Genes symptoms and conditions

People!In short BIOTIN!
Here's my story... I have had severe hair loss from this med and from other causes. Wellbutrin is now causing me anger severe memory loss and itch all over. I have taken it before several times because it has no sexual side effects but the hair loss is a no can do for me. I didn't know it did that until reading recently these posts. I just switched back to it from zoloft because of weight gain and sexual stuff. What I do know is about hair and that mine is falling out. I also know that I have been working on regrowing mine basically from nothing fore the last two years and that BARNONE BIOTIN is the best thing you can take to regrow your hair healthier and faster from the inside out. It takes about one month to see results. You can get it from CVS! Take the highest dose, twice a day at first and then once a day for maintenance. Two hairdressers told me about it and then I said I should try this. So glad I did, because I have great hair genes like so many here and now they are showing. Now to get off this crap medication!! I've

My son used a nebulizer 2 to 4 times a day every day from the time he was one and a half years old. When he had just turned three his doctor prescribed Singulair. It was like a wonder drug for us! It took care of his asthma and we didn't have to use the nebulizer any more. He's been on it ever since -- he's 10 now -- he also takes zyrtec and has a rescue inhaler that he uses maybe once a week. About every other year he requires a course of steroids and a week of regular nebulizer use. Also, for the past year he has also required a daily inhaled steroid.
Now, about his mood issues. My son has always been sensitive and intense, moody. The first time I became alarmed was when he was 7, and he told me he wanted to burn his hands on the stove to punish himself for forgetting his homework. I consulted a psychologist who evaluated him and said he was not clinically depressed. Since then he has had periodic "dark" episodes -- especially in the winter. He has said he wants to die. He has had crying jags over things that are upsetting (loss of a pet was the worst) but it seems excessive for him to be saying he "just wants it all to end." He has told me that he is always unhappy and that he hates himself. He has also had problems with moody acting-out with friends. He will brood about hurt feelings until he loses his temper and screams at the friend. I have worked very hard with him on learning to manage his emotions. He hit a friend at school who was teasing him. He accepted his consequences willingly and willingly wrote letters of apology -- he told me he thinks he has anger problems and doesn't want to be this way. And his character is that he is a sweet, caring boy who can't stand to see anyone hurt, but also can't stand to be hurt.
A couple of years ago I asked his allergist if any of the meds he's on are linked with depression. He said no. We have a family history of depression, and I thought my son had gotten the worst combo of all the genes.
Recently, this all got to the point that I decided he needed to see a psychiatrist and quite possibly take medication for depression. Before I made the appointment he had a check-up with his allergist. Going down his list of meds the dr. said, recently Singulair has been linked with depression, have you noticed any moodiness or sadness? My first thought was that I have, but that he's always been like this. My 2nd thought was that he has been on Singulair for most of his life. I said yes and that I'd like to try him off of it.
My son resisted going off of it. He has had enough negative experiences with asthma that he didn't want to risk it, but I insisted. I didn't expect to see any change, but I thought it was important, as I was going to take him to a psychiatrist to consider depression meds, to see how he did off of it for a couple of months.
Less than a week later, he had been in a wonderful mood -- to the point of being silly and giddy all evening -- for 3 days in a row. The kind of mood that I don't see him in often, and when I do I think to myself, "he should be like this more often." One evening he even realized he had forgotten to bring home a homework assignment. I thought, "oh no, here we go, his evening is ruined." But he talked through his options with me, looked a little uncertain, and said, well, okay, I guess I'll have to tell my teacher I don't have it. I'll tell her I'll make it up at lunch if she wants me to. That was it! He didn't mention it again. I didn't say anything about his mood, because I really don't think I can know anything after just a few days -- it could be coincidental. The next day, he said to me that he thinks being off the Singulair is "working." He has now told me that a couple of more times.
I am tentative, but amazed. Even if my son does have a predisposition to be depressed, maybe the Singulair was making everything worse, and things really can improve for him. I am afraid to be to hopeful. At the same time, I feel guilty for giving this medicine to him for 7 years without a second thought.
As an aside, my son has periodically complained of leg pains, that I always told him were growing pains.
I would love any feedback that anyone can give me. So far (these two weeks), his asthma has been controlled with pulmacort, zyrtec and albuterol, so that aspect is okay.

