Healthy lifestyle symptoms and conditions

I suffered cardiac arrest in 2006 with the only change in my 51 y/o basically healthy lifestyle was i started taking 500 mg/day of levaquin four days prior to my collapse in front of my students in the classroom. I am a 4th grade teacher - I had suffered cardiac arrest at least three times before I was treated with Arctic Sun therapy to help recover. The heart catheterization afterwards showed no blockage in my heart. There was a good chance, in my opinion, that levaquin could have caused my cardiac arrest. Although not conclusive because I had a tooth infection which was the reason I was prescribed the levaquin and i was taking an said for the discomfort, the back of my mind always comes back to levaquin because i suffered the joint weakness i read in articles of other users of the medication. I also was reminded after the accident that a young person we knew of had died unexpectedly in her sleep a and she was taking levaquin. It makes you think it may have been the levaquin, but no actual proof could be determined by my doctors. However, I will never take this medication again, knowing there are so many other antibiotics on the market to help me.

I was started on Advair HFA about 35 days ago. A little background about me is that I'm 35 years old, in good physical shape. I'm a competitive cyclists doing road races anywhere from 45-100 miles, I work out 2-4 hours everyday. I've had lifelong chronic asthma, but have fought the disease with my healthy lifestyle. I also play the saxophone.

Since I've been on Advair I've developed a constant sore throat. Been coughing up stuff constantly when I'm out training on my bike. Can't seem to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. The worst side affect has been the leg cramps which are killing my training for up coming races. I have constant leg cramps that force me to get out of bed over and over to work them out. My energy levels have dropped to the point that I can't do even half a workout without being totally wiped out. This is coming from a guy that averages 60miles a day on the bike, the other day I couldn't even do 15 miles and had to stop from the constant cramps and tiredness. This stuff is a nightmare. I've gone back to using nothing but my albuterol inhaler. I'll continue to do lung exercises 4 times a day and completely clean up my diet and basically get this stuff out of my system. Let this be a warning that you can't get something positive without something negative as well.

WOW!!!! I wish I found this website months ago!!! I started taking Yaz 8 months ago. I consider myself a very healthy person, I workout intensively 5 times a week, eat right and have a healthy lifestyle and wonderful people in my life but around 8 months ago I started getting sick all the time, feeling depressed and in a fog, not wanting to get out of bed,getting bad headaches all the time, increasingly anxious and stressed and gaining weight and not being able to lose it. I have a very comfortable and happy life and have nothing to be depressed about so I couldn't figure out why this was happening. I've gone to the doctor many times and had every blood test known to man done and still no answers, I even started going to a therapist. I couldn't figure out why I had lost interest in life and every day had become a struggle. No one ever considered it could all be related to a drug side effect. I called my doctor and I'm going to stop taking Yaz and hopefully this is the answer to what is going on with my body. I will keep you posted!

I've had my mirena in for 4 years now..and can relate to some of the symptoms mentioned. It never occurred to me before that mirena may be the cause. I'm extremely exhausted all the time. I'm a mother of 3 and I maintain a very healthy lifestyle. I go to the gym at least 4 times a week and eat all the right foods. Instead of my workout leaving me refreshed(as should) it nearly takes everything out of me. The rest of the day is a total struggle. Its like ive used up all the energy available to me. I turned 33 less than 2 months ago. I taught of aerobics prior to the birth of my 4 year old son. I had my mirena inserted at my 6 wk checkup. I lost my motivation to continue my workout habits..yet still maintained an active lifestyle without the intensity until 6 months ago. I was 112 lbs @ 5'1 when I got pregnant with my son. I was 144lbs when I delivered. I was down to 120 at my 6 week checkup...and still haven't budge from there! (after the mirena). I'm bloated all the time. As others have said...looking like they're 3 months pregnant...thats me! I've also have swelling in my hands and feet randomly. (mostly my hands) My periods are light..spotting mostly and come approx every 3 weeks. My breast become extremely tender a week prior to. Sleeping is not a problem here...I'm practically out before my head hits the pillow. I often have trouble focusing and feel lightheaded. I also hope to have another child next year some time being that I am remarried and my husband doesn't have any children of his own. After reading some of these stories I'm wondering if that will be possible. In the past...my husband had often complained of feeling scaping during intercourse...yet hasn't felt it in quite some time. I wonder if that's good or bad? I hope I don't have to get mine surgically removed! I'm scared now! If anyone can relate to me...please comment.

