Liver enzymes symptoms and conditions

I took myself off it after 3 months of taking it. I simply told my doctor that I will take no more statins. I had liver enzymes checked, but I had come off the drug 3 weeks before that. My enzymes were through the roof!
Needless to say, this drug is poison. Guess I'll eat avocados instead....
and they're a lot cheaper. My cholesterol is coming down without that poison. Exercise and diet...and if I can lose weight my numbers will be perfect. Hope you will all be blessed.

I had a small stroke associated with weightlifting--my neurologist put me on lipitor 80 mg (despite the fact that my cholesterol was totally normal)--now about 3 months later my liver enzymes have doubled and I have developed a heart arrhythmia I never had before. I have had to go to the emergency department twice from palpitations and diaphoresis

after taking levaquin for 5 days my eyes were yellow and have not whitened back since. it has been 1 month now. i am extremely tired. my bun has been greatly elevated along with liver enzymes. does anyone know how long it takes to get back to normal

Can Lisinopril raise my liver enzymes - my ALT keeps going up -
but the rest of the liver tests are normal

OK, So me and my husband decided to get Mirena b/c we got married in 05, a year later had our daughter, and a year later had our son. I feel like for us, if left to our own discipline, will just keep having child after child after child. Seriously, for us, it doesn't take long to get pregnant. I sympathize greatly with women out there who long to have babies but can't, I do... but I am just not one of them. Both of my pregnancies were so pleasant! No morning sickness with either child, about only 20 lbs of healthy weight gain, etc. For me, being pregnant is a blast. However, the aftermath that pregnancy has on my body is not so pleasant. I can safely say that I will NEVER wear a bikini ever again and I'm surrounded by friends who "bounce back" so quickly and are in bikini's two months after having their baby. In 05, the year my husband and I got married, at age 22, I was hospitalized, put on life support and had liver damage. I was jaundice, and my liver enzymes were through the roof. My doctors almost put me on a donor list. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with me but eventually concluded that I picked up a virus from a recent missions trip to Macedonia and that it would eventually flush itself out of my system. It did, to the glory of God. I get blood drawn yearly to check liver enzymes, and since I've been pregnant (thank God with healthy pregnancies and deliveries) I just figured I've been healthy. My husband has since graduated college and is starting a small business, and with a 2 year old and a 4 month old and the economy, we just DO NOT want more kids right now. Getting on Mirena seemed to be the best option for us. I read the pamphlet, asked around, and made my decision fairly quickly since my husband and I were already back at "it" 7 weeks after my son was born. Not smart, I know, but what can I say. I can say this: Mirena has not effected my sex drive. :) Insertion was not fun! I had bleeding for about 2 months, but my son was also exactly 8 weeks when I got it so my body wasn't exactly acting normally anyway. I heard to expect bleeding. No big deal. It eventually went away and now I've had it for about 3 months. The first couple weeks I was a BEAR! Has anyone seen the SNL skit for "Annuale," (or something like that)? That's exactly what I felt like. But that went away. My son is four months old and I feel like I am gaining a lot of weight. My husband and I picked up everything and moved across country for his job and that's been stressful, so I figured weight gain was due to that. I haven't had any depression or laziness, but I always feel exhausted. I figure it's from having a toddler and a newborn. I'm sure that's part of it. But I have a membership to Lifetime and I had a session with a trainer and they gave me a nutrition regimen and core exercises b/c my belly just doesn't seem to be going back down. I'm a petite person, but I have A LOT of body fat, since during my hospitalization I had severe muscle atrophy. This is not healthy! Mainly I don't want any more kids, at least for a while, b/c I want my health back! I want to be around for my kids! Lately I've been experiencing twinges and pains around where my liver is at and I can't seem to lose ANY weight. I feel like I'm only gaining. I know excess weight, especially in your core, carries with it a lot of health risks. I finally googled weight gain and liver side effects with Mirena and found this website. Reading all your posts I'm strongly considering getting Mirena taken out and making an appointment with an OB-GYN and a hepatologist (liver doctor) just to make sure everything is OK. I need to lose weight! But I really don't want to have any more kids! I'm afraid to get off of it. I'm afraid to stay on it. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions??

I'm just in shock.
I can't believe that this sort of thing can go on.
My experience is all over this page. And the seven after it.

I graduated high school with a 99 GPA and was at the top of my class.
I was accepted to medical school along with my admission to college.
I started Yasmin at the same time.

