After You've Taken the Pill

I was doing some research on my muscle pain and decided to run it as a connection to Lipitor. My pain is very bad today. I found a lot of hits with Google. The consensus for recovery for Lipitor induced problems is not known and is not good. But this page gives a lot of insight to possible alternatives to Lipitor and possibly other cholesterol lowering medications.

Lipitor, Neuromuscular Degeneration, and Recovery

Link

Of course, before you make any changes to any medications you are taking, you should consult your doctors. They need to know what you are taking or not taking in the event of an emergency. What I am telling you here, is what I do for me. What you do must be based on your own findings, not mine. I am extremely cautions and demand facts to support my care. My doctors get annoyed with me very quickly. But I'm paying them.

Do not assume that your doctor knows what every pill will do to you. Listen to your body. Pay attention to symptoms. Most importantly and it should probably be placed a the top of any list: READ THE INSERT. There is vital information on the inserts. That is why they are printed in very small print. They have to disclose the side effects and uses of the medicine. But they don't have to make it understandable or easy to read. You defeat this misdirection by looking anyway or elsewhere.

If you are reading this post, you have one of the greatest inventions for gathering information, true and false information. If you have internet, it should become a vital part of your medical kit. Look up every pill you take - before you take it. You will find websites designed simply to describe a medicine's uses, dosages, and side effects in an easy to read format. They offer, not advice, just facts on what you put in your mouth. No all sites can be trusted where advice is concerned, so you must search carefully. My counselor did not know that a medicine I've been taking 20 years was even sold in the dosage I take. I take 10 mg. He looked it up in something he uses to prescribe it for depression. The lowest dosage was 300 mg! He said it it wasn't sold in 10 mg and wouldn't be effective for depression. He's wrong on both counts. Sincere, but wrong.

Read the comments of other readers. They have the problems you have. You will learn a lot from the readers.

Read more than one source. Multiple sources help you fine tune your information, weed out the crazy stuff. It's out there.

Ask your pharmacist for information. Some are very helpful, particularly if you are a regular. Change pharmacies if they are rude and unhelpful. Some pharmacies give you a easy to understand print-out describing your medicines. You usually toss them. How many of you have read the whole print out? How many have stopped after your read what you are supposed to take? Hmmm, read it.

Do not assume your doctor knows how the medicine he is giving you will affect you. He will NOT know the side-effects. He will only know what it is used to treat. Ask your doctor. Believe me, I know this. Usually they will say, "Nothing you need to worry about." And they will recite the most banal side effects on the list because that is the ones listed first and repeated the most often and like you, they don't read the inserts either. Want proof?

My rheumatologist suggested I take Glucosamine Chondroitin for my joints. It is true that research has shown it to be fairly effective in the treatment of arthritis and joint pain related to cartilage loss. However, I had done a LOT of research on nutritional supplements years ago when I had problems with depression. I had even taken the supplement because I had some minor knee pains they said was probably early arthritis (aerobics will do that to you). I took it about a year, until I found one tiny fact in a book I happened to pick up on supplements.

Glucosamine increases blood sugar levels. For anyone prone to or actively diabetic, this is bad. Since I was predisposed genetically I stopped taking it. I wasn't diagnosed with a blood sugar disorder at that time. I just felt it best not to tamper with it. I had taken it for months and stopped because it didn't work!

So, when my Rheumatologist suggested it I told her this. She was surprised and said she didn't know where I heard this but that she didn't think it was accurate. She asked me where I got the information but obviously I didn't have it with me. Anyway, she handed me a leaflet and said to read that and try the supplement. I said I would.

I went home and sat down to read her leaflet, most of which I already knew anyway. Then, on the second page, at the bottom in a paragraph, guess what I found?

YES. Glucosomine was found to increase blood sugar levels and was not recommended for diabetics or those with metabolic disorders. And just today, I ran across more information that suggest more severe side effects. But one source won't do. I don't have to look it up because I don't take this but if you do, look it up.

Now, if she had read her own informational packet, she would have known what I knew. She was so certain of her own knowledge that she insisted I take a pill she knew about only through word of mouth. Because that is what she based her suggestion on. She "heard" it was beneficial. And it may be for some people! But there is always a double edged sword to anything you put in your mouth.

How do you think doctors learned to treat your illnesses? They are not born with this knowledge. The read it. They read tons of material on every disease and illness they intend to treat. Thousands! They can't retain all that information. Often after getting your test results they may actually refer to some text to find the most appropriate and most accepted treatment. And they will call you with any changes in their treatment! Drug companies are sending them their information, their studies... and it may not be accurate as we all learned with Vioxx - the best medicine I ever took for my arthritis pain. They may be reading these or they may accept that what the company says is gospel. You won't know. I am a firm believer that to stay alive, as healthy as possible, you have to get actively involved learning about what is good for you, what is wrong with you, what is prescribed for you, and what you can do naturally to help yourself.

You should have seen my doctor's face freeze when I refused the flu shot. He was quick to point out it was a regular flu shot, not the H1N1. He's heard the hype. What he didn't know was I've been reading about the effects of mercury on people with muscle problems. Every vaccine you take has a mercury base. Children now receive over 39 vaccines before they are five! Mercury is poison, deadly poison. I'm not saying don't vaccinate, I'm saying find the truth before you put a needle in someone's arm.

I never ever got flu shots until I went to work. Now, I have lots of muscle problems and pain problems which might be linked to things I've been given since I went to work - flu shots and Lipitor.

I'm on a mission. My gut says the Lipitor is the culprit. But I want the pain to stop and I'm not taking another thing that is related to that problem until I can sort it out. I may never sort it out. I just don't intend to take things to make it harder for me.

So, I'm going to go back and read up on my Vitamin C information. The site above suggest it may help with the damage caused by Lipitor. But it may not. But it also said it will help lower cholesterol naturally. I am aware that high levels of Vitamin C are toxic. So caution is essential here. Old research never goes away. But new research is always happening. So,I'll be looking for other resources to give me new information. New discoveries are released every day... some are good news, many are very bad news. You don't usually know until after you've taken the pill.