I had my Mirena inserted in July 2005 and removed 2 yrs afterward. Till this day the effects are still showing. I have facial hair that I never had before. And the hair loss is still onset. I have developed fibroid cystic breasts. I have also gained a significant amount of weight that I'm still battling. At first I thought I was leading an unhealthy life so I changed my eating habits, stopped smoking, stopped drinking (which both were extremely RARE!), and cut out the fast food and replace with a healthy lifestyle. My hormones are still so out of whack that I think hormone therapy will be the only thing that will control my mood swings and help with the breast tenderness. BTW!!! If you do experience this symptom limit your caffeine intake!!! It could cost you your breasts. Right now I'm trying to make the best of my life and spending lots of money in electrolysis. Do not think for a minute that this thing is safe because it is far from it. REMOVE IT OR OPT TO ANOTHER FORM OF BIRTH CONTROL!!!

Bobby you are so right "BIG Pharama" and thank you for your well researched comments that you post.
BUT let's not forget big pharma whom I do hate over this issue does state a lot of the adverse side effects on the labels.
SO MR and MRS DOCTOR why don't you read the instructions and advise us of what to watch out for. I told my doctor over a 3 year period of leg cramps that made me squeal and physically dropped me, I also told him over 3 years that my swimming speed overnight dropped by 25% which I now know is a dangerous condition called loss of muscle power. In the end I went to him knowing I was dying, I could only shuffle not walk straight and my whole body was hunched like an ape, people in the street were looking at me. My speech was slurry. This clown who was previously highly respected and revered by myself and wife asked me if I had a low pain threshold, he stood up behind his desk imitated my ape like shuffle then told me to stand up and walk straight. So in my mind there are 2 very clear issues.
1) The big pharma criminal scam.
2) The doctors failing to be safe, read instructions and think for themselves.

I'm in New Zealand a couple of months ago a 69 yr old fellow in Australia with an axe chopped up his wife and grandchildren killing them. A neighbor said they were an ordinary family and the man had become deeply withdrawn.
I stopped a car in the middle of the street and attacked it with my walking stick, I heard "voices" and stalked my house at night with an axe in my hand.

Go to space doctor DOT net and type in Allen Woodley suicide. There are 3 examples here where people lost their minds and took their own lives through statins.

We the "small" people have to originally put the pressure and file the complaints against the doctors then they can resist the pharmas.

No I am getting my faculties back make no mistake I will be filing a police complaint of criminal negligence.

Get the instructions and front the doctor after all he/she is the "retailer" and they can take it up with their "wholesaler"

These b#$%^&&ds are not only wrecking us but they are demonstrably negligently and criminally wrecking the lives of society's grandparents whose golden years we must protect.

Incidentally when I asked my doctor in January for an apology he rammed his bunched fist in my face in his surgery and said how dare you doubt my ability as a doctor. Not bad some of these clowns.

Then of course as we who have been forced to research ourselves we all now know that cholesterol and elevated cholesterol as we get older is absolutely essential for longevity.

These practitioners are totally unbelievable.

49 years old. I took diovan 80mg for about 2 years. Never thought to associate dry eyes and throat, low back and muscle aches, and weight gain to this drug. I lost 10# by doing 1 hour of fast walking and 30 minutes of weights 3x week and my b/p went to 110/70, so I stopped the drug to see what would happen. In 2 days my head was aching and my b/p was 170/102!! Beware of rebound, which Novartis does not list in its warning section. Back on the diovan to prevent a stroke, but I will talk to my doctor about a low dose beta blocker, and will keep exercising and eating light, with the goal to get off all meds with a healthy lifestyle. Does anyone else ever feel fullness in the throat? that is another weird symptom I get sometimes.

