Speculation symptoms and conditions

Hi,
I took BCPs continuously for over 10 years (I'm 36 now), with last 6 or 7 years on Yasmin. I felt great while on it, but there were I few changes in my health that prompted me to stop the Pill.
a) I developed high cholesterol and triglycerides. I am a runner and a healthy eater (mostly vegetarian, fats limited to olive oil); I check my blood lipids every year. Given my lifestyle, the doctors had the only remaining explanation that is must run in my family - but no, this is not a hereditary condition in my case. I did some online research and found out other women whose cholesterol and lipids shot up while on Yasmin or other BCP.
b) After many years of perfectly normal Pap smears, I developed first mild and then moderate cervical dysplasia. I underwent LEEP, which is a minor surgery to remove the diseased tissue, which went well, but the condition returned within several months. And now I've been referred to see an oncologist.
While the cholesterol -BCP link is a speculation at this point, the BCP link to cervical cancer is a well-known fact. My advice to those who consider getting on the pill: do it if you absolutely have to, but get off after 3-5 years, don't wait for 10 years to find out what it did to your health.

I am 34 years old. I am a pharmacy tech. I have asthma and allergies. I have taken singulair pretty much every day since it came out on the market. I've had asthma since i was about 10 years old. I took theophylline as a kid. Steriods on and off especially during times when my allergies are bad. I still use Advair during the fall and spring. Every drug has a side effect. However breathing is pretty good damn thing. Do I have days when I feel low? Yeah. Do I sometimes have nightmares? Yup. Are "natural" products the answer. Not always. The fish oil that some of the posters are touting can also cause GI problems. Some of the natural products contain herbs and other plant derivatives that can be harmful for a child that suffers from allergies. Not proactively treating asthma can be deadly. Some of the parents are suggesting steriods as the answer - those can cause weight gain, growth suppression and can lead to a worsening of asthma.

Singulair has never made me feel like I've wanted to kill myself. I was more depressed and angry as kid when my asthma did not allow me to partipate in normal childhood things. I was sad and hated life when I couldn't keep up with friends at recces because I was having trouble breathing. You have to outweigh the costs with the benefits. I am more irritable when I have asthma flareup then I am on a normal day. For me, I choose to breathe. And singulair has been helping me for almost a decade.

I'm not saying the medication isn't causing these symptoms but maybe there is an underlying cause to your child's depression.

Any drug has a side effect. But without medical research and the medications that come with them - people would still be dying of simple diseases and we wouldn't have vaccinations. As a society, as a whole, we are a culture that looks to someone else to fix things and then blames the people who try to fix it. We need to stop being the "hot McDonald's coffee'" society.

I was put on Singulair about three weeks ago, and noticed immediately that my mood had changed. I am an adult ,and felt this sense of sadness, anxiety, solitude, not wanting to be around anyone. I took myself off the drug and have tics all over my body and eyelids ,which is driving me crazy! I even had heart palpitations ,which are very distressing. Today it seems to be better, and this is day three off the med. The only way I can explain how I felt on this drug is doom and gloom.

I was searching for a site with the side effects of Singulair for my son who is 10 and has been taking Singulair since he was 2. It was a life-saving drug for him and his life has been wonderful since then (as far as asthma goes). He is a very athletic boy who plays every sport he can and he is still a little overweight with cellulite and love handles. I had heard that maybe it might be the Singulair so I decided to check it out. Little did I know about all of these other side effects. He's been taking it for so long that I assumed his depressed personality was just the way he was. He has also had such horrific nightmares and he's convinced he has a ghost in his room that shakes his bed that I was really starting to consider that maybe he might. His brother sleeps in the same room and does not have any of these experiences (also on Singulair). I am SHOCKED! I only read about 20 entries but I'm going to read more. Has anyone had the weight gain problem? Thank you for anything you can share.

I am almost 41, and have had migraine headaches most of my life which I could manage with 800mg of Naproxen Sodium, or a Norgesic Forte, and when Imitrex came out, I could just administer that. Six months ago, my headaches got so frequent that I had to start taking my Relpax (similar to Imitrex) and/or Fioricet more than 2X per week. According to my neurologist, this is a no no, as both of those meds can couse rebound headaches. He started me on Topamax, 50mg per day. It did nothing. He bumped it to a 100, nothing. Now I'm a 200 mgs, I am still have a migraine in left temple as I write this. I have the tingling, the daytime sleepiness, but my mind is fine, and my appetite is just swell (regretfully). What the hell am I going to do now? Ask him to bump me up to 400 mg? Now I have these headaches every "F"ing day, and I can't take anything. I just have to suffer.

