Simvastatin Made Me Insane
That’s a provocative and controversial claim. But it is true.
A week ago, I stopped — on my own, without medical consultation — the nightly 40mg pill of Simvastatin I’d been taking for nearly two years. I did that after seeing this video and reading this article. I’d been having cognitive problems that were becoming noticeable and which were also accelerating.
I had stopped Simvastatin once before, for two weeks, but didn’t notice any change in my mind then.
This time, however, I did something different: I made a conscious effort to boost my cholesterol level.
It’s now a week later, and I can unequivocably state this: Simvastatin made me insane!
I woke up this morning and the contrast in my mind is startling, breathtaking, and stark.
My mind is no longer a tightly-clenched fist. My facial muscles have all relaxed. I have genuinely wanted to smile. Any smile I’ve tried to put on my face in the past two years came off looking more like a death rictus instead of an expression of pleasure or happiness.
My mind is now … quiet!
There are other effects Simvastatin had on me that I couldn’t notice until now, until after they’ve been extinguished by discontinuing the drug.
1) I’m no longer vaguely paranoid
2) I’m no longer full of aggression and frustration
3) I can literally feel parts of my mind that I couldn’t before
4) My short-term memory has improved
5) My retrieval of long-term memory has improved
6) I no longer feel under siege all the time
7) My sense of patience has returned
8) I feel capable again
9) I feel like me again
Under the mind-destroying effects of Simvastatin, I came very, very close to engaging in physical violence over the past two years on several occasions. I had zero tolerance for shit. I could not let things slide. I was at war and was nearly pushed into taking action on that horrible impulse. It was only because the remaining, though smothered, small part of what was still me held back that I didn’t physically lash out.
I have never had something like this occur in my life. I’ve been in possession of my head. For the past two years, I wasn’t. My mind was taken from me and reconfigured in ways I never thought could happen. Even though I felt something was wrong, I didn’t feel as if it was happening to me — it felt like me. But it wasn’t me.
The insidiousness of the change can’t be seen from the inside while it’s happening. It’s only when the influence has been removed and the mind is once again given the cholesterol it needs to regain equilibrium is it possible to see the actual warpage.
I have an entire blog that is testimony to the effects of Simvastatin! If you want to see the contrast between “that” me and me me, see how this blog is beginning today, without Simvastatin as my mental hijacker.
I could feel a change beginning to happen yesterday. I’d written two blog posts and each one had shocking final sentences. I was able to see those as something I wouldn’t normally say and deleted them before publication. And last night, while in AllPeers chat with Judie Lipsett of Gear Diary, I was able to pull up the name of a reference work I hadn’t thought of in many years.
I’m still nowhere near back to full mental capacity. My mind is still spinning a bit as I try to use my short-term memory. Making certain I had everything I needed before going out this morning was not altogether smooth. But I did manage not to forget anything.
My vocabulary is still limited. And there are brief moments when a mist still descends. But I can tell the effects of the Simvastatin are receding.
I have a hypothesis about this. I think when the brain is starved of cholesterol, it shuts down — in this order — those portions of the mind that handle creativity, long-term memory, future planning, and those aspects of personality that give us a sense of well-being. What remains is the part of the mind that deals with threat — because, biologically, the brain feels under threat! This could explain why one side-effect some people experience is terrifying nightmares. I had a few of those.
And I sit here wondering how many other people have been damaged by statin drugs in this manner. Are there people out there who had their heads twisted by this drug and engaged in behavior that wrecked their lives? Did they mouth off to a cop, for instance, when ordinarily they wouldn’t have? Did they bash someone in the face they otherwise wouldn’t have? Did they begin to have suicidal thoughts? (The past few weeks, I did!) Did they injure someone they know, or themselves, or even kill themselves?
I’m not one to go out to find a lawyer to sue a drugmaker. I know how science — and human life — works. We do our best to avoid unintentional injury, but it sometimes happens. That’s just life. And I’m not looking to be an activist or a spokesperson for this issue. What I would like to see, however, are more specific listings of possible cognitive side-effects of these drugs. Why did I have to learn about this on the Internet? And then, only by sheer chance? Why wasn’t it on the warning label of the prescription? Why wasn’t I able to have advance warning of specific mental changes to look for? It could have saved me a lot of grief.
