July 7th
2009
3:57 PM
My main side effect was because they had me on too high of a dose at first: I had severe abdominal cramping to the point of needing to go to the ER and needing a muscle relaxant (bellatal - sp?). My endocrinologist said that was not possible, but the second he put me on the right dose, it went away. Many people have idiosyncratic (personal to them and abnormal) reactions to medicines.
All I can say is that some experts believe that the synthetic hormones can give false results on the blood tests, making everything look fine, so I have opted for real thyroid hormone and take Armour Thyroid. My thyroid problem symptoms all completely went away within 6 months (many by 2 months) after starting the Armour Thyroid. I spoke with at least a hundred women online before switching who all had the same experience: doing much better on Armour Thyroid. Some doctors are hesitant to prescribe it because there is some bad press in the AMA that some doctor's buy into about it, but it's all misrepresented and untrue.
-- By isamused | Reply | Private Message me
June 17th
2009
1:04 PM
Hello... I started taking Levothyroxine last July for slight hypothyroidism. I felt great for the first 6-7 months, but then in January the problems started for me. I was getting severe anxiety which the doctor said was stress and he also thought I was depressed. I knew I wasn't, but he put me on Ativan and Prozac. The week I took prozac was the worst week of my life. I thought the effects I had were from the prozac, but now I know now it was my thyroid spiking, which the doctor never checked my levels during this period. My heart rate doubled, I had insomnia, was gagging, sick, felt like my body was on speed and wanted to die. I was prescribed a beta blocker for my anxiety previously which I had never taken, but decided to take when my heart was racing, which helped me feel a bit better for the week, but I knew something was wrong. I had this happen again recently for about a week (and I was on nothing but levothyroxine). I know what anxiety is and I have never had anxiety or depression my whole life until these episodes that happen when taking this medication. By the time I went to the doctor to get labs done, I had been feeling a bit better and he said my levels were fine. I am now wondering if it's side effects from the meds or if it is spikes in my levels making me hyperthyroid instead. All I know is that I cannot live like this!! I have a 3 yr old and I need to be happy and healthy like I used to be before this medication... no more heart racing, racing thoughts, anxiety, and insomnia. Please help!!
-- By jlucas | Reply | (2) replies | Private Message me
April 30th
2009
12:12 AM
I was on prednisone in 2005 first time ever. It completely ruined my life. I was before the prednisone (for just 10 days) a very calm happy person. After seven days I started having terrible mood swings, blurred and darkened vision, savage anxiety all the time, and the deepest depression i have ever known. I lost a business, a marriage, half my family, my sanity, composure, and ability to work. The doctor better hope to hell I never catch her out and about. Anyway after four years of pure hell I am finally able to work again and feel pretty normal most of the time. This drug does much more harm than good. I had a simple yet severe allergic reaction and was prescribed this terrible drug. Words cannot describe the personal hell I have been through. I think that most if not all doctors should be put out of their misery. I for one have started a movement to take out the doctors before they take us out. This is war and Im not going away that easy. If your life has been destroyed by prednisone do not do anything drastic. Just remember that just because your doctor poisoned you that it does not last forever. You will eventually feel better. It might be after your sanity has been tested to the limits and you lose everything you ever worked for but eventually you will come around. As for me I am starting my plan very soon. I absolutely believe that their is a movement in this country to take out or cripple as many trusting people as they can. The fda, cdc, ama, and others are evil.
