever either. This lasted for about twelve hours. My doctor told me later that I should have taken Benedril. Why didn't he tell me before hand. My first shot six years before was just fine.

High cholesterol runs in my family. Three grandparents lived to be 90+ years old. One parent died mid-60s - not cholesterol related. The other parent almost hit 90. Everyone had high cholesterol. Not such a bad track record.

A few years ago, I was told I had high cholesterol, and an Ivy League hot shot young doctor told me I needed Lipitor. I said, No thank you, I refuse. She became quite agitated and angry, throwing dire predictions at me; I eventually dumped her. For other reasons, however, I cleaned up my diet and went gluten free. I also began taking a lot of supplements. Within a year or two, my cholesterol levels had come down to just somewhat elevated (but I have high "good" cholesterol), and my triglycerides and inflammatory markers all normalized.

Something is going to get you eventually. I love how carefully worded the drug advertisements are. They never say high cholesterol IS the cause of heart attack or stroke. They say it MAY be linked. (There MAY be a very tricky bit of logic in there.) So, if my long-lived grandparents had only been on Zocor or Lipitor they might have lived 5 or 10 more years? I doubt they would have lived as long as they did, as well as they did, if they'd been taking these drugs!

Cholesterol is necessary for a healthy body - when and why did everyone decide our levels should be so low?? Before you take any of these statins, make sure you get a breakdown of HDL and LDL cholesterol levels and look at the RATIO - my wonderful old family doctor who retired years ago told me that's the important number. He told me my overall cholesterol was high, but I was FINE, because I had a good ratio of HDL to LDL. I am so glad he told me that, and glad I refused the Lipitor. A friend who went for the statins got rhabdomyolysis. I don't think it's that rare.

Look at your doctor (especially the younger ones) like you would look at a used car salesman, until proven otherwise.

My problem was a reaction to Reclast. Right away I started getting mussel aches and pains then I started having problems walking. I told my doctor who sent me to an arthritis doctor who gave me a shot which did nothing. I kept going back to my doctor to show him my legs and feet how swollen they got and how red my feet got to the point I could not walk. I went to his office in a wheel chair and he gave me a handicap sticker but refused to think it was a reaction to this medication.

I called the Norvois Corp and they told me to have my doctor call when I went back into the office because it was a sure side affect. So I handed him the number and he said he did not have time for this crap. So I had to change doctors after 9,000 in bullcrap tests and meds. Now the doctor I have don't believe it either, she said enough time has gone by but I am still having problems with my feet and knees of course she also wants a million tests done that are costly and I just don't have the money.

So she shrugs it off by saying you don't want to pay so what am I to do. I feel like a person which will never get cured because it cost a lot for test that come back negative. I am at a loss. And I am only 58 and work full time with limited benefits and hurt all the time.

I cannot believe my doctor put me on Lisinopril when I am sure he knew the side effects. I started in Febuary and reported to him a tickle in my throat. Needless to say it is now June and that tickle turned into a horrible cough. It has changed my whole life, I am afraid to go anywhere for fear of having a coughing attack, can't sleep at night.. constantly tired. I'm wondering if doctors get kick backs for prescribing this crap. I am so furious I can't even think straight! I came off it 2 weeks ago put I am still retching with this cough...

I have RA and have been taking plaquenil with a combination of anti-inflammatories for roughly 10 years now. My physician has suggested Methotrexate and a combination of different medicines for years. I don't like the fact of putting a medicine used in cancer treatment synthetically made in to my body. I like my body chemistry just the way it is without changing it. So please tell me, what naturals supplements have you used to help the RA. I am only 39 so I would like to stay as healthy and strong as possible for a lot of time to come.
Thanks!

For the last 6 years I have been treated for peripheral neuropathy which was a direct result of an antibiotic I took for a deep tissue infection following a total knee replacement. Last fall in September 2010 I was prescribed simvastatin (taking half a pill every other day) for cholesterol, after about 6 weeks I realized that my feet where hurting a lot worse than they had been prior to that time.

So for the second time in 6 years I was stupid enough to listen to the Dr. I quit taking the simvastatin then but I am still paying the price for those 6 weeks. Now the same cardiologist wants me to take a different statin one which he says is more easily tolerated. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of it and I am not even sure where the sample packs are any longer. I told him when he gave me the samples I would try to take them when my feet felt better.

Now when I am given a RX I research the side effects extensively and then I have a long chat with my pharmacist before I consider taking it.

The neuropathy has been a life changing "side-effect".

My thoughts at this time is to go to a homeopathic Dr and discuss what supplements I might take to reduce the cholesterol or raise the good. Cardiologist suggested one but the information on that one lists peripheral neurogathy as possible side effect.

You commented that you found a new physician who is helping with new statins, or NO statins? Can you give me more info as to how he helped you? Was your problem high cholesterol? And, if so, did he take you off of ALL statins completely?