There are few times in this life when someone can say they’ve actually helped another person. Jane Brunzie, who is mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article and in that ABC News report, helped me by telling her story. Thank you, Jane. I hope telling my story will help someone else.
Explore posts in the same categories: Personal, Statin Drugs
Mike Cane 2008 
February 21, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Hey, I counted a few 50 cent words in this article…I think you are doing even better than you think. Welcome back. :-D
February 14, 2014 at 6:26 am
Yes this will turn you into a village idiot!
It is clear that simvistatin in many writings of controlled Epilepic patients such as myself that any Statin including others called lipitor or any of the others can restart seizures. If you have been seizure free It can cause confusion, loss of memory, inability to multi task, speech difficulity, inability to cope with stress, anxiety depression, slurred spech and turn you into a drunken stuper fatique and depression. You can feel like you have lost totallly lost it and have short term memory loss or feel like you have alzheimers disease. Many top doctors in big hospitals are advocating diet and exercise. Please, please , I beg you do not take this unless you read up on this, unless, you have absolutely no choice to take it. Trust me on this read up !!! Educate your own self !
February 21, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Be at rest, Mike. We missed the old you. Welcome back.
February 21, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Mike, I didn’t know you “then,” and don’t know you well enough “now” to gauge the difference…but if you think about it, it stands to reason that a drug with the potent positive effects often attributed to statins might also have potent effects in other (less desirable) areas. This class of drugs literally alters body chemistry. My wife has been on Zocor for a while now–years–during which time she has occasionally started and stopped taking the drug on her own, and she has noticed numerous other symptoms that seem drug- (and even dosage)-identified. Her principal complaint is stiffness in the legs and knees (a very common side effect), but she also has described a sometimes-inability to concentrate. She is an avid crossword puzzle devotee, and the lack of concentration shows up particularly there. In any case, I wish you well. I just hope the cholesterol problems don’t come back to haunt you….
February 21, 2008 at 5:38 pm
See, Steve, that’s how these drugs can have different effects. I haven’t had any leg or knee problems. And only a few times have I had minor aches or muscle weakness. Had the effects stopped with that, I’d still gladly take it. But the primary damaging effect has been to my mind. I can’t live, or even function, with that deficit.
February 25, 2008 at 11:24 pm
What an ordeal! I’m glad you figured out what was happening.
Here’s info from Dr. Mercola’s site that you might find helpful.
http://www.mercola.com/article/statins.htm
And people wonder why I don’t trust most drugs…
December 31, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Dear Mike,
I am in tears. I was just “wasting time” this afternoon by googling the name, Brunzie, and came across your blog including how my testimony in the Wall Street Journal and on Good Morning America had helped you. I feel overwhelmed and very humbled. It is not like me to put myself out in the public like that but Dr. Golomb began using my testimony because we got along so well and I like to talk. This is the first time I have had feedback from all the interviews. Thank you so much. Good Luck. I still have muscle weakness, especially in my legs and lose words more than normal but am feeling well. My son Ted, who encouraged me to get off Lipitor (actually begged me) is my advisor about taking nutritional products…I am almost off any kind of pharmaceuticals. This is what I take to keep my arteries healthy.
5-HTP 50 mg PM
CoQ10 150 mg 1 (AM)
Fish Oil 1 tsp (BID) 3000 mg total
Multi-Vit (AM)
Vit D3 1000 IU 1 (AM and PM)
Vit E 400 units 1 (AM)
Mg
Ca
Boron
Zinc
Pregnenolone 30mg 1 (AM)
(2) ASA 81 mg (HS)
Supercritical Antioxidants
It’s amazing how hard it is to get people to listen to what you have to say since the world is so brain washed about cholesterol!
Your friend, Jane
January 1, 2009 at 11:49 am
Thanks, Jane. Your video made a big difference in at least one life! Mine!
January 5, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Hi,
I’m doing far too much web-surfing this morning, but as I happened across some of your posts about Statins and this post in particular reminded me of some research I saw referred to in 2008 (or possibly 2007), I thought I’d let you know that there is research that bears out your theory — sort of. In 2002, British researchers supplemented the diets of violent prisoners with fish oil, among other things, and found a marked decrease in violent incidents. If you’re interested, there’s info here:
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/181/1/22
More research began last year and will continue for about 2 years. I’ll be watching for the results, of course.