-- By flugey3804 | Reply | (1) replies | Private Message me
September 16th
2008
5:50 AM
I'm not someone affected by Levaquin, but my boyfriend took Levaquin and now he has blurriness, visual snow, static, and halos. He's having really bad vision, yet his doctor says he has 20/20 vision. He is becoming suicidal and doesn't want to live anymore. He's been to over 30 doctors alone in a few months to find a cure and none of the doctors want to put a blame on Levaquin. He is losing hope and I'm losing hope. He seriously contemplates suicide everyday. Please someone help or e-mail me with anything you did to help your vision if you took Levaquin. If you saw any retina specialist or special doctors that cured the problems that Levaquin damaged. He's willing to fly anywhere in the world to get this fixed. He's going to try acupuncture for the eyes. What other remedies or things should he be trying? My e-mail is ******
-- By baconandeggs | Reply | (2) replies | Private Message me
June 22th
2008
9:03 AM
Hi,
I wanted to post this link just to give some small consolation to our concerns about the lack of awareness THAT DOCTORS HAVE ABOUT SINGULAIR.This is a voluntary online informational site,that doctor's can join. It provides updated information on serious label changes and safety concerns on drugs.Most doctors at this point still get snail mail updates,in the paper shuffle a lot of information gets misplaced.The AMA would like to have all information come in online,eventually.The link is ******
read it and tell me if you think more can be done By the way my pediatricians office does not have online communication.Our life is forever changed because of that ! Information is playing a vital role in this drugs destructive path ,or the lack there of information.Again this is voluntary for the Doctors to sign up .In this modern day of communication how does important information not get where it is the most useful, I ask you?When drugs are making multi billion dollar profits,that would be an educated guess.I am doing another interview with CBS affiliate out of Boston on the 23rd of June,they contacted me.I hope it will reach more people who are still unaware of this drugs serious potential side effects.If any of you parents have some connection to media ,please use it to your best advantage to get this very important information out to the publicAlso so many of you ask how to help.Contact your local Senators and keep bothering them to reach out to the FDA to expedite this investigation. Make a pain in the butt out of yourself and be persistent.I will try to make reference to this site so your stories are heard. Dave and I are coming up on a year since our son passed on to our lord .Still fighting Kate and Dave M.
May 9th
2008
1:31 PM
AMA wants drug ads restricted. Go AMA. Make the drug companies spend the $5.4 billion on real research like how to treat cancer.
******
-- By concernedcitizen | Reply | Private Message me
May 7th
2008
4:16 PM
Sorry, I can't just walk away.
When you find patents or patent applications for certain purposes, then you know that your ideas are well founded. There are several patents for using an anti-malaria drug for asthma. I would bet that somebody had that idea all the way back to the 1960's. So it is very possibly no coincidence at all that a chloroquinoline or other quinoline ring would be part of montelukast's chemical structure.
Here is one of the patents.
******
It is well known that quinoline rings can be toxic to some people even very rapidly. As in this very extreme example.
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PEDIATRICS Vol. 27 No. 1 January 1961, pp. 95-102 This Article
FATAL ACUTE CHLOROQUINE POISONING IN CHILDREN
Howard M. Cann M.D.1 and Henry L. Verhulst M.S.1
1 National Clearinghouse for Poison Control Centers, Accident Prevention Program, Public Health Service, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Four cases of acute chloroquine poisoning in children are presented. In three instances death occurred within 2 hours of ingestion of larger than therapeutic amounts of the drug. The rapid occurrence of death in acute chloroquine poisoning is probably explained by complete and rapid absorption of the drug from the gastrointestinal tract resulting in high blood concentrations which depress vasomotor function and respiration. Cardiac arrest follows and may be caused by the direct myocardial action of chloroquine, to anoxia, or to both. The similarity of the manifestations of acute chloroquine poisoning and those of acute quinine and quinidine poisoning suggests that acute toxicity may be attributed to the quinoline ring portion of these drugs.
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I don't think that we are seeing extreme examples. But we may be seeing less extreme immediate reactions or reactions where the toxicity builds up over time.
Quinoline rings are know to cause neurotoxicity. There are theories about how that happens. One of the theories is about blocking connexins which are gap junction proteins in the brains.
I don't know how montelukast could be breaking up so that it causes toxicity. Or if the problem is the how rapidly the liver enzymes can metabolize it. But there is plenty, plenty, plenty of clinical evidence that there is a quinoline ring culprit somewhere in the picture. Or some by-product of that causing problems.
Somehow it was decided that montelukast did not have the safety issues that the other drugs in the same category have. See this.
"The starting point in the development of montelukast appears to be a quinoline-containing structure, likely identified as a weak random screening lead (Figure 3). The Merck group hypothesized that this molecule was mimicking the olefin backbone of cysLTs, and that the addition of mimics for the acid and peptide regions of LTD4, might improve its potency. As a first step, the dithioacetal linkage first seen in some SmithKline compounds was incorporated; this led to a compound with greatly increased in vitro potency but poor oral bioavailability. When one of the carboxylic acids was replaced by an amide, forming MK-571, the new antagonist had even greater potency and good efficacy following oral administration. The enantiomers were resolved to yield MK-679 (verlukast), a compound with better clinical effects than MK-571, but whose clinical development was stopped for safety reasons. Further structure-activity relationship studies led to the development of montelukast (16), an antagonist that appears free of the safety concerns plaguing earlier members of this series."