Reading the posts it looks like different people react differently to Aviane. Ethnicity and genes may play a major role in how different women react.I was on some kind of birth control in 2005, not Aviane though. I developed acne, extreme hunger, a full cup size and 20lbs!!! I just started my second week of Aviane and I am really tired (but I am also anemic), my breast are getting larger(which my boyfriend loves), and I've been really hungry....that's it. I work out everyday and watch what I eat, so weight gain is not a problem. As far as my sex drive goes..its way better! I'm 20 so my drive was already high,but its definitely increasing(which my boyfriend loves) Overall I give it a 8/10, I would suggest another woman to try it.

~E. B. Detroit,MI

Wait a minute!!!!! Let me say that I have really been spooked by everyone testimonials regarding Yasmin. Although I AM sympathetic and very sorry to hear of all you r health problems, I think that before we all get into a panic over this, we need to take other things into serious consideration. We have no clue what one anothers lifestyle is. Their diet, weight, allergies, stress issues , medical issues, other medications, exercise, genes, and sometimes age. I myself have suffered from hair loss, digestive issues, constipation, eyesight changes, fibroid/fatty lump in my breast, migraines, moodiness & poor circulation. And that was BEFORE I went on the pill. Sorry to say….but I’ve learned that these issues all come with age. I’m 39. And at age 35 I started seeing all these changes in my body. I was on NO medication and in pretty good health and would see a doctor regularly just to make sure. Some of these symptoms that were experiencing just might be due to the fact that were getting OLDER!! I even became somewhat lactose intolerant literally overnight. And one lady said in here that there is lactose in the pills. So maybe some of you are more susceptible to it.
And remember, the chemicals and hormones they’re putting in the pill…isn’t All Natural. They’re chemicals!!! Which can be hard on the body. (God did not design us for them). And a lot different from what I remember 20 years ago. When I used to take the pill you had to wait at LEAST a month before you can be safe from pregnancy. Now it’s only a WEEK! Hmmm…..that’s an obvious difference/change/warning….whatever you want to call it. Maybe the pill isn’t such a necessity for some of us. Maybe just a change in diet and vitamins might help us. For just pregnancy protection…maybe try another method like condoms, shots, diaphragm, etc….. I admit that I was having headaches ever since I started the pill 4 days ago. But then I realized that I only got them when I would sneek a cigarette 4 times a day. Shame on me!! That’s the ONE THING they tell you NOT to do. But now I know it’s not worth the pain and risk to my health. I didn’t smoke yet today and….no headache!! But I have not had any other side effects……YET. But when I do, I will look at other issues in my life that are going on….Diet, water intake, stress, genetics, normal woman changes, etc. I’m not saying that all your symptoms are nothing or not related toYasmin, but maybe look at the big picture before you overreact.

Hi ,did you ever heard of blood type diet ?every blood group has different chemistry and different way of metabolism.there is a book called live right 4 blood type and this is a wonderful book.type O people are really need to eat more meat and less carbohydrate while type A need to avoid meat and high in carbohydrate.personally i follow this blood type diet i am type A and i got the benefit.for type A meat raise cholesterol while for type O people carbohydrate is the cause blood cholesterol,and actually red meat lowering their cholesterol and weight.this book is amazing and has many cure for disease that most doctors have no clue about it .this is the food that we eat are making our destiny so why not know about it.you can check the side *****

Some of you who are following this site may remember that I posted that when I was following the pathways of the leukeotriene receptor antagonist Singulair that I got to a point where I concluded that there has to be a genetic component (meaning that there are different gene groups of people) and that the efficacy of Singulair (and possibly safety) can vary depending upon what gene group people are in. So I took a little time to see if anybody else was already studying that issue. And YES, they are -- including Merck.

quote:

" However, logically one might predict that it will be the combination of the polymorphisms in these different key regulatory enzymes and receptors that may ultimately determine treatment response. There have been some attempts to tease out the possible contribution of different genes important in this pathway for treatment response to a Cys leukotriene receptor 1 antagonist.18 However, because of the number of potential gene variants that may contribute to efficacy, large studies will be needed to fully evaluate the potential contribution of pharmacogenetic variability in this pathway to treatment response to Cys leukotriene receptor 1 antagonists. Work in the cardiovascular field has demonstrated the potential importance of genetic variants in this pathway to disease risk and also to treatment response,19 suggesting the potential for important effects to be defined in asthma."