Best wishes to you.
January 7, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I have also suffered from the same effects, ran out of pill one week, and noticed I could think again, multitask with ease. I figured out it was the drug causing the change but after the next doctor visit for a refill, I forgot. It has been twenty weeks and I have almost stopped working due to inability to control thoughts or concentrate. Thank you for the bog and video, I am going to come out of the cloud. I think I am going out for a big cheese burger :)
March 27, 2009 at 1:09 pm
You are not alone
The coincidence is too great to be ignored. Simvastatin took a year of my sanity and reduced me to the intellectual status of a junior employee not to be trusted with the stewardship of the flourishing business I have spent the last twenty years growing. I am quite flattered by the “one in a million” chances that such effects can develop but such long odds mean that Medical Practitioners, my own included, have never (knowingly) encountered these and equally rarely would consider an association between statins and psychosis if confronted with it. I am writing this in the spirit of the yellow card system for reporting the suspect adverse drug reactions supervised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and hope to bring it to the attention of Medical Practitioners for future consideration.
I experienced two ‘fainting’ spells at the office, after the second of which in November 2007 I was persuaded by my wife to seek medical advice. The weakness of mobility and speech changes I described led my GP to consider the cause to be transient ischaemic attack and I was submitted for appropriate neurological examination.
As a precaution I was prescribed Lisinopryl to reduce my blood pressure and the popular cholesterol buster Simvastatin.
From this point my symptoms persisted and grew more frequent with the experience of what I called ‘lights out’ moments when my brain seemed to gradually shut down as an office block would with lights turning off from the top to the bottom floor by floor leaving me blank and unable to speak.
Epilepsy
The stroke clinic discounted the TIA hypothesis and a MRI ruled out the presence of a brain tumour. The symptoms developed and strange behavioural idiosyncrasies began to manifest. The diagnosticians were scratching their heads but indulged my proposition (following my wife’s research) that it could be epileptic activity. An EEG revealed nothing but the behavioural manifestations increased resembling closely those described in the presence of temporal lobe epilepsy or ‘temporal lobe personality’ which, it is said, is notoriously difficult to detect by EEG.
TLE it has been observed (1) can present a total of 18 behavioral features including emotionality, mania, depression, guilt, humorlessness, altered sexual interest, aggression, anger and hostility, hypergraphia, religiosity, philosophical interest, sense of personal destiny, hypermoralism, dependency, paranoia, obsessionalism, circumstantiality, and viscosity.
Temporal lobe epilepsy is thought to be responsible for all these characteristics and my outward behaviour exhibited twelve or so of these features.
Epileptic activity was ultimately discounted due to the absence of full seizures in the first instance and the scientific evidence of an EEG taken while I was in the full throws of an ‘episode’. The EEG technician was convinced I was in ‘status’ but no trace was evident after the test.
Alternative diagnosis
It was impossible for us to break out of the temporal lobe hypothesis in the face of the symptoms being reaffirmed at almost every click of the Google search button. The idea of complex partial seizures was the only avenue for investigation in our minds and the reported elusiveness of electronic evidence fuelled our desire to pin down a diagnosis that currently seemed as intangible as the evidence we sought.
March 2008 and I am obsessed with the smallest of things …..
All this time my outward behaviour was becoming increasingly bizarre. We began to collect video recordings of what came to be described as my excursions both at home and at work. I have uploaded three short samples to youtube.com/user/gerbilsnot to illustrate the type of regular experiences I was having. The videos played back a picture of a person I didn’t even recognise, obsessed with finger pointing, touching his nose and drifting between exhibitions of extreme emotions, howling like a wolf, crying uncontrollably and in the next instance laughing like a maniac. The episodes would manifest almost every day and last between twenty and sixty minutes. They were not influenced by the company I was keeping or the environment I was in. I thought and professed on each occasion that I was going out of my mind.
I was literally becoming freaked out by the presence of everyday objects. A used tea bag on the draining board in the staffroom at the office sent me over the top. It was menacing and threatening me by its mere presence. The next thing I knew the office door became a ‘gateway’ to a parallel universe and I was overwhelmed by a sense of paranoia from which none of my colleagues could extract me.