All of a sudden I was getting classic migraines multiple times every month.
Soon, Yasmin became Yaz. Okay, fair enough, nurse says to switch, I'll switch. Yaz is said to be safer.

Time goes by... I'm irritable, I've lost my sex drive, I'm dragging myself out of bed in the morning if I get to classes at all, but I miss lots of them.
My GPA falls from a 4.0 to a 3.6.

I had to come home last semester because of how sick I was. Nurse says that the doctor wants me off Yaz because of the risk of classic migraines.

Liver enzymes were screwed up - fatty liver at 20?? - and cholesterol is backwards. My heart races a lot, too.
My anxiety is out of control and I'm depressed for the first time in my life.

I've been off Yaz since November of 2008 and still haven't had a period.
Additionally, I still haven't MET my gynecologist, despite asking repeatedly if I can see her.

Now she's ruled out PCOS and all other causes and wants me to "jump start" my period with more synthetic hormones.
This feels so wrong.

I have IBS, nausea, back pain, and abdomen pain. This is all just too much. I'm disillusioned with the medical field now and am having a hard time accepting that I wanted to put myself in a position in which I'd have to either perpetuate the problem or fight it. It doesn't make sense.

There needs to be a lawsuit, and now.

My husband has been on metoprolol for 2 yrs. His blood pressure was around 145/95. Otherwise he was very healthy. Now he is 50 lbs overweight, borderline diabetic, and his liver enzymes are double and his triglycerides are triple. His doctor told us she wants to send him to a liver specialist. I have been doing some research of my own and now feel its the meds. He will be going of this starting today and I will let you know how his next blood work is. Please have your liver enzymes tested. Don't want this to happen to anyone else.

I am only 42 years old and have been on zocor for the past 30 months. I've had mild tingling in my feet and achy joints along with slightly elevated liver enzymes and fatigue since then. Ever since my doctor increased the zocor to 80 mg per day ( because although my cholesterol level is normal, my triglycerides are still very high) , I feel like I am 100 years old! All my joints ache so bad and my feet and hands alternately tingle or feel very cold! I am also having trouble focusing when I look from something close up to something far away! I am also clumsier and more forgetful. Could these symptoms be caused by coenzyme-Q deficiency?

THIS STUFF IS TOXIC! Was prescribed by my OB/GYN for UTI. Took 1st dose on Tues nite, then again next morning with food, etc - by that afternoon, I could not get up out of the chair and began running temp of 102F. I had no symptoms before starting this drug. Called Dr., said this is not possible from this drug - could be a virus, so continue taking it. Visited my GP after 3 days of taking this, he said the same, and my liver enzymes are elevated. The more of this I got in my system the worse I got - fever would not go away, intense sweating at night, insomnia, and the worst had to be the body pains in my legs, chest, arms and hips. On the 4th day in, I swear I was dying and was ready to go to the ER. I would rather live with the UTI than this, so I stopped taking them. Lo and behold all the symptoms disappeared within a few hours. Scares me to think what would have happened had I completed the 10 day dosage!!! I have allergies to penicillin and lots of other antibiotics, so my choices are limited, but this one is for sure off the list.

My dr. put me on Lipitor. I took it for 4 months. At the 4 month mark, I was SO depressed, I couldn't function. Crying constantly, no concentration..almost like I was in a trance most of the time. I had problems finding the correct words to use, was paranoid about everything and everyone. I actually thought I must be in the early stages of Alzheimer. Honestly..I didn't know what was wrong with me. I had an actual "pain" in my heart and pins and needles feelings in my fingers and hand on the right side. My forearm became terribly "achy". I went back to the dr. and she said.."oh, I think you're depressed!" Gave me a prescription for celexa (anti-depressant, and sent me on my way. I went home..decided that I WAS NOT going to take an anti-depressant and began to do a little research on the lipitor. Amazingly..I couldn't believe the info that I found with people who had the same symptoms as me! I stopped taking it immediately and within 2 days..my depression and paranoia went away. However I am left with such weakness and pain in my rt. forearm and bicep as well as both shoulders. I went back to the dr. and explained what I had done (guess I shouldn't have mentioned about what i had read on the internet) Because she wouldn't believe that the lipitor would cause that and also said that I had been off of it long enough now(4 months at that point), that any pain that i was experiencing would be all gone! She wouldn't believe me and made me feel like I was crazy!! So..now not sure what to do. Will the pain go away, I wonder? Is there a way to "detoxify" one's self to rid us of all the bad stuff or is the muscle damage permanent and does it keep on going and just keep destroying the muscles, even though we've stopped taking the stupid stuff?? I wish someone could come up with an answer, because I don't know who to go to ask. I can't believe how weak my arms have become since taking it. Will it ever improve I wonder?