I have a son (disabled w/schizophrenia)has been taking resperidone for MANY years (for schizophrenia - no side effects to speak of), then he was put on lipitor for cholesterol (caused bad side effects); changed to vytorin about 3+ yrs ago: he then developed pain in the joints of both elbows (I suspected the vytorin so I told him to stop taking). Then numbness on the entire left side of his face.

I took him to the ER. They did a brain scan (CT) and said was OK, and to put him back on the vytorin (off of for 30 days when he stopped and now cholesterol is 300). I still suspect the vytorin, rather than the risperidone.

Many a patient has died from drug side effects and they are never reported on the death certificate. Let the patient beware!

MIRAPEX

A med often prescribed for treatment of Parkinson's disease (and other disease/illnesses) is mirapex. A thread on one of the Parkinson's online support groups (as well as personal experience) has shown this medication to be very dangerous... not to your health, per say, but to life style.

The 'side effects' include promotion of compulsive behaviors. Among the compulsive behaviors is shopping, online shopping, sex, porn, eating, gambling, etc. some of these compulsions ended up in divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, ruined credit, etc. (I developed a compulsion for buying 'trinkets' on ebay, to the tune of $10,000 on my credit card. still have most of the trinkets, which I no longer want and evidently, no one else does either!!! garage sale prices won't move them. Still in tubs in my garage... a cruel reminder of my 'being out of control.')

If you display a 'new to you' compulsion, check with your pharmacist or doctor (or online) to find out if it could be your meds causing this.

I have Sjogrens syndrome which is a chronic immune system disorder. When suffering from sleeplessness a while back, I began taking melatonin. Everything was fine for a while, it did promote sleep. After about three months of nightly use, however, I began to feel distinctly unwell. I developed terrible sinus headaches and debilitating general malaise and fatigue. At some point, I remembered a warning on the first bottle of melatonin I had purchased which said, "do not take this medication if you suffer from an autoimmune condition."

I had foolishly ignored this, and the second bottle from another company had no such warning. About 3 days after stopping it, I felt better and was almost good as new after a week.

how do you know if your hypothyroidism is mild or not?

I had faithfully taken Advair, lowest dose, for the past year. I didn't feel right in my chest anymore so I quit it. I began taking Singular since I believed I needed something for the occasional asthma attack, (allergy to candles, potpourri,dogs, cig smoke). Since stopping the Advair and starting the Singular I have had intense headaches.

I have now stopped the Singular also, took it only two weeks, and the headaches continue. I am scheduled for a CT scan of the brain and sinuses tomorrow. Is it possible the Advair withdrawal has caused these headaches?

I have neuropathy caused by all the HIV medications I had to take in the 1990's. save my life but I have PN . I had to go off the recent HIV drug I was taking ATRIPLA because that was causing me to yell at everyone and had thoughts of jumping of the bridge .. they wanted to give me Effexor.. I said no it is the HIV meds..

This summer when I was off the Atripla and waiting for Complera to be approved by the FDA the PN came back in ways I never heard of. Research on my own showed that this could happen and go on for 8 to 16 weeks..! Dr. did not tell me this...

The pain is in my whole body ankles, knees, legs, wrists and spine. Dr. wanted me to try neurontin.. after just 2 pills I said no way.. all dopey and no thoughts in my head... threw them out..

Tried new Dr. said to try amitryptiline Elavil antidepressant MAY help with pain. Did research and those side effects sound bad for a 50% chance... did not take... then she said try Topomax.. Told me it is not like Neurontin, but it IS an anti seizure and anti epilepsy drug with lots of side effects.

Just started the new HIV drug a month ago and if it quiets down the virus maybe my pain will go away. I was never a drug addict and the Dr. will not give me pain medicine that I can take as needed. Only topomax and elevil. I have had severe pain for 3 months. I have a bad disease and they cant give me a pain med until we see if the new Complera will help?

Hard to find a good Dr that will work with you if you are reluctant to take their pills.

Mom was on Lipitor and lost her muscles in her legs and they told her it was myoisitis!

I have tried many statins, but continue to have the same side affect, which is loss of memory & with two so far, I had what I can call amnesia episodes. My doctor wants me to continue trying different ones, but I've just about had it & I'm beginning to think he doesn't believe me about the regular memory problems or the two amnesia episodes.

I also had a muscular problem with one statin which he quickly asked me to stop taking, but the memory problems are questionable & I'm getting tired of it. My fear is getting a stroke, otherwise I wouldn't be trying all these statins. Don't know what to do, maybe I should change doctors, but they're all pretty much into statins these days. Has anyone else had so many episodes with memory & statins?

Please, all who are suffering from gerd or acid reflux, look into taking digestive enzymes with your meals! I had horrible acid reflux fifteen years ago, and someone told me about digestive enzymes. I've been taking them with meals ever since, and have had absolutely no acid reflux at any time since.

