I sat in a cold sweat, feeling panic beginning to rise. I was sitting at a metropolitan bus stop at the controls of a bus filled with passengers waiting to depart, and I could not remember where I had to go. The computer said it was time to leave, and displayed a route number. I scrabbled through the pile of blue file cards I kept beside me for the matching route number. I had typed out dozens of cards with the details of every bus route I may have to drive. Finally I found the right card and quickly reviewed the route I had to take. With a sigh of relief I put it where I could refer back to it quickly and pulled away.
I have been involved in the computer and electronic security industries for several decades. I worked as a consultant and contractor for customers including a major university and big names in the resources and hospitality industries. I have designed and developed computer software. I had managed all electronic security at The University of Sydney for 7 years.
And suddenly, I was finding that when I hung up the phone, I could not remember who I had spoken to. Numbers and names fled from my mind. My business descended into a shadow of what it should have been. I took work as a casual bus driver. I could not remember the number of the bus I was driving, I wrote it on my hand. Everything required intense concentration. I had notes written on my hands for everything. A notepad and pen became a constant companion. The bus computer and the cards described above kept me going.
I had always enjoyed watching mystery and crime shows on TV. I lost all interest. What is the point, when half way through the hour you have forgotten how the crime happened and who the victim was? My son was constantly reminding me who each character was as they became the suspect and were then cleared by fresh clues.
Shadows of despair and depression lengthened across my mind. I began to think seriously that I may be seeing the effects of dementia or Alzheimer's.
The Lipitor Effect
Then a friend I respect suggested Liptor might be the problem. It was months before I decided to take the leap, and against my doctors recommendation I stopped taking Lipitor. The effect was startling. Within two weeks I noticed changes. Work took less effort, memory came back, slowly at first, but then with increasing speed. The shadows where shortening, the sun began to rise after years of darkness. I could multi-task again. Do I have full return of my faculties? I have no idea, but on most days I am functioning again in the manner I remember.
Liptor is the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering medications in the world. The manufacturer, Pfizer stated in their 2008 annual report that Lipitor was worth $12.4 Billion. Lipitor is just one of a group of medications called statins. Businessweek, in 2008 stated that 25 million people take statin based drugs, a business worth $27.8 Billion in 2006. About half of that was for Lipitor.
A groundswell of reports about memory loss issues have been met by a statement from Pfizer that claimed less than 2 percent of Lipitor users - about 360,000 people, reported such a side effect. The company stated that its research has shown no cause-and-effect link between Lipitor and memory problems. Many doctors agree that there is little cause for alarm.
But I believe that two percent is the tip of the iceberg. Why? Because I had suffered memory problems for several years without making any connection to my medication. At the age of 56 I was just assuming that it was part of aging. When memory loss became pronounced, I began to worry that I was showing signs of dementia or Alzheimer's. I may never have put the two together without help. I am sure many others are suffering in the same way.
"I've seen this in maybe two dozen patients," Dr. Etingin said later, adding that they did better on other statins. "This is just observational, of course. We really need more studies, particularly on cognitive effects and women."
Dr. Duane Graveline, M.D. a NASA flight surgeon, fell victim to a much more catastrophic memory loss problem. Six weeks after he started taking Lipitor his wife found him wandering aimlessly, with no memory of where he was. Six hours later his memory returned. At his next astronaut physical the doctors persuaded him to take Lipitor once again. He says:
“Six weeks later I again descended into the black pit of amnesia--this time for twelve hours, and with a retrograde loss of memory back to my high school days.
During that terrible interval, when my entire adult life had been eradicated, I had no awareness of my marriage or my four children; my medical school days or my ten adventure-filled years as a USAF flight surgeon; my selection as a NASA scientist-astronaut or my post-retirement decade as a writer of medical fiction.
The names of my books were like the names of my children - gone from my mind as completely as if they had never happened. Fortunately (and typically for this obscure condition), my memory returned spontaneously and again I drove home listening to my wife's amazing tale of how the day's events had unfolded.” (Courtesy http://www.spacedoc.net)
Julian Whitaker, M.D. Has practiced medicine for 30 years. He reports:
“A retired professor of business law and computer science who was taking Zocor to lower his cholesterol was diagnosed with rapidly progressing probable Alzheimer's disease. It got to the point that he had trouble carrying on conversations and recognizing people he'd known for 20 years, and long-term care was looming. After hearing about the association between statins and memory loss, he stopped taking Zocor, and over the next few months his cognitive function returned to normal.”
There are many other instances from mild to disturbing, including commercial and military flight crews reporting “Memory lapses and an inability to multitask”.
In 2002 , the Max Planck Society announced that “Dr. Frank Prieger, and his research team have discovered that cholesterol – hitherto associated with a reputation as a “bad” blood fat – makes an important contribution to the formation of stable contacts between nerve cells, and thus to the brain’s function.” This presumably is the link to memory loss if the statins suppress cholesterol production in the brain. The brain relies on cholesterol, much of it in the myelin sheaths that insulate nerve cells and in the synapses that transmit nerve impulses. Lowering cholesterol could slow the connections that facilitate thought and memory.
The outcome for me
This experience has been a reminder to me that we have become addicted to the “quick fix” of taking a pill when in many cases simply adopting good eating habits and lifestyle could achieve a superior outcome.
It has “re-booted” my life by forcing me to give up a career path that I had been fixed in for several decades. Now the way is open again, but the intervening period has caused me to re-evaluate my goals. I want different, simpler things.
I am glad I have my life back.
If you have had a similar experience, please leave a comment here
(NOTE: This entry is copied from a Blog I created in 2011, but have decided to offer a quiet and dignified death. Things have changed. The information, however is QUITE real and accurate)
Copyright (c) 2011 - Philip Stephens
No comments:
Post a Comment