L carnitine symptoms and conditions

I have been taking 20mg of Simvastatin every night for about 4 years now and after coming across this site I have decided to stop taking it. I have been feeling particularly unwell for a couple of days, decided to do some research and can't believe what I am reading on this site! For the last year I have suffered terrible pain and loss of movement in my neck shoulders and arms and shooting pains in my legs along with muscle tics. More recently dizzy spells and quite severe tinnitus and headpain and fatigue. I have also found that my muscles tire very quickly when doing the smallest of tasks i.e: changing a duvet cover! The night sweats are particularly bad which I have been putting down to my age but may be to do with the statins. I am praying that these symptoms will reverse once I stop taking them but remain skeptical after reading other peoples comments on here!

33 year old, 125lb female with cholesterol of 234. I was put on Simvastatin 40mg, which I took fot 3 night only. All hell broke loose, insomnia, hands are numb, severe joint/back pain, extreme weakness... The thing is, I took it for 3 nights & realized it wasn't for me. I've been off of it for 3 weeks, but the symptoms still persist, rendering me pretty much dead.... I was told by a few that putting me on 40 mg to start off probably did the job... Three week of living hell & my primary physician don't have answers for me!

My mother, who is in her early 70's, is diabetic and had high cholesterol. She had been taking Lipitor and the doctor increased her dosage. She was experiencing muscle pain for some time, especially when she woke in the morning. The muscle pain worsened and her muscles became very weak. She had been complaining to her doctor for some time. It took a chiropractor to suggest it was the Lipitor. Her doctor finally ordered blood work and her enzyme levels were at 9500. She was immediately hospitalized, tests run and IV's given to flush the Lipitor from her system. She was expected to slowly recover. After weeks, her levels dropped to 6500 then began to rise. Her doctor now says her muscle damage is permanent and plans to give her prednisone to stop the inflammation. This muscle damage is a terrible "side effect" for a drug that was supposed to help her. She can hardly get up or down from a sitting or lying position, can hardly walk and her lifestyle has been severely curtailed. She is also exhausted all the time.

I am generally classed as an active, happy and positive person, loving life.... but the last 4 months have been a blinking nightmare....
It seems we all pretty much have the same symptoms, horrid shoulder pain, muscle soreness, spasms, feet and generally feeling like "what the??" is where we are all at..horrid thoughts of MS? Motor Neurons, Parkinsons, etc. all sorts of possible sinister problems.
I too have stopped taking Lipitor only a week ago (and I only started back in October 2008 after "arguing with my doctor for many years not wanting to take it...and i didn't even know about the horror side effects, i just thought it was totally unnatural to strip the body of something almost totally,).. within 2 months I started showing signs of chronic neck C5/6/7 and left shoulder. Maybe I had injured myself once before and suffered pinched nerves, but the pain eventually went, but this is not normal or should I say usual...... I have constant buzzing of left thumb/forefinger and hand and my right leg. NEVER NEVER have I suffered from this type of symptom before in my entire 50 years... Even some days when the spasms are at their worst I get an itchy nose and tingling lips. The scariest symptom of a white flash in my left eye convinced me...So fed up with it and after stumbling on all the negative comments and side effects with this drug I made to decision to take control of my own life. It is too uncanny....As I said, it's only a week now free of Lipitor, I have increased my Vitamin C intake and making sure I take a Mega Multivitamin daily too. There is some interesting reading in various websites of Vitamin C vs Statins...

BUT it would really be nice to read any comments of people who have recovered from these rotten symptoms and what sort of time frame it took to get over them. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for us all. Some indication of Recovery period is probably our greatest "want to know"... and also...when will i be able to enjoy cycling again. Thank you to everyone for the input and may our strength be returned, not only physically but spiritually as well. :-)

I have only been on Synthroid for 2 months, but my appetite is out of control. I read that gaining weight might be a side effect of Synthroid. You would think that you would lose weight with it since it makes your thyroid run more efficiently. My TSH is 4.3, still normal, so I don't guess I really need it yet. I am going off of it and going to the health food store and take Thyroid support.

Hi, I've never posted on one of these sites but here goes... Lamictal does indeed affect some vital nutrients. They are biotin, b12, b6, L-carnitine, folic acid, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin K. My hair started falling out in clumps. I had my levels checked and I was VERY low on biotin, and L-carnitine. I was also low on zinc. I dropped my dosage from 150 to 100 to 75 to 50. With doctors approval. I started taking centrum silver and skin, hair, and nail vitamins and my hair stopped falling out and is starting to regrow. I am now back up to the 125 level and feeling better. I also started taking L-carnitine and that has helped as well although it had nothing to do with my hair loss. As to the other side effects...I have headaches, and neck stiffness, and sex headaches at the 100 plus level. And a buzzing/ vibrating in my right ear. For the migraines I take Advil. DO NOT TAKE TYLENOL WITH LAMICTAL. It lowers the level of lamictal in your system. I only take Excedrin when I must. I know this is long. I hope it helps. Even with all the side effects I still will take lamictal. It has made a huge difference for me. ( I also have occasional nausea and dizziness.) Hope this helps.