Hi Wendy,
I sure am willing to try a digestive enzyme as I have gerds also but I don't know what
it is. Can you be more specific with a name of some products?
Thanks

I was diagnosed with A-fib 1-1/2 years ago. Had pacemaker implanted and been on multiple medications, had cardioversion and now they want to do ablation.

One of my lead wires came out and after this was reimplanted, I was given a prescription for Amiodarone on discharge with no specific instructions or warnings. My wife investigated this medication and the side effects with the manufacturer and reported this to the FDA. Was on it for less than 2 months and developed a bleed in my eye, anemia for which I had to have 3 pints of blood, and now just had a squamous cell cancer removed from my hand, which came up in weeks. My primary doctor is checking pulmonary function and wants me to now have a chest CT to see if there is damage, i.e. pulmonary fibrosis from the amiodarone.

The cardiophysiologist will not take me off it and says I will go back in to A-fib unless I have an ablation. They say I can get off Amiodarone if I have the ablation and possibly other medications too, but it looks like getting off this stuff is dangerous. I am on multiple other meds including Simvastatin, Plavix, baby aspirin, etc. hydralazine, lisinopril, cardia,clonodine etc.I have been taken off the Warfarin, but will have to go back on it if I decide to have the ablation, according to the doctor. I am tired.

Why is Amiodarone on the market? It is dangerous. He did try to give me Multaq, but that is worse and I refused to take it. After my cardioversion, I went into sinus rhythm and still am, but they keep me on the amiodarone, although had previously before the cardioversion,cut the dose from 200mg 2 x day to 200mg 1 x day. The lead wire came out again after the cardioversion, so had to have that done again (second time.again. I have had 7 hospitalizations since having pacemaker in 6/10, 3 times for medication related things. I have never had a heart attack. My cholesterol and sugar are within normal limits. Why all the drugs?

They get mad at my wife when she questions and cop an attitude towards her. Even the ophthalmologist got mad when we asked if Amiodarone could cause the eye bleed, He said "NO". I am quiet and not as curious as my wife and usually don't say too much. I guess I have more faith in doctors than she does. I hope in time pharmacists will be in doctor's offices as advisors when they write prescriptions like they are running water. Something is killing a lot of people and it is probably medicine.
Joe

I was injected with one steroid injection for what my podiatrist told me was Morton's Neuroma. It turned out I did not have Morton's. I have had fat atrophy and tissue necrosis (death)in this foot. Have seen several docs since. To date, there is nothing they can do. I was never told of this risk... Why are shots being given when health providers know this can be a side effect?

My CgA results were way high and out of range since having a benign Carcinoid tumor removed from my rectum. As a result, I was subjected to a surgery to remove two feet of my colon. Resulting in another surgery to resection my lower GI system. I will never be normal again. The elevated readings were due to my use of Omeprazole (Prilosec). It seems that three doctors were not aware of the side affects of long term Omeprazole use. My Gastroenterologist, surgeon and Oncologist. I found out by "Googleing" The drug Omeprazole and checking side effects. Even the manufacturer of Prilosec had it noted!

I was prescribed temazepam 30mg for insomnia, after taking it for 2 weeks I started getting a lot of energy and as the days past I started laughing alot, and my daughter noticed it, I just thought I was happy. I had an adverse reaction to it, it made me sleep good, but I couldn't stop laughing, she took me to a rehab and a Dr. weaned me off, but I had terrible withdraws just taking it 1 month.

I had anxiety really bad, my bp was 201/101 and my normal bp is 96/67, I though I was dying, then I realized I had lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks because this med made me forget to eat until in the evening I felt hungry but could eat very little.Then I started having hypoglycemia in the 40's, I had to go to 2 er's and then ended up in a rehab to be monitored for seizure activity, and they tried to give me some elses phyic meds, so the Dr. stated if I signed a voluntary commitment he would let me go home so he would not have to go to court. I should have stayed home and treated myself.

My 81 year old father is fighting for his life after being on amiodarone for 3 weeks. He has been in ICU for 6 weeks with pulmonary fibrosis. The doctors keep calling it ideopathic fibrosis because they do not want to admit amiodarone caused this illness. He was healthy, active, had never been on medication before. His cardiologist gave him no alternate choice, sent him home with a bottle of pills, and never shared the warnings of side effects. What benefit do they receive from not blaming this medicine? If he had not taken it, he would be playing golf today.

I had been on Norvasc for almost 2 years when last spring I started acting as though I had round-the-clock PMS. I knew I was not acting normally and had turned mean as a snake. Being for aware of changes in myself I started eliminating what it could be and Norvasc seemed to be the culprit. Talked to my new doctor here in GA and she said she never puts her patients on 10 mgs. She dropped it to 5 and for awhile things were back to normal, but then a couple of months ago, the same thing started all over again. Took myself off the Norvasc and went back on Coreg and I am me again. Won't touch Norvasc ever again!!!!