If we can find out why the earlier versions were not safe and how they thought fixed it, then maybe we can find out what is going on with the quinoline ring in some people.
I would be very surprised if the FDA will address our concerns. Why does it always seem like they wait for enough people to die like in Vioxx? Wasn't Vioxx responsible for thousands of deaths?
-- By concernedcitizen | Reply | (11) replies | Private Message me
February 23th
2008
11:59 AM
My 16 year old son took Levaquin 6 months ago and had a bad reaction to it. His symptoms were severe muscle weakness (he would get exhausted walking from the parking lot to a store and back, severe joint pain (in thumbs, wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles), dizziness (he felt like the room was moving away from him and would lose balance), and headaches (a severe pressure in the back of his head that was constant and then shooting pains in his his head that would come and go for no reason). I should say he was in top shape before this and wrestling in the 125 pound category. He took Levaquin to prevent an infection after sinus surgery.
Now 6 months later, his joint pain is completely gone except for his knees. They still hurt when he does squats and they are not good enough for him to go back to wrestling, but he can walk around pain free. His dizziness is also gone as well as his muscle weakness. His headaches are still there and still constant, but not as bad as they once were; however, he has had them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months. He is on Lyrica which has helped make the headaches subside.
I have taken him to more than 16 medical doctors of all specialties, had multiple MRIs, CT Scans, blood tests, spinal tap, and an MRA. All come back negative. Thankfully, despite all of this, he still remains happy and positive that he will once again be 100% healthy; it will take lots of time, but he will get better. I know the first three symptoms (joint pain, dizziness, weakness) are clearly Levaquin related, but I haven't heard much about the headaches from people. Anyone else out there that has suffered from a constant headache after Levaquin? I REALLY want to hear about headaches from others!!!!
By the way, we have filed a medwatch already. I also know that Levaquin is not approved for anyone under 18 years old and he never needed such a powerful drug to prevent an infection, but there is nothing I can do about that now except to warn others. One of his UCLA doctors wants to write a case study on him to make this more known to others and I am helping him with that.
If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask. If you have had a headache from Levaquin, please let me know where in the head the pain was, if it is constant, what it feels like (pressure, shooting, throbbing), how long you have had it, and what, if anything, helped. THANKS.
-- By martinsmom | Reply | (13) replies | Private Message me
December 24th
2007
11:33 AM
I have mixed feelings about Advair. Quick history-at 30 I was dx with Asthma, at 32-COPD. I went on Advair after the COPD dx. Primarily-it certainly helped my breathing-gloriously. I have since gone on and off Advair periodically. Before last year (Pneumonia)-I had not been on the Advair for more than four months. BUT the Pneumonia combined with the COPD reduced my lung capacity by 25%. I allowed my Dr. to prescribe it indefinitely. However within a year I had gained thirty pounds. I started reading more, and found out that the AMA recommends only a six month duration of Advair therapy. My asthma symptoms had worsened over the last three months of that therapy. My untrained hypothesis is that if you exceed the recommended six month treatment-you will suffer the above outlined side affects. I simply quit it. Granted, my asthma symptoms increased for about three weeks-so I kept my handy little inhaler nearby, and gave myself one month to see if the asthma symptoms would decrease. They did. The long term-I have now been off of the Advair for nine months, and I rarely use my inhaler (knock on wood). The long term benefits of the extended Advair use has been a decreased problem with SOB- yes upon exertion(that is one of the symptoms of COPD), it is still present, but I can usually ride that out with patience, and rest. In conclusion-I would not hesitate to go back on the Advair upon my next COPD exacerbation, but I will absolutely stay within the six month suggested period. And, this time I will eat a lot of lo cal foods. Smile. It is always nice when people with chronic illness can smile over their disease. This has been my experience over the last five years that I have been introduced to Advair. One more suggestion-see if you can get your doctor to try you on the 250/50 before jumping right on the 500. The 500 is noted to have the side affect of increased SOB, and Asthma attacks-more often than the 250. One more note-although your doctor might forget to mention this-Advair is a steroid- and, steroids are known to cause weight gain. What can be done to reduce this affect-I do not know-Prednisone will do it too,now a combination of the two-which I have, of course, utilized a half dozen times or so in the last five years of my dx- is almost a guaranteed weight gain. If you manage to find out how to avoid that particular side affect-please let me know, and suggesting a vigorous work out to a patient with COPD in a bit insensitive, but if you have any other plausible ideas-I am anxious to hear them.