After starting NuvaRing a year ago, my 1st 2 periods were much heavier than usual. Now I go through 2-3 tampons throughout my whole cycle. I've had acne for >10 years, and it wasn't as effective in helping my skin.

Other than that, it's been the greatest thing since the invention of birth control. I take several medications which compete for liver enzymes, such as an anticonvulsant, and am often on antibiotics (related to the acne). Plus, I don't have to worry about an oral contraceptive being less effective. And the sex is great!

Hi....I am a 48 year old male just starting on Lisinopril 10mg daily. Have taken it for 7 days now. Blood pressure before was 184/120 in the doctors office. Have seen it spike to 200/129 at the dentist plus 220/149 at the Oral surgents office removing a tooth. First day of taking Lisinopril it knocked down my BP too 123/75 thought that was great. Since has mellowed out now at 140/90. Im sure on my second visit the DR. will up my dosage which I will question. So far reactions have been that scratchy throat right of the bat that everyone discribes. Plus my stomach just groals the first hour as it trys to disolve. Takes about 4 hour before I can see it lowers my pressure any. Have been trying different times of the day best I can to find the best time to take it which I now have settled on right after noon lunch about 1 hour works best. I also have had alot of tiredness from it, which is different from the weakness I also get from a condition they say I have called N.A.S.H. (non alcholic steatohepatitis ) which basically is too much fat in your liver that drains me of energy worse each year. But why I bring that up is the feeling is different a tiredness compared to a weakness feeling I dont seem to like. The weakness I can jack away with some caffine but this tiredness nothing seems to help so far. Have had some dizzyness getting up which is something I can live with til it makes me faint or fall at some point then I surly will cry wolf get me off this. Getting blood work done soon to see how it affects my liver counts will update you on that later.

My husband was recovering well from hepatitis A. He's been bothered by some GERD-related digestive problems so he tried OTC Omeprazole because he didn't find any contraindications for liver conditions on it. He took 20 mg daily for 3 days, suddenly felt too full and had no appetite, stopped it but tried again 3 days later when he started having stomach discomfort again. On the 4th day he complained of stabbing pain in his stomach. The next day he was exhausted, bloated,and had a tickling irritation in his throat, and swelling in his feet. He'd had none of these symptoms before taking Omeprazole. I did some research on the Web (at physician's sites) and learned that it is very bad for people with liver problems -- it suppresses key liver enzymes and remains in the body for a very long time. That's been 10 days ago now and his symptoms continue -- mostly fatigue, bloating and swelling in the feet. He never experienced ANY of these things before taking Omeprazole! I see by postings that many people do experience these symptoms for a very long time.

Some good news re: my concerns in my Drs. note (posted the other day) "some buildup" and why such a high dose 40mg. of this poison?. I actually received something from the cardiologist on Fri. which made me feel much happier. 'NO SIGNIFICANT ABNORMALITIES - MILD CHOL. PLACQUE BUT NO SIGNIFICANT BLOCKAGE SEEN' so you can imagine how much better I felt - I had already made the decision to not take the Statins, but that report absolutely convinced me. If you haven't already had a doppler on your carotids, do so, it can ease your mind, since we're always being told we're clogging up our arteries with just about anything and everything, we're gonna have a stroke, etc. all these scare tactics. It's not an expensive test (about $80, not sure what will be added to that, as to cardio. reading the results), but worth it. Read up on the Red Yeast Rice - I've read several articles from several well known medical websites - it seems it actually can work better than Statins! Get off this stuff people, more risk than having a stroke!

