Scientist symptoms and conditions

Depression! Wow. I'm the world's most upbeat person but I've been slipping down the emotional slope for the past three months; wondered if it was the Niaspan I started taking at the same time. The Niaspan web site doesn't list it as a side effect, though, so I thank you all for putting your comments on this web site. I've been ready to do anything (even drastic action) to deaden the emotional pain.

I'm a scientist and will now eliminate the medication to see if I begin to feel better. I'd rather feel good than lower my bad cholesterol. What would be the point?

Being a scientist, I am reluctant to say my symptoms are completely due to the statin (Crestor) that I've been on for 2.5 yrs. Started with a bulging/herniated disk in my lumbar region 4 months ago. Then increasing leg pain and major leg/foot cramping at night. Had my blood checked for electrolytes and CPK. Electrolytes were ok but elevated CPK (muscle breakdown enzyme). Doc took me off Crestor and now a month later, no cramping and much reduced leg pain. Am going in for a cholesterol check next week to see what the levels are. I wonder how much the Crestor played in my herniated disk. Certainly it has played a role in the leg pain and cramping as I no longer have it to the same degree. The FDA and surgeon general talk about putting everyone on statins. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Maybe CoQ helps, but I am done with statins.

Welcome a board singulairsurvivor. I received back an email from the woman at the lung association,she was of course sorry for our experiancr,and went on to say the scientist that reviewed the data were some of the best,and the association has no ties to any product.then as i am watching the updates on the hurricanes,i am inendated with singulair commercials as once again it is allergy season,so what a windfall for Merck that this article came out this month and not next....Coincidense i think not shame shame shame on you.To all those unsuspecting people about to get their prescription .i am sorry

My 6 y/o daughter has been taking Singular for approx. 2 years. She began to have regular stomach pains shortly there after. She was sent to Children's hospital where they put her on a laxitive which made things worse. Then we began testing for food allergies only to find out that she tested positive for a 3 page list of foods. We eliminated those food and had her tested again. She was subsequently allergic to the foods we eliminated. She was recently down to rice, a few meats and some vegetables. Guess what, she is now allergic to those foods.

All this time she has been complaining of severe leg pain, eye pain, throat pain, numbness and tingling in her hands a feet, all of which come an go. I have reported this to all the doctors and specialists we have seen. She had undergone countless blood tests to rule out autoimmune disorders and all come up negative.

She began to develop severe anxiety and just had the blues most of the time. She would be crying and saying off the wall things like, "I don't think my fish is happy". She couldn't stand to be away from me and would stress out about even weather or not she would sit by me at a restaurant. I mentioned this to all of the doctors. They said to not make too much of it. One suggested she see a psychologist. NOT ONE DOCTOR EVER LOOKED AT THE SINGULAR.

Finally about 4 weeks ago my neighbor who is a scientist at a pharmaceutical company called me and told me about the "black box" warning that had just come out on Singular. I took both of my children off of it immediately. My daughter went through about a 10 day period where her anxiety got worse and then it was just gone. We are adding foods back into her diet and at this point she has not had any severe allergic reactions.

The last 2 years have been a complete nightmare for her and for us. I am a medical professional and I have had doctors treat me like a hypocondriac, hypersensitive, attention seeking mother. I feel so justified and saddened by the recent findings all at the same time. Most of all I am so grateful that we figured this out before things go even worse.

Please let me know if anyone else is suffering food related reactions as a side effect.

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.

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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?

I just want to make another post about studying Singulair in premature babies. There is a person who is very dear to me that I remind practically every day that a scientist proves what is NOT true just the same as a scientist proves what is true. I have read hundreds of Merck studies on montelukast. Does anybody ever say - NO - not true? So with all those YES men behind them, Merck experiments on premature babies. Oh, my God. Where does this end?

I would like other people's opinion of Merck's study about using Singulair (montelukast) on neo-nates - premature babies. This absolutely freaks me out. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00492102?intr=%22Montelukast%22&rank=7

I have been taking OMEPROZOLE for around 9 months for Barretts Asophegus reflux.
In general I was beginning to feel I was very ill with symptoms mainly: hot flushes, my face was burning for a few seconds, dizziness, stomach cramps top right mainly, feelings of diareah, and dry mouth.
Has anybody else experienced any of these symptoms... my GP is sending me for a scan on my Gall Bladder, but in my mind all these cramps are associated with Omeprozole... I cannot stop taking it or I get severe pain between my shoulder blades with reflux burning.
Maureen.

After by-pass heart surgery in 2002, my cardilogist put me on 40mg of zocor.
I was in good health with no physical limitations. I had no heart damage. The restriction of heart arteries were found due to my stress test that was performed each year as a part of my annual Physical. After surgery I was on zocor for three years, during that time I experienced a little tiredness, little weakness, a little muscle aches. some tingling in my right arm and shoulder. I went to my heart doctor Jan. 2006 and he changed me to vytorin (10mg zetia and 40mg zocor). about 6 months all of the about symptoms got worse.
By Jan. 2007, my muscles became so stiff, I could not walk, had balance problems, severe muscle aches and cramps, numbness and tingling in both arms and hands, also stifness and pain in my hands, stiffness and pain in both feet, stifness and pain in my back and weird nerve sensations over my entire body. During Jan. and Feb 2007, I was seen by my family doctor, a neurologist, and a muscle doctor. Thanks to the internet, I found info on zocor and zetia, which is the drug vytorin. Warnings described the same symptoms I am experiencing. I stopped vytorin, I am not taking any statins drugs now. My doctor order a blood test to check for muscle damage, It indicated severe damage, a Creatine level of 770. This level should not be over 200. After being off the drugs for 30 days the creatine level dropped to 645. My condition has improved by 25%. I am walking a little better, but I still having muscle problems, there is improvement. I think there will be a very long recovery. There seems to be some evidence that these Statins affect people of age much more than the young. I am 70 years old. PLEASE PEOPLE, IF YOU ARE TAKING STATINS DRUGS, STOPPED NOW! SLOVE YOUR CHOLESTROL PROBLEMS BY OTHER MEANS. Since I stopped my cholestrol has gone from 157 to 280, but I am not going back taking these drugs. I am trying the natural way now. I have read post after post on many web-sites of people with the same symptoms that were using these drugs. The drug companies and the FDA are responsible for the the degradation of people's health taking these statin drugs.