I am currently 58 years old and lead a very active, healthy lifestyle. I began taking 10mg of Zocor, along with 1000mg of niacin in the summer of 2004 to reduce cholesterol (251) and triglycerides (571). The therapy dramatically improved my blood tests, however, within 6 weeks, I began to experience minor chronic skin infections, both fungal and bacterial. They were easily controlled with topical over the counter type medications, but they were annoying. At no time was this new condition linked to the statin/niacin therapy by my doctor(s). The infections became progressively worse over the next 3 years, and evolved into chronic folliculitis in my scalp, neck, and face, cystic acne, and persistent fungal infections that were becoming more difficult to control. In addition, I began to get chronic eye infections. It was as if my immune system was becoming ineffective. I stopped taking niacin in December of 2007 and the symptoms immediately lessened. I stopped taking Zocor in March of 2008 and within 2 weeks, all the skin problems and eye infections completely ended. My health was restored completely and I am glad to have put that whole mess behind me! I have been taking Omega 3 supplements to control my cholesterol and triglycerides and have had results that equaled the Zocor and Niacin therapy, with cholesterol at 160, triglycerides at 91, and a favorable HDL/LDL ratio. My physician is skeptical, but I know that my body was not functioning correctly with the statin/niacin treatment. I have found anecdotal reports from others who seem to have experienced a change in their immune system, but no mention of this as a side effect by the medical establishment.

I've been on Loestrin for 6 months; I was taking Yaz to help with lighter periods and my doctor also thought the lower dose of hormones would help with my menstrual migraines. Yaz wasn't working so he switched me to Loestrin. The first couple of months were fine; I noticed a lighter period and less cramping. I was still getting migraines but they were coming at a different time than before. I just thought my body was adjusting.

For the past two months, things have gotten much worse. I'm having two periods a month and migraines leading up to each one. The headaches last 3-4 days. I've been very emotional and have never suffered from depression, but I have noticed that I've been isolating myself from co-workers and friends, and just want to be home alone after work. I am not sleeping well either, and feel bloated all the time. I'm not one to weigh myself regularly, and lead a healthy lifestyle, but I recently went clothes shopping and noticed I have gained at least 10 pounds since on this pill. I have a headache right now and this is the 4th day; I started my second period for March on Friday, and it's mostly the brown discharge some of you had mentioned. I'm on week two of the pack and don't know if I should finish taking them or not. I'm calling the doctor on Monday. Good luck! There has to be an easier way.

Yuck. When I first put in NuvaRing, I experienced the severe nausea, but that only lasted for a day or so. I've been on it for almost 3 months now and have noticed that am not sleeping as well as I had in the past. I'm always feeling tired and slightly down. I try to lead a very healthy lifestyle; I exercise daily and eat a very healthy, balanced diet. Despite these facts, I seem to be slowly gaining weight. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of not having to take a pill everyday, and the NuvaRing has actually helped to clear up my skin. I'm not sure if the hormones are throwing my body out of whack or what. I don't think I'm willing to sacrifice feeling and looking good for the sake of convenience. I hope there are other options that don't screw with a person's lifestyle. I think I'm gonna check out IUD's...

I have been on Lamictal for almost a year now and everything seemed to go okay until almost three weeks ago when I had to increase my dosage from 100 to 150mg and my Lexapro to 15mg. In the last couple of weeks, I have gained 7 pounds and I am really depressed. I have an eating disorder (bulimia) and because of this, I profusely purge my food in fear of gaining a dramatic amount of weight again. I am going to see my psychiatrist next week because all of this is going to cause me to crash.

I first used the nuva ring in the summer of 2005. I was in a terrible relationship with an alcoholic and not living a very healthy lifestyle. I had good reasons to be depressed and did not link my emotional intensity to my new birth control. I remember, shortly after starting the nuva ring, my depression and helplessness intensified to the point of becoming suicidal. I did not even want to get out of bed and sometimes did not. Then, by some miracle or grace of God, I had a great job offer that took me to a new city. I finally broke from my relationship and bad habits and felt positive I was out of the funk I had been in. However, I often speculated that the nuva ring had something to do with my intense sadness.

