Mid thirties symptoms and conditions

I was on zyprexa for nearly 3 years. In that time I became very lethargic and disinterested in everything! I gained over 100 pounds and suddenly was sick all the time. I suffered from involuntary muscle spasms, light headedness and nausea with frequent vomiting. I had a rapid increase in cholesterol levels from a healthy level to an extremely high level. The Doctor ran all manner of tests and could not figure out the problem. After I started suffering heart issues, mind you I was in my mid thirties, he took me off the medication for a couple of weeks to see if that made a difference. Nothing changed! It took losing my job and health insurance to find out that the medication was, in fact, the culprit! I could no longer afford the meds, so went off them. It took 4 months for me to feel "normal" again and I've not suffered this symptoms since, although I've still not lost all the weight!
While I still suffer from extreme manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder, all my friends and family agree they're easier to deal with than the three years as a zombie! There is much of that time frame for which I have no recollection, it;s as though I lost 3 years of my life!

Yes, I gained weight, but I'm in my mid thirties, so I figured I was just getting older, metabolism slowing & all that, but my doctor began reducing my dose from 200 - 150. Good God! Such a small reduction, but I had explosive anger issues and I couldn't well contain my emotions. An ad in a magazine got me crying and I couldn't stop! I finally ended up with tremors and had to leave work. I didn't consider myself psychotic before. I took Seroquel for sleep and as a mood stabilizer. I always took it at night. Now I have been exhibiting some kind of psychoses. I hope my body is adjusting. Sometimes I only took 100 mg, saving the other 50 mg for emergencies. Can't do that anymore. Besides asking the doctor to increase my dose back to 200 mg, what can I do?

I'm aged 51 and have had high blood cholesterol for years, diagnosed in my mid thirties. Over the years I have tried changing diet but it didn't reduce tha bad cholesterol. Three years ago I decided maybe I better reduce the cholesterol as they say it clogs up you arteries etc. I went to the doctor and he put me on Lipitor and within a few months my levels were down to normal. I got joint pains in my hands, back, neck , legs and had sore heels after long walks. The doc then decided I'd go off the Lipitor to see if my levels stayed normal but they went back up. After a week the new pains had gone away. I came up with a plan to take 3 x 10mG a week rather than one each day and this worked with a lot less joint pain. The last test I had my levels are back up again so he put me back on 10mG a day and now three weeks later the pains have built back up and I don't like them. Desperate for a different solution I was listening to one of the Juice Plus promotions and something they said set me thinking. They said that having a high level of bad cholesterol doesn't always mean it will badly affect your arteries as it has to react with free radicals in your body to cause the damage. Their theory is that a diet rich in antioxidants will combat the free radicals and generally reduce the risk of disease which also includes any bad effects from high bad cholesterol. Now I'm wondering two things, how do I know if my high cholesterol is causing me any harm? is there a test I can get done to measure how it is or is not affecting me? Can anyone throw any more light on this?

Hello- I was Dx with Sarcoidosis in February, 2007. My lung specialist put me on 20mg Prednisone, increasing to 40mg within two weeks. My Sarcoid symptoms were from enlarged lymph- extreme trouble breathing, middle and lower back pain, kidney pain. Within a week of being at the 40mg level my heart rate and BP became so erratic that he had to start weaning me down. Initially I had extreme energy which felt good after suffering from fatigue but was short lived due to the cardiac problems.

The Prednisone has resolved much of my inflammation for the Sarcoid but I will not go on this again. I have been weaning now for over three weeks. Down under 5mg of Prednisone and it is almost unbearable. Each time I took a drop my mental symptoms became intolerable. Anxiety, extreme fatigue with extreme weakness, irrational thoughts, blurred vision. Within the last couple of days I could hardly get myself out of bed. My weight has increased steadily, bloating stomach, stiff joints, skin rash.

My biggest complaint is that doctors are not giving us enough information as to how this will affect from a negative side. Yes, it takes care of the inflammation but no one prepared me for these awful side effects and withdrawal symptoms. I feel like a nut case most of the time with no coping skills.

For Allie; I'm a middle aged male who has had asthma all my life. During my mid thirties it suddenly got very suddenly worse to the point of being life threatening. I had been treated all my life by many doctors as being allegic to rye grasses & chicken feathers. They also said that cold weather was a trigger. I wasn't getting exposed to these triggers & it was getting worse day by day. More visits to the doctor, who told me that it was because I was living in an area high in pollens. This dr introduced me to prednisolone & had me on it every day for 4 years. There was no improvement in my condition (i was actually getting worse & preparing myself for a short life) & the solone created a whole new range of health issues for me. Finally, I found a specialist who discovered the problem. I'm allergic to silicilates (i think that's how you spell it?) & sulphates. I removed them from my diet & my condition improved rapidly. It took me a further 2 years to wean off the solone without rebound! My point is; keep looking for the trigger/s until you find them all. If a doctor tells you it's one thing & removing that trigger dosen't fix it, keep looking! I'm sure that I am allergic to rye grasses & chook feathers, but not near as allergic as I am to tomato paste & wine. I mow lawns for a living these days & live a perfectly healthy life. My asthma is completely under control. So much for pollens & rye grasses putting me in intensive care!