My 5 1/2 year old son began taking 4mg Singulair in the p.m. and an inhaler (asmanex) in the a.m. We were still having trouble controlling the asthma and his Sing dose was raised to 5mg. & within 1 week of the increase he began having terrible facial tics and aggravated behavior (defiant, poor listening, easily frustrated and angered) The tics were in the form of opening and closing his mouth, as if you were trying to clear your clogged ears after a plane flight. This caused him much pain in his jaws and facial muscles, so he would tic and then cry as he was in pain. This ramped up his anxiety and it made the ticking worse. He has been off of all asthma medication (cold turkey) for 5 full days. He has episodes where the tics happen for 10 min -1/2 hr, other times during the day it is one here and one there. He does not want to leave the house to do anything, even his favorite activities. Thank god I found this site (and others like it), as I got some answers and some hope. We went to see my cousin this week who is a neurologist and he never heard of the correlation of Singulair and neurologic side effects like these. He said that (hopefully) the medication side effects will cycle through and resolve the ticking and behavioral changes. If not we are probably looking at a Tic Disorder which is in the Tourettes Family.He put my son on a very low dose of Klonopin to mellow out his anxiety and help reduce the tics, but has only been on it for 1 1/2 days and it usually takes a wk or 2 for full absorption and results.I have since sent him and my pediatrician and allergist links to this site and others. I think that I see some improvement in my son, yesterday I thought he did better and my husband thought it was a worse day, I think we have totally lost our perspective and objectivity on this. If anyone out there has a time frame on when they saw significant recovery and positive changes I would love to hear from you. This is a total nightmare and if it is this drug, someone is going to pay. My prayers go out to all who are going thru this.

Heres my Levaquin horror story:

In hospital for bowel obstruct. Took LevaQ. at home. 1/2 way through I noticed I wasn't feeling any better but worse while recovering. Starting sleeping for 3 hr intervals, while up I would feel as if I wanted to jump out of my skin. Calf pain. Dizziness. Intermittent instenseTingling around mouth and face. Called my MD.
I was put back in hospital due to a platelet count of 'one million'. My MD who is wonderful, consulted with others, even an oncologist. I refused a bone marrow aspiration, so they came up with a game plan -- possible reaction to the Levaquin???? So... 'flush out the Levaquin'. With each day of continuous mass flushing of IV fluids....my platelets decreased daily.
3 years later...I getting intermittent tingling, flu like symptoms, dizziness, heart palpitations, extreme fatigue-------------still looking for answers to my illness. Just had more blood work - lymphocytic profile was drawn, waiting on results. Definitely am anemic, chronic slight rise in liver enzymes with last sed rate and wbc count in norm range.

My 12 year old son started on Singulair 10 days ago. Yesterday, he threw up blood twice, so I took him to urgent care. He said it felt like someone was shoving knives into his stomach. He had blood tests and a CAT scan -- the connective tissue in his abdomen was inflamed and his lymph nodes are slightly enlarged. His white blood cell count is up slightly -- just above normal -- and his liver enzymes are elevated, which the doctor said is common with a viral infection. He has also had migraine-type headaches twice in the last week. HOWEVER: my 16 year old son has been on Singulair for four years, and it has been a lifesaver. He has had some hand tremors, which could also be aggravated by the decongestant he also takes, but no other side effects.

15 years ago, at the age of 35, I had a major heart attack. After testing, the doctors decided I needed a quadruple bi-pass operation, followed by Lipitor, among other things. I was taking 20mg (the doctor ordered 40mg), but due to financial reasons I took only half. Everything was just great for 15 years. During a routine annual physical this year, my doctor noticed that my liver enzymes were off the chart high. He immediately had me discontinue the Liptor, but stay on all of my other medications. One month later, my liver enzymes were normal, and so was everything else; however, my cholesterol had climbed to 204, and I eat no meat, eggs, or other dairy products. They say my liver damage is permanent. Having had 4 lumbar surgeries and 1 cervical surgery to fuse disks in my spine, I have always attributed my back and other muscle pains to that. Now that I have been of the Lipitor for 3 months, I have not noticed in decrease in pain in these areas.

Brought a box of lactaid ultra last week. I took a few pills Thursday and Friday, I was o.k. Starting on Sunday, my stomach started hurting so bad, I had to be rushed to the ER. They did X-Rays & Cat Scans, nothing found except my liver enzymes were a little high. II am about to go get some Kaopectate and never use the ultra lactaid tablets again. My stomach is still in pain every morning.

I am a male of 67 years old. I took Lipitor for a year, and after a few months of taking it, I felt muscle pains in my arms and shoulders, as well as my back. I felt weak and could hardly put my socks on by myself. I told my family doctor that I thought the problem was caused by LIpitor. He said it couldn't be possible, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he sent me to a rheumatologist, who gave me an initial diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica. I went back for a checkup, and although the sed rate was normal, the C-reactive protein was elevated. He felt his diagnosis was an accurate one. He prescribed prednisone for me. I had some doubts about it, since I am diabetic, and was concerned about the elevated blood sugar it might cause. Well, it did elevate my blood sugar, and I weaned myself off it within three months. My blood sugar went back to normal, and while the prednisone helped the symptoms of muscle pain and aches, after I stopped it, the pain returned with a vengeance.