Topamax is NOT working!!!!!

I've had Mirena for about 14 months now. Yeah, I HATE it.
The day they put it in, I was in the category where it took forever to place. Like 3-4 tries to place it. Thank God I'd had experience in handling this type of pain, having 2 children w/out epidurals.

I bled for 6 weeks straight, so the day I went for my follow-up, I stopped bleeding. Figures. I'm looking at the brochures in the office for a different type of contraceptive. The doctor thinks I'm stupid, why would I want to do that? Um, because it pokes my husbands penis head and I can see the red poke marks on it. So the doc trims the tail and loses a piece of it somewhere inside me. CRAZY!

The following month, I really started having low back pain. Then I herniate my L-5. I'm not sure that any of that is related to the IUD. Just speculating. Also speculation, I battled with thrush the entire 13 months I nursed my son. That was never the case with my first child.

So I go about a year with out a period that I can really speak of. Maybe some spotting, but I haven't thought about the thing much. Although, I don't remember ever having a positive thought about it. I could feel it during sex. I can't explain that feeling, but, it's like I could feel it poking my husband at times.

Now, I am having some CRAZY stomach bloat and I'm extremely exhausted. My back is still constantly hurting me. I'm spotting ALL the time. Mostly brown blood, though. Does that mean it's old blood? Every time I have sex, I will spot within the 2nd day. I've held off going to get it removed simply because I don't have insurance and am not looking to get pregnant again. However, I know that it needs to be done. There is something wrong inside me. I never had the weight gain issues other women had. But I am up 5 pounds right now and my belly looks to me like I'm 4 months prego. Matter of fact, I'll probably take a home test tomorrow so I don't have to pay for one at the GYNO.

Anybody know much about getting pregnant with an IUD? And why are doctors so gung-ho for IUD's? Is it because they are like $2000?

We have all been saying that our issues regard not being informed about all of the possible side effects. And, we know that Singulair works well for some people. Nobody wants to take a good drug away from those for which it probably performs miracles. People who have toxic side effects have a right to know up front.

My observations about montelukast's chemical structure are either general or not quite 100% correct or could be quite vague - so forgive me. I do not claim to be good at organic chemistry. But from doing a little work, I have come up with some observations.

1. It would seem to me that montelukast might work quite well for people who have developed mold category related asthma. I observed that chloroquinolin, a component of montelukast, is a good fungicide effective against Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Penicillium and Candida. Dust mites can only digest if helped by aspergillus so they go into the mold category. Molds produce millions of spores so anyone who lives in contact with mold would be chronically sick from their presence. Then people get hypersensitized to that.

I am probably wrong but I could imagine that montelukast is: 1) a ligand that binds to an empty cysLT1 receptor for a period of time 2) 7-chloroquinolin-2-yl which either acts intact or breaks down into a quinoline fungicide so that it kills the chronic mold/fungus infection and 3) a sulphur/methyl anti-inflammatory component that tells the t-cells that they are not needed so they will die. Wow, that would be great for mold asthma if it was completely non-toxic. It would be also great under controlled circumstances for many people who are mold-miserable. If I am wrong, I better go out into my garage and start inventing such a drug.

This is my visualization to try to explain the side effects of neurotoxicity. So adverse reactions could be to the quinoline component as an allergic reaction or dose related so that it just built up to a toxic level over time. There are many signs that t-cell populations are significantly reduced by montelukast. The fact that the Italians can do it in the test tube might be that it's a chemical component of montelukast designed to cause the t-cells to die.

Montelukast is a large molecule so Artie says it cannot penetrate the blood brain barrier. That would be an argument if nobody was complaining about neuro-psychiatric side effects. The neuro-psychiatric side effects are identical to quinoline and quinolones. When I read about Lariam, it just sounds like a more extreme version of Singulair side effects. Chloroquinolins were used before they invented Lariam, which is stronger. The malaria Plasmodiums became immune. Hallucinations, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts are completely consistent in all of the quinoline/quinolones. If montelukast breaks into sub-molecules then quinolines easily penetrate the blood brain barrier.

I find clinical evidence that montelukast may act as more than more molecule. And, that there is a rational for the existence of the chloroquinolin and evidence that it may be the source of toxicity.