I was taking Lovastatin until the VA told me that it was not on their formulary any longer and I had to take Simvastatin. Within a couple months my feet started burning and a numbness began creeping up my legs. I began falling, staggering and lost the ability to walk without two canes. I thought I was in the early stages of MS or ALS and feared I was dying. My fiance' did research on the internet (Spacedoc.com) and discovered that the symptoms I was suffering from were the result of Statin Poisoning (don't take my word...look it up) I took myself off the Simvastatin at the doctors request and began taking 4 1000mg of Omega 3 Fish Oil, 2 50mg CoQ10, 1 50mg L Carnitine, a multi vitamin, and 1 81mg coated aspirin per day. I still have numbness in my legs and some burning in my feet one and one half years later. My Neurologist has told me (and written a letter to the effect) that I am permanently disabled...that this will never go away. Statins (all Statins) are poison...don't take them....the pharmacutical companies only push them to make MONEY they don't care about you or your health. If you need more information contact me anytime and I'll be happy to share any research I have. ******

I have been on Zocor for one year. I am a former athlete used to dealing with pain associated with playing and training at a high level. Since using Zocor, my energy level has decreased significantly, very tired, before, during and after workouts. Muscle pain specifically in my neck, back and legs has significantly increased without cause. I have a constant feeling of a stabbing pain in my abdomen, accompanied with nausea, bloating and abdominal gas. After seeing some of the posts on this site, has there been a lot of reporting of abdominal pain? Bloating? Gas?
I too, have had trouble sleeping, accompanied by unexplained itching, and now after seeing these posts probably some mild depression. I believe I've had some short term memory loss - but then I can't really remember - LOL. Is the drug worth it? Physicians all seem to downplay the side effects, justifying the desired lower cholesterol, as more important than the side effects.........is it?
At 46 years old and formerly a competitive athlete at an elite level, I'm wondering if feeling better by NOT taking the drug is better than feeling worse and taking it. My training regimen was very intense prior to starting Zocor - NOW - it seems as if I can't keep up any longer. Any response to these problems would be greatly appreciated.

I take 200mg a day (100mg in the morning and 100mg at night) for seizures. It has been my miracle drug. Granted the side effects were awful. But I did my research before starting it again. I had taken it previously for migraines and couldn't tolerate it. If you take the appropriate vitamins while taking it you can help to alleviate a lot of the side effects that you may have. Topomax can absorb some critical vitamins out of your body which causes some of the side effects. The vitamins that I take are: a high dosage of a Super B Complex (tingling, numbness, fatigue, speech). L-Carnitine (memory loss), Biotin (hair and skin). There is another website with postings similar to this which is where I discovered other patients taking Topomax that had discovered using the vitamins helped. Once I got on a good regimen of vitamins it made a big difference. I still experienced and am experiencing weight loss (but I just had a baby) so I am not really upset about that. LOL Anyways, I hope that information helps someone out there. It sure did help me. If I can find the research link that had the vitamin listing that it depreciates I will post it.

I began 50 mg Toprol XL 2 years ago then reduced to 25 mg when palps and blood pressure normalized. Had trouble sleeping. Back in August, I began taking the generic version Metoprolol. One day I couldn't feel my index finger and thumb on right hand and immediate began to worry. I also began feeling depressed and was having terrible panic attacks. Sleeping was non-existent. Also, my chest felt as if it was on fire. Throat closed up and had difficulty breathing. Went to Walgreens nurse and she looked at me funny and said it was allergies to try Claritin and Flonase. DID NOT HELP! Went to the Dr. and he too chalked that up to allergies and gave me a shot. That relieved the breathing symptoms but nothing else. He told me numbness was tendonitis and gave me a "pretty brace." Numbness and tingling did not improve in fact went into other arm which caused me alarm. I went to chiropractor for help...nice massages but still numbness! Then my hands and feet started going cold...I'd had it. Went back to Dr and he put me on Xanax for panic attacks, told me I was depressed and need to see a psychiatrist for mood altering meds. I was ready to slug him! The numbness and tingling are insane! The Dr. to appease me switched me back to Toprol XL...no relief then tried Atenolol. The thing is for a few days while the insurance was figuring out what to pay for, I didn't take meds and began improving. Tried Atenolol and symptoms came right back. Called Dr and was told to just stop altogether...no weaning. Terrible tightness in chest could not breathe...miserable and scary. The next day I got a little better. Sleep improved somewhat but still having trouble with muscles tingling in feet up to knees and muscle cramping in right calve and for arms. Wondering how long this stuff stays in system. Seems to me I should be done...I have been off 17 days and am looking for relief for muscles symptoms...also looking for new Dr...anyone out there know how long this stuff hangs out in your muscles and stuff?????

There are presently 56 pages of complaints about lisinopril.

Reading through them, there are a number of people who have weight issues due to lisinopril. I have had them myself. I used to be able to control my weight by just jogging a bit more, but while on lisinopril - and for a long long time after, no amount of jogging helped. I also started feeling more and more exhausted and finally couldn't even sustain a minimum amount of jogging.

You should consider getting off lisinopril before you catch any of the other side effects, as they can be debilitating and extremely long lasting, perhaps permanent (even after quitting).

You might consider supplementation with L-Carnitine or Acetly-L-Carnitine for increased energy and fat burning metabolism. (I have also found L-Glutamine to be helpful on my stomach - the lisinopril gave me lots of stomach problems, among other things.)

My opinion of one thing that's going on with the lisinopril is that it places a heavy (detoxification) load on the liver, and as a result the liver is not able to produce the same level of the so-called "conditional nutrients", such as L-Carnitine (important for fat burning metabolism) and N-Acetly-Cysteine (important for lung health, e.g. to fight the cough). As this medication shifts the primary function of the liver from normal operation to heavy detoxification, it also uses up valuable minerals, such as zinc and manganese, and vitamins, such as vit-b group. Eventually, these nutritonal depletions will result in some complex side effects, energy, and health issues (in addition to the other more directly-caused side effects like the cough).

I also believe that supplementation is the best way to get some of these nutrients. You'd have to eat a ton of food (and gain weight, which is counter productive to hypertension and other health issues) to get the specific nutrients that are being depleted.

Best of luck to all.