About a year passed after discontinuing the prednisone, and I felt worse and worse. Any time I engaged in physical activity, such as yard work, I was almost incapacitated for two or three days. I felt weaker and weaker, and by now, my activity is about ten per cent of what it was three or four years ago. I am unable to do anything physical without paying a heavy price.

I would tell the doctor that I felt the problem was caused by the Lipitor. He would dismiss my comments, saying that the pain should have gone away after discontinuing Lipitor. He sent me back to the rheumatologist with results of recent blood tests. Both the sed rate and C-reactive protein were normal. The rheumatologist touched my back and other areas, which caused me to jump. He said it might be fibromyalgia. I told him again that I thought it was caused by the Lipitor. He said the same thing my GP had said: if it had been the Lipitor, the pain would have gone away when I stopped taking it. I know the Lipitor caused the pain, because I tried red yeast rice for a couple months. The pain increased to almost unbearable, so I discontinued the red yeast rice. If I were not susceptible to the pain from the Lipitor, would the red yeast rice have increased the pain?

So here I am with a fuzzy diagnosis from the rheumatologist, and no clue from my family doctor (that he will verbalize, at any rate). My life has gone steadily downhill. I used to be a strong, active person, but now I can do very little, and my strength is a shadow of what it formerly was. What can I do?

Here is my Mirena Story.

I was 6 weeks post partum....I had mirena inserted...it was very painful and I was not warned about that.
About a week later I noticed yellowing in the whites of my eyes which I thought could be coming from a iron def. since I just gave birth. So I made sure I was eating well and taking vitamins. I also had severe itching at night especially on my ankles and legs. Oh and sex drive was gone. It was fine the 6 weeks after birth but as soon as mirena was in it was gone!!! I went to the doctor about a month after insertion and asked to have it removed, of course my doc said it couldn't be iud causing my problems...come back in a month...So I did....within this month I started having severe anxiety, insomnia and panic attacks, to the point were I actually thought I was loosing my mind. Of course again the doc told me that it wasn't iud and prescribed me an antidepressant which I reluctantly excepted. I'm not depressed...my life was perfect before mirena!!! I finally went back for the third time and decided I wasn't leaving until somebody took this thing out of me!

Here is a list of other side effects that I had/still have!!

acne
migraines
extreme lower back pain
numbness and tingling in hands and feet
vision problems
fogginess
An ADHD type feeling
inability to focus or concentrate
extreme fatigue
feeling of throat closing up
heart racing and palpitations
night sweats
sinusitus
dizziness and light headiness
headache

The problem here is that the doctors don't even know how extreme these side effects can be and they keep telling us that it's not the mirena. PLEASE trust your instinct.....I wanted to trust my doctor but I knew in my heart what was causing my problems...I am only 1 week post mirena and I am still having a lot of my problems but I can tell a difference. DON'T LET IT GET OUT OF HAND....TAKE IT OUT!!!!

DON'T GET MIRENA...IT MAY WORK WELL FOR SOME...BUT IN MY OPINION IT IS NOT WORTH THE CHANCE THAT THESE HORRIBLE SIDE EFFECTS COULD HAPPEN.....HAD I BEEN INFORMED PROPERLY I WOULD HAVE NEVER HAD MIRENA INSERTED!!

Good Luck Ladies!!

Montelukast toxicity in two patients with inherited defects in liver enzymes.

CASE REPORT: MONTELUKAST-INDUCED ACUTE CHOLESTASIS

Ajay Jain1, Flavio Habal2

1Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, Ontario; 2Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

INTRODUCTION: Drug-induced liver disease may occur as an unexpected idiosyncratic phenomenon to a normally non-hepatotoxic drug or be an expected consequence of the intrinsic hepatotoxicity of a drug consumed in sufficiently large doses to cause liver damage (eg. acetaminophen). We describe the first two cases ever reported of acute cholestasis as a result of the administration of montelukast (SingulairÒ, Merck Frosst), a potent and specific cysteinyl leukotriene (LTD4) receptor antagonist, for the treatment of chronic asthma.

CASES: Patient 1 was a 36-year-old female who developed a low- grade fever, fatigue, nausea and a diffuse urticarial rash after treatment with montelukast for chronic asthma. She had marked liver enzyme abnormality with a predominantly cholestatic pattern. Peripheral blood analysis revealed eosinophilia. Patient 2 was a 43-year-old female who developed fatigue after initiation of montelukast. Routine blood-work revealed mild elevation of transaminases and alkaline phosphatase, all of which were normal prior to taking the drug. In both patients, all signs, symptoms and biochemical parameters normalized upon discontinuation of montelukast.