My wife, with whom I work, drove me to my GP’s. Every door became another gateway, every path became a threat and I swear the cuddly toys in the Doctor’s office had every intention of killing kill me. I was admitted immediately to Hospital where all manner of beasts and aliens appeared from the most benign of sources. A friend of mine who knows about these things said if he didn’t know me better he would have sworn I was on LSD.
The symptoms subsided after four days and I was released. Neurology consults and case conferences still unconvinced of the epilepsy hypothesis concluded that there was definitely something wrong but they could not agree what it was. I was consigned to the neuropsychiatry department of another hospital.
June 2008 The dopamine theory
A further EEG drew a line under the epilepsy hypothesis for good and, after watching the video records we had accumulated the consultant concluded that my brain was producing excessive amounts of dopamine. My behaviour had all of the hallmarks of someone high on drugs. My LSD friend was correct. But I have never taken drugs so this was not some residual punishment from years of abuse as a young man.
The dopamine theory put a whole range of unexplained symptoms into a plausible context.
When dopamine activity is abnormally heightened (such as with the abuse of dopamine agonists) the sufferer can be tormented by ideas of reference and delusions about neutral environmental stimuli. Excessive, inappropriate buying is another impulse control disorder that emerges during dopamine agonist therapy. I did this to excess and my generosity on occasions far outweighed my ability to pay.
But what was the dopamine trigger?
Results of a study (2) into long term statin treatment suggest that lipophilic statins can alter dopaminergic functions in the prefrontal cortex possibly via a central mechanism. Other studies have now shown that simvastatin has a marked effect preventing the downregulation of dopamine in Parkinson’s disease sufferers.
At this point I put forward a proposition that the only change in my circumstances since my original faint was the prescription of Simvastatin in the previous November. The following extract was Googled under the search for Simvastatin side effects.
“Nervous System: Dizziness, headache, insomnia, tingling, memory loss, damage to nerves causing weakness and/or loss of sensation and/or abnormal sensations, anxiety, depression, tremor, loss of balance, psychic disturbances”.
My medical advisers quickly dispelled my concern by exemplifying the benefits of the drug and downplaying the suggested side effects as extremely remote. I was persuaded to keep taking the medicine and prescribed the antipsychotic drug perphenazine to counteract the now obsessive behaviour stimulated by the dopamine.
I was relatively happy with the dopamine theory. Patients like to be able to label their illness and I now had an explanation for my ridiculous excesses that reassured my clients and visitors that I was not a drunk or a basket case. To me I had a mental disorder. My wife rather defensively corrected me always by explaining that it was a neurological disorder explainable by a chemical imbalance. Either way, ironically, it was a relief to us both.
July 2008 Suicidal ideation
The Perphenazine seemed to be working well to a point. I woke in the morning feeling great although my sleep was punctuated by vivid, sometimes disturbing, dreams. By around lunch time (not every day) I began to get feelings of inappropriate emotion and sometimes depressed functioning in speech patterns and thought, also a habit, which I considered to be a tic, of stretching my face in a grimace as if yawning. I knew I was doing it but could not help myself. By late afternoon on occasions I became obsessed with certain behaviours all of which made no sense to me but nevertheless I could not stop doing them.
The behaviours were not necessarily related or repeated. An example would be feeling compelled one afternoon at a motorway service station to try to run across the motorway. I was stopped at the fence by my wife and hasten to add I had no self harm influences, just an intense belief that I could beat the rush of traffic to the central reservation. I also became obsessed with the notion that I could leap from the first floor of our office block and land unharmed on the floor below. I knew it was a ridiculous idea and that I would surely die but something else kept telling me that I could do it.
My colleagues were by this time on ‘suicide watch’.
The perphenazine dose was increased to point where I became so disassociated with reality I could have stabbed myself in the eye with a fork and not noticed it.
October 2008 a lifestyle choice
I unilaterally reduced my perphenazine to its previous level. I would rather endure mild psychosis than have virtually no sensation at all.
A change in symptoms brought additional brain sensations which included something scurrying in my head, birds nesting, and a jumping bean rolling around (I found this one quite amusing and it brought on uncontrollable fits of giggles much to everyone else’s amusement). I also swear I could feel my hair growing.