-- By mirismith21865 | Reply | Private Message me
May 20th
2007
9:14 AM
Anyone have peripheral neuropathy on Zocor? I had shooting pains down both arms for a few days one month into taking Zocor. This stopped but is replaced with intense muscle pain in arms, hands, shoulders and back - and recently hot flashes. I stopped taking the Zocor 3 days ago AMA (against medical advice) as my doc said the neuropathy is not a side effect of Zocor.
-- By lizzieborden | Reply | (6) replies | Private Message me
April 30th
2007
4:00 PM
I had hot flashes while taking Lipitor and now am experienceing them with Zocor. Anyone else experienceing the hot flashes.
-- By phshleach | Reply | (4) replies | Private Message me
December 7th
2006
12:03 PM
Sorry to tell you. I have leg, arm, shoulder, ankle, wrist and hand pain one year later.
Not one of the 20 to 25 doctors I have seen in this past year would ever even allow me to speculate that Levaquin did this to me. Not one! And yet look at this board and a half dozen more just like it. Thousands of people all reporting the same medical symptoms...right after taking this drug!
I know for a fact that almost every one of these doctors hasn't researched Levaquin any more than you or I. They know the general info on it yet they dismiss it as a cause or trigger for these symptoms we are all saying we have and that are all similar after taking this drug.
This massive denial is a crime.
Look how many doctors kept prescribing Vioxx even after rumors and reports were coming in specualting that it was causing heart problems. Look how many doctors kept telling their patients this drug was okay to take until 50,000 died from this!
Doctors can be very, very wrong about drugs. The Vioxx example is the most powerful proof of this. I dismiss their denial of Levaquin. I have to. Tens of thousands of people all reporting the same problems with this drug...simply cannot be dismissed anymore. The sherr numbers make it more logical that Levaquin is truly damaging people seriously, than it is not.
This denial is one of the most unethical things the AMA and doctors in this country have ever done.
-- By jb7th | Reply | (1) replies | Private Message me
April 11th
2003
6:15 AM
I posted earlier but just wanted to make note of the following. Advair does make breathing easier for the COPD impaired like myself. I am using it, probably AMA, only as a maintainance drug as it definally causes thrush of the throat even if you rinse and gargle. I might also add that this medication is manufactured by the German pharmaceutical conglomerate, Glaxo/Kline/Smith. It cost me $130 per disc here in the states. About the time I found it could be pruchased for half that amount in Canada, the Germans at the bequest of American pharmaceutical interest refused shipment to those Canadian internet pharmacies who were shipping it to the states. It should also me noted that this was accomplished through the vast lobbying campaign aimed at GOP congressmen. Glaxo donates several million dollars per year to the GOP campaign fund so it is obvious why we are getting screwed on the price. I am a regesitered Republican and this is very disturbing. I also find it disturbing that every other TV commercial is hyping some new medicinal miracle and that Drs. across the U.S. must be on the take in some fashion as most ignore the multitude of side effect patients mention and prescribe Advair as the drug of choice.
-- By dogill | Reply | Private Message me
Singulair (3) Levaquin (3) Zocor (2) Advair Diskus (1) Levoxyl (1) Synthroid (1) PredniSONE (1) Advair HFA (1) Gardasil (1)
October 24th
2009
11:00 AM
ive taken all three Vaccine for the Gardasil. Yes I'am losing my hair. I take beyond excellent good care of my hair, its my favorite body part, at 4"11 my hair reaches my bottom. I never dye, over heat, add chemicals, but since this shot my hair is no longer on my head, its in the shower drain. What am i too do? continue to let my hair fall out? its not growing back. Nioxin is expensive and my life is in risk if i don't take the shot.
-- By neca22chey | Reply | (2) replies | Private Message meSomething should be done about this.
- C. S.