Metabolism of montelukast occurs by cytochromes P-450 3A4, 2C9, and 2A6. Patients that have demonstrated idiosyncratic toxicity, as in these two cases with montelukast, have inherited defects in detoxification enzymes. We propose that the toxic metabolite, acyl glucoronide, is responsible for montelukast-induced liver injury. A genetic basis for deficiencies in various hepatic detoxification enzymes likely accounts for an individual’s susceptibility to drug-induced liver disease.

CONCLUSION: We suggest that montelukast and possibly other leukotriene receptor antagonists may result in idiosyncratic hepatic drug reactions.

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?

Some common sense observations about Singulair side effects. (As everything on the internet, this is only my opinion.)

Conclusion up front: Ethics in science SUCKS these day. Put enough money on the table and what happens? I don’t mean all scientists, just the few. But, the Merck ghost writers are the tip of the iceberg for those in the schm#ck category. Maybe, if we reveal the extremes of abuse of laboratory animals, the ASPCA will organize and save us all. How about if they find out about the pharma labs that just beat the cr@p out of the lab animals to produce a stress response to find out what chemicals are produced? What was that all about?? Probably military—send our soldiers out to war over politics/oil, then we will have a pill to give them every night to put them back together again for the next day??

1.The cysLT1 receptor, which Singulair blocks, is a gene, found on the x chromosome (?), part of our inherited innate immune system. It is evolution. The hypersensitive individual overreacts to environmental stimuli causing unpleasant or dangerous symptoms. It is advantageous to intervene to prevent that. Merck’s idea was to block cysLT1 so that the chemicals secreted by the mast cell cannot reach the tissues in the lungs and nasal passages to cause the inflammatory responses-asthma being the more severe.

2.How did Merck develop such a drug? The cysLT1 receptor , a gene, has a profile, a chemical map of the components. Montelukast, was modeled to chemically bond with the receptor so that it does not function. That bond will endure until the liver enzymes break it down. Montelukast blocks the leukotriene response until it is time to take another pill. All that sounds good so far.

3.Now comes the first of the too good to be trues. Montelukast was formulated for a specific gene profile. However, cysLT1 has variations, numbers unknown, but more than several. Even Merck recognizes that it is not effective for everyone because the clinical data shows that. Mis-matches with the gene profile can cause montelukast to be recognized as an allergen. Then, the body mounts an immune response against montelukast.

4.Many of the symptoms that we see here are allergic reactions to montelukast, headache (18%), types of neuro-muscular (10%), hives, nausea, vomiting, leg pain, stomach cramps, and more. Some people will recognize montelukast instantly as an allergen. If the mis-match is slight, the allergic reaction could be acquired or build over time. Montelukast will ALWAYS be an allergen to those people. Doctors will do great harm if they treat allergic reaction to montelukast with other drugs. Those people must STOP taking montelukast.

5.The second too good to be true, is that cystLT1 receptor, involved in the leukotriene response, is only a very tiny part of the immune system, genetically programmed to function as a WHOLE. Now what? It is highly unlikely that montelukast can block the leukotriene receptor - cysLT1 in the brain, lungs, spleen, intestinal mucosa, etc. and not cause some kind of re-structuring of the immune system to compensate for that. Those who take Singulair can expect that they are a new adaptation of human being who can operate without the cysLT1 receptor. Or, they can expect long term damage. How scary is that?

6.What would happen if Merck revealed that montelukast, by definition , cannot work for everybody because it is based on a gene profile with variations? What would happen if patients and doctors started to think about the immune system as a whole? Then Singulair – which means “single thing you need for air – breathe” the logo is even Singul-AIR, would not be the huge money maker that it is. Doctors would find a way to use it, for whom it is effective, in an appropriate way to consider the long term effects. For some people, this drug could have a place. But this drug does not deserve to be a CASH COW-money, money, money!

7.What in the heck is wrong with the FDA? Are they under a spell or hiding under a rock?

April 27, 2008 9:21 PM
My dad has been taking Crestor for a few months now & he has complained of his left arm being numb for about a month now. It does not seem to get any better and now his legs are giving out on him. He says he can't hardly lift them to walk--like the are really heavy. I'm thinking this is side effects from the Crestor but the Dr. says it wouldn't cause that. They haven't ran any tests on him. After reading from several websites on Crestor I am convinced it is the culprit.