(Chest. 2006;130:1873-1878.)
© 2006 American College of Chest Physicians

Pharmacogenetics of Asthma
Ian P. Hall, DM
* From the Division of Therapeutics and Molecular Medicine, University Hospital of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Correspondence to: Ian P. Hall, DM, Division of Therapeutics and Molecular Medicine, University Hospital of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK; e-mail: Ian.Hall@nottingham.ac.uk

http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/full/130/6/1873

And Merck sponsored a study on this which is now completed.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00116324?intr=%22Montelukast%22&rank=79

Of course, it was sponsored by Merck and paid for by Merck.

I don't know if the study discovered anything but I believe this is an indication that Merck acknowledges genetic differences in populations that may predict the success of montelukast.

I am not any where close to being an expert in this field. I have another background but I believe that there are experts who can tell you exactly why you had side effects from Singulair.

I think that I can get my head around certain things and try to explain to you that medications do not work for all people or affect all people the same way. Well, that sounds simple enough to say - DUH. But, it is actually quite complicated chemically. Human beings are not chemically the same because we have variations in our genes. Would you be surprised to learn that about 60% of adverse drug reactions involve certain chemicals (in some cases enzymes) that we already know what these chemicals or enzymes are and what the variants are among populations groups? Some times we can predict who would have an adverse reaction to what medications if we knew what gene subgroup the patient was part of. We could also predict whether the patient would metabolize a drug at the same speed as others or not. Metabolize means utilize the drug and then discard the by-products--mostly the liver is the recycling center of chemical waste. Anything that the liver cannot re-use, the kidneys gets rid of in the urine. Speed of metabolism is a very important thing because people who are slow metabolizers might actually experience over-dose. There are other differences caused by genes that can cause different reactions according to the individual person.

I am interesting in following this site because I am wondering if the concept is flawed meaning that other parts of the body were ignored at the expense of controlling asthma and allergies of the nasal passages and lungs. OR - is there just a problem that relates to genetic differences in something such as enzymes and certain populations groups do just fine on Singulair with no problems and other people have some awful problems?

This isn't my area. But, sadly, if I can spend two weeks looking at this and come up with at least a road map of what I am looking for to answer some important questions then people who do this for Merck already know the answers. Why do I say that? Because, the adverse side effects (major categories) correspond to important areas of leukotriene receptor location and activity. Maybe not necessarily this receptor but part of a chemical process that involves this receptor.

The bottom line is that Singulair is the wrong medication for anyone that has adverse reactions. OR, there is a problem regarding the dosage that involves how fast the patient metabolizes the medication. Considering that there is a link to psychiatric adverse drugs reactions in Singulair and some medications for depression are linked to differences in metabolism due to enzymes, then there could be possibly something important to be learned from Singulair adverse drug reactions.

The biggest problem is that pharmaceutical companies are not properly communicating with the doctors who prescribe their medications. Why not communicate to doctors to look out for side effects and be aware that there are gene variations among people that are directly linked to how the patient might respond to the medication?

What happens if the patient belongs to the gene group that will have problems? If the pharm company does not tell the doctor to be on the alert, then the doctor tells the patient that it is not the drug that is causing the problem. Then the gene groups with the problems, go on the war path.