In my new life I started dating a wonderful guy and have a great new career. About September 2006 I came off the nuva ring and have been using the rhythm method. We are getting married in May 2008 and my doctor recently put me back on bc so I won't end up huge and pregnant at my wedding. It has been 2 weeks back on the nuva ring, after one year of being off, and I am extremely depressed, full of anger, rapid mood swings (within the hour), crying uncontrollably, deep sadness and loneliness, and feelings of suicide. All in two weeks. Does that sound like a woman who is getting married and has a good career? NO!!!! I just canceled appointments at work and am jeopardizing my job because I feel so out of control. I don't want clients to vibe off of my freak-out, psycho mode. And, although my fiance and I are experiencing typical stress, none of my feelings are being taken serious by him because my behavior is so awful.

Two weeks ago everything in my life was wonderful. Now, it is un-threading. The power of these hormones is too much to handle. When I experience depression with out the nuva ring, I do a great job of countering out my depression with my cognitive behavioral skills. But, on the nuva ring, I feel powerless to control my depression. I am going right now to take out this ring. I do feel like I pushed through the depression the first time. But I had all of these positive things thrown my way. I don't have time for this damaging interference in my life. I'd rather have a baby! So, if you are prone to depression, or depression runs in your family, I would stay far away from the nuva ring. The company who manufactures the nuva ring should conduct more studies about the affects in patients prone to depression. My thoughts of suicide are so casual and vivid I am scared. I am scared a sweet young woman is going to kill herself if they are not educated that the severity of their depression is due to their birth control!

I have been on Coumadin for about 2 months now after surviving a cerebral sinus venous thrombosis (blood clot on my brain - akin to a stroke). I am s 34 yo female who races triathlons and leads a very active healthy lifestyle. My side effects seem to be mild compared to what I read of others. I am on 5mg/day, except 1 day a week I take 10mg. My INR has been pretty stable. The side effects I notice are mild forgetfulness which I am hoping goes away as I start my 3rd year of law school next week! I also had some weird skin peeling on my hands, but that has subsided. I seem to urinate more often than normal and soda pop tastes weird to me now. Anyone else experience the frequent urination and/or taste issues?
Thanks!
Dana :)

I'm 35 and I've have had mild asthma since I was about 10 year old. At times I've been able to go weeks without needing to take anything, then stress, envirnoment triggers etc fire it up. I started taking advair 100/50 a couple of years back, and right now my breathing feels just about the worst it ever has. Without the advair I feel an uncomfortable tightness that I've never had before, a whole lot worse that the wheezing. Over the past couple of years I've lacked energy, been a lot more anxious and I've been warned of potential heart issues. I have a very healthy lifestyle and I assumed I was just getting older and more fragile...after reading these posts I'm seeing a possible connection.
Like some other people have said I sometimes feel like something is stuck in my throat / top of my lungs, it almost feels like phlegm but I can't cough it up.
I've stopped the advair for 3 days as of today, so far the tightness is managable, and the rescue inhaler is at hand (although I haven't had to use it yet). I'm hoping I can get back to previous drug free times.

hi, i used to have the same anxiety when i was on yasmin,i was convinced that i had something terrible and that i was going to die. i went to my doctors and had a complet check up and everything was fine. if i start to worry now i try to think positively and keep myself busy. do you have a healthy lifestyle? if not, try to eat healthy foods (organic if posible to avoid artificial hormones in meat etc) take a good vitamin supplement and excercise,the fitter you are the more confidence you will have in your body.it works i promise! please keep telling yourself when you get worried that you are fine and just keep reassuring yourself hopefully your mind will pick up this new way of thinking and will not keep drifting back to the negative patterns. i hope some of that helps you.

I'm 20, very healthy, ho heart problem history on either side of my family, so I am fairly sure they will go away by themselves with a healthy lifestyle (hopefully!!!). However, if you are continuing to have them after 3 mo it may be a good idea to get it checked by a doctor. Did you ever have them before Yasmin? Remember, it may be something else, and not just the hormones. I pay very close attention to what I eat and try to work out, cardiovascular mostly, as much as I can (I'm a health freak) and I'm sure that helps the heart get back to normal. My doc also gave me magnesium supplements for the heart--DON'T TAKE THEM BEFORE YOU CHECK WITH YOUR DOC--I think they really help me.

Good luck!