I am glad to risk being called crazy. That is what the internet is for. We can present our ideas and discuss. So, just take this with a grain of salt. If I am close to the truth, this post will find it's proper home.

I like to live my life with facts, not speculation and drama. My child is on Singulair and doing fantastic. I remember the trips to the ER when I did not know if my child would live or die. Of course when I saw this report, it caused me some concern so I did some research on my own. Did you know that suicide is the leading cause of violent death in New York State, the United States and the world? In 2002 in New York State there were 1,292 suicides which exceeded homicides by 32%. The statistics show that 1 in 10 teenagers plans to commit suicide. The National Center for Health reports a 10% suicide rate in kids 15-24 years of age and 4 male suicides for every female suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old.

So now we have 1 child in New York that has committed suicide that just happened to be on Singulair, and it is Singulairs fault? Show me the proof. All I see is one distraught mom who is trying to find blame for her son’s tragic death. Is there only half the story being told, a trend I have noticed in journalism these days. Let’s face it, life happens. I am NOT on Singulair and I have had melt downs, thrown things across the room, been depressed over things, cried, and even for the past week have been having some crazy dreams. I remember as a child putting notes on my room door telling my parents how much I hated them. I remember as a teenager thinking my life would be better if I were dead. I remember my child being cranky and fussy before she was on Singulair, gee maybe she was teething. The term “terrible twos” has been around a lot longer that Singulair. Let’s face it, we have turned into a society of people who always want something to blame. I think it is time people start taking responsibility for themselves and accept the fact that sometimes life just happens. Take accountability for your own lives, and stop trying to blame everything and anything.

I also live my life by reading internet blogs with a grain of salt. These blogs are public forums and places where anyone and everyone can post. How do you know that all these posts are real? Remember the day when kids made prank phone calls for fun? Now they have the internet and can post pranks on these blogs. How do you know that a competitor to Singulair is not posting in order to fuel the feeding frenzy? How about a registered sex offender or a felon in prison? There are a lot of “sick” people in the world and yes, they have access to the internet too. If you are hanging on every single one of these posts as being true and real then I feel sorry for you. The internet provides anonymity and it is easy to create a fictitious identity and a fictitious story. That is probably why if you do a search for “internet safety” you get 15,700,000 hits.

Until I see proof, I am not going to take my child off Singulair. The CDC reports that in 2002 there were 1.9 million visits to the ER for asthma and 4,261 asthma deaths. If I did stop my child’s Singulair, and she died in the ER from as asthma attack, whose head does that fall on? The media?

I am a registered Nurse who was recently hospitalized for a bacteremia cuased by a sinus infection...........Of course with bacteremia and cuastive germ as strep viridans, the first thing to rule out is endocarditis. So 6 days later after fighting with doctors to treat sinuitis and not endocarditis they finally put me on Levaquin 750 for thirty days on discharge........ well three days later I thought I had gout in my right knee and left hop. then the following day my other knee became involved..............this medication side effects apparently affects the joints as it also affected my shoulder and elbows..I am an active, healthy woman who does yoga and runs and bikes....I feel like all that the doctors did was look at tests and read books popping all kinds of heavy duty antibiotics into my system I do not take anything at home except vitamins...............so beware...........I refused to take more levaquin and have informed these infectious dis. docs that I am seeking a second opinion with my dentist as the sinusitis is related to an endo/root canal problem in my molr...........I am also a dental hygienist........bottom line consumers need to be assertive and docs need to listen and trouble shoot with patients and their families.

Hi Sarah!!

Good to hear that your doc finally has put 2 and 2 together!! Well, I think doctor's should more often REALLY hear, what their patients are telling and not just do or believe what they can find in their "big wise books".

It's very interesting what you wrote about anxiety and dehydration. So your doctor really thinks, that dehydration may cause a raise of anxiety attacks??

Well, I watched myself getting more problems with anxiety again during hot summer days, especially when I've been sweating very much and forgot to drink enough. The muscle weakness is then coming up a little again (well, though DEFINITELY not as bad as it was one year ago!!) and I have to deal with the anxiety again, more than usual!! And another thing I found out: Magnesium is helping me very good with that symptoms.

So it seems as if my body has still problems with that dehydration and loss of minerals and vitamines brought on by Yasmin while taking it 5 long years until February 2005... The slightest change in those things (well, like not enough drinking, etc.) causes still some symptoms...

Could I be right with that speculation??

Best wishes to you and greetings from Germany!!

Silke