Are you aware about short and long term side effects of this Devil's drug??? Of course, everybody reacts differently while take or withdraw. But there are high number of people who react terribly bad!!! Doctors do not want to recognize and discuss this. They just keep silent... Do you know exactly how Prednisone works??? Nobody knows this for sure, even doctors!!! From my personal experience, and despite gradual withdrawal, I developed extremely high blood pressure, weakness, panic attacks, depression! Practically it ruined my normal life! Doctors have no clue how to deal with its devastating side effects. Steroids are not selective. When you take a steroid, the drug infiltrates the nucleus of every single one OF YOUR CELLS AND STARTS MONKEYING AROUND WITH GENES IT FINDS THERE!!! It probably plays with hundreds of genes. And just a small number of these genes control the pain and inflammation associated with inflammatory diseases, so steroids turn many of these genes off which is good thing. However, because steroids are not selective, they also regulate the genes that control kidney, liver, BRAIN, and HEART function - which is not good thing!!! It is likely that steroid treatment plays with other genes, too, including those we do not know about a lot right now...So, Prednisone pervades the entire body, which increases the likelihood of short-term side effects and long-term DAMAGE. My advice is: THINK TWICE BEFORE TAKING PREDNISONE!!!

Dear Users,
At first I thought it was just my imagination seeing that I have recently undergone angioplasty with stenting I should be feeling on top of the world but then I started developing breathlessness and muscle aches with the occasional sleepless nights which my specialist could not explained and attributed it to my genes as my elder sister had the same experience. However, now it has gotten worse with sudden piercing pan to both my shoulder blades right to my finger tips. I am in a way glad to have found this site and know that others have the same problems as myself. It would be a good thing if all patients are warned of these side effects.

I am 55 years old, and was put on Lipitor 1 month ago for over the top, sky HIGH cholesterol. Having a high risk background of heart disease in my genes, the Dr. recommended it to bring down Cholesterol #'s to a manageable, SAFE level.Diet alone over the past 2 years has not done it.

After ONLY 2 weeks of daily taking 10 mg daily, I was awakened from a sound sleep in the middle of the night with legs cramps so severe that I could NOT work them out, lie still, or get comfortable.When I did finally fall asleep again, I woke up with muscles so tender and sore in my calves, that I had difficulty walking around !

Week # 4 ~ tightening in left shoulder, back of neck, and left upper arm. It feels like I am bruised, and hurts to turn my neck.

I am beginning to wonder if this medication is safe ? I read that its side effects were much less than others to lower the cholesterol.

I am at a loss and do not what to do, neither does the Dr !

I have been on lipitor 40 for about 6 weeks. I am 50 and pretty fit - doc prescribed it because my cholesterol was 6.7 and I have family history of heart disease. The last 2 weeks I feel like I'm getting the flu. Joint pain and very tired. Have trouble motivating myself to exercise. Although I have had psoriasis for some time, it also seems to have become worse since taking the lipitor. I would rather try to reduce the cholestorol level naturally but doc said its in my genes. How do I work out if I am generally run down and stressed (which could be the case) or if I have genuine lipitor side effects? What will happen next?? It's pretty scary reading some of the posts on this page...

Here is the deal, everyone has a pre-disposition to certain health related issues, and you can thank your ancestors for that. As it relates to hypertension, I would recommend staying away from Lisinopril. It may be effective in lowering your blood pressure, but it is very effective in making you cough, anxious, depressed, etc. etc. One must evaluate the trade-off in quality of life. First and foremost, the medical profession loves to suggest that low blood pressure is more important than being happy, cough free and erect. My philosophy is live each day as it is your last, help the less fortunate, and think positive. That will help to keep your blood pressure in check, even if your genes tell you otherwise. Prior to going on Lisnopril, my BP was 150 over 100, I am 40 years old, eat well, exercise, and try not to indulge in excess. After taking Lisinopril, it lowered my pressure to 110/85, but I felt like crap. After quiting the drug 1month ago, my BP has gone up to 130/90, but I don't care...I feel like I am myself again. Whether I live to be 41 or 80 doesn;'t matter to me at this point, especially worrying about blood pressure. I am happy and helping others, and that is what counts. My advice is to live strong, deal with your genetic predisposition, and don't worry about your blood pressure as there is no clinical evidence that you will crash and burn anytime soon.