December 2008 Acquiescence
In December 2008 I informed all of those who have loved me and supported me for the last year that I had finally resigned myself to the fact that my days were from now on to be punctuated by insane grimacing, bizarre posturing, uncontrollable urges and preoccupations, and psychotic breaks that challenged my reason.
This final acceptance of my condition made me feel somewhat better knowing that my wife, colleagues and friends accepted me unconditionally and would continue to provide the cautious supervision that they have given me since all this started.
Serendipity
It was about this time that I developed a new symptom. The joints and muscles around my shoulders began to ache unbearably when I moved. Could it be part of the somatoform disorder that my consultant had postulated back in July? Or as my wife recalled could it be due to a serious side effect of Simvastatin which necessitated an immediate cessation of medication and a medical consultation.
I stopped taking the tablets and made an appointment with my GP.
Within two days of ceasing the medication my psychosis subsided. Not a gradual sensation of wellbeing, more like the curtains opening on my life and a huge dark cloud evaporating from my brain. I suddenly felt better. Without hesitation I stopped taking the anti-psychotic perphenazine with absolutely no negative effects.
One month later and I am writing this wondering whatever happened to 2008. I have never felt better and am back in the driving seat.
A revitalised internet search for confirmation of my original hypothesis has revealed that I am not alone in my experiences. Just Google “statins and depression” or try spacedoc.net for and in depth analysis of statin side effects. (“From thousands of reports we have seen a strong association between statin drug use and affective disorders of all kinds”).
(1) Bear DM and Fedio P. Quantitative analysis of interictal behavior in temporal lobe epilepsy. Archives of Neurology 1977; 34, pp 454-467. PMID: 889477.
(2) Wang et al. British Journal of Pharmacology (2005) 144, 933–939. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0706106
February 14, 2014 at 6:57 am
Warning: Epileptic patients any Cholesterol lowering medications Can cause seizures Talk to your Neurologist First before taking. Mixes with your medication that can cause known seizures in warnings and literature.
FOR Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients or Eplileptic Patients Epileptic Patients
Please read:
It is clear that simvistatin in many writings a of controlled Temporal lobe. Complex partial
Epileptic patients such as myself that any Statin including others called lipitor or any of the others can restart seizures from 30yrs ago. If you have been seizure free It can cause confusion, loss of memory, inability to multi task, speech difficulity, inability to cope with stress, anxiety depression, slurred spech and turn you into a drunken stuper fatique and depression. You can feel like you have lost totallly lost it and have short term memory loss or feel like you have alzheimers disease. Many top doctors in big hospitals are advocating diet and exercise. Please, please , I beg you do not take this unless you read up on this, unless, you have absolutely no choice to take it. Trust me on this read up !!! Educate your own self !
December 2, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Mike, how did you intentionally boost your cholesterol levels? More dietary cholesterol like eggs? My mom is on a statin and recently she started becoming very paranoid in addition to not being able to think clearly.
Thanks,
M
December 24, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I went out and ate two McDonald’s Quarter Pounders immediately. And some other burgers during the first week. Dangerous, but fast.
September 13, 2010 at 8:17 pm
i am a 23 year old mother of two and ive been on simvastatin for 3 months and have had increased anxitey and the feelings of anger and rage also ive had pain in my neck, jaws, chest and legs. my head feels as if its full or empty at all times, i cant sleep or relax. ive started to question who i am and even thought that id be better off gone or allowing sommeone to care for my children for me. im up and down all day everyday and have pretty much lost my joy for life. ive been fearing being alone with my children because ive been so out of sorts and ive felt that i may hurt them or myself. i ran out of the simvastatin 4 days ago and am feeling a lil bit more like my old self for longer periods o time each day. for so long i blamed an anxitey drug called buspar and even stopped it a month ago, but i still felt the same day ater day. i am so glad to find all this information, i now see a light at the end of the dark tunnel and feel like maybe theres hope after all. thank you.
July 22, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I have been on 40 mg simvastatin for only a week so far for high cholesterol. I have noticed subtle changes in mood and physical ability. So far for the good. While i feel a little more agressive it also has given me a little more pep. And as for the agressive part if it is true i think it would be great to have more of that in my town where i live in ashtabula ohio. Almost everyone in this town it seems has a stick up there ass about something or someone. Regardless of their cholesteral pill intake or not. So i have a tendency to let people here walk all over me. So a little bit more of kick asss agressiveness from simvastatin sounds to good to be true. While alsor bringing down my unsafe cholesteral and trigliserides.
November 25, 2014 at 8:17 am
My MRI has revealed encephalitis, unknown origin as I have left a sided mesial temporal lobe seizure disorder. I after taking simvastatin . I went after the 3rd day of usage to to the ER. My speech was slurred, confused and they tested for alcohol in my blood as I was so out of it. I continued on the statin for 5 months more until I started smelling smoke transiently in my nose in. The evening ,which was an olfactory bulb seizure indicator. I have never experienced any symptomology of this type. I then realized what meds had changed, it as the statin. The smell immediately went way when discnd med. Mind you I took Zocor same as Simvastatin 10 year ago, same problem and told MD I was drunk and discontinued under different brand, For this to occur 2X w/ same med, likely it must be the med. I have had periods of short term memory loss within 5 seconds of taking meds and unsure if took. I cannot multi task any longer and jump from one thing to another, minding you I owned a 20 yr old business. Cognitive Tests impaired and qualifying as disabled according to SSI standards. Where did the encephalitis come from? EEG abnormal, no seizures that day , but 3 abnormalities noted. Too many SSRI’s in head , Serotonin syndrome? If seizure meds are absorbed in liver, and statins are as well.Will the statin lower the seizure threshold and the simvastatin
be the cause negating the seizure meds and creating seizures? Bearing in mind, the FDA warns simvastatin has put a warning out it does cause memory loss and other brain dysfunction
Will let you know on repeat MRI , EEG
Steven
November 2, 2012 at 1:35 pm
doing research today, as suffered huge problem after 16 days of 40mg simvastatin….luckily i am very self aware but with a history of depression with psychotic features years ago i know what was happening to me! statins reduce ALL cholesterol and that means HDL levels too, which is known to be important for mental health. also cholesterol is needed to produce serotonin, low levels cause depression………………..if you have a history of depression however long ago, do not take statins is my advice. i have yet to educate my doctors but when i do it will not be a fun time. im very very shocked i was even given it with my history. thank god for the internet! im off to eat chocolate!
February 25, 2013 at 8:03 pm
OMG!! I am a 51 year old female and have been prescribed simvastatin 20 mg every night. Since about the 4th day I have been feeling very down. Fighting with my husband saying awful things to him. This weekend I had thoughts of worthlessness, hopelessness and wanting to commit suicide. So would take my life at this time but now that I know it is from this drug I am not going to take it tonight. I thank you. thank you for what you wrote!!! I truly also felt paranoid and thought I would see things walking by me fast crazy stuff! Bt that someone feels the same way or did and I can relate wow I am calling my Dr. tomorrow. My cholesterol is 234 but hey I am on a diet now and have lost over 15 lbs so I am on my way. See, you take drugs prescribed to you for one thing never thinking that they would have this terrible side effect.
Thanks for my life back !!
February 26, 2013 at 4:05 pm
note to susan…..i work in the health field and since my post above, a patient has informed me that his GP is taking all his patients off simvastatin and swapping it for something else……he had a letter to advise him to make an appointment……so…….something is changing with this drug……my location is south east london. youll feel better soon i promise :-)
May 5, 2013 at 8:53 am
I’m a 23 year old just prescribed simvastatin as well, and I really don’t want to take it. I’m going to try lowering my cholesterol through diet and exercise before taking these though. Ideas?
May 5, 2013 at 3:24 pm
They also suggest a prescription Niacin but it has the side effect of digestive and elimination problems. And some people naturally produce more cholesterol even though they drastically change their diets. I can’t provide any medical advice, just tell you what I know.
May 6, 2013 at 2:26 pm
kevin, im walking lots and eating lotsa oily and white fish………ive lost 8 pounds so far……….if your weight is up, use a calorie counted diet and lose some and one thing im using too is flora proactive……..theres lotsa stuff online about it or other plant stanol products. youre very young to be given statins tho……..is there a family history?
November 29, 2013 at 2:31 pm
I stopped taking Simvastatin 6 weeks ago as I didn’t need it anymore, my cholesterol was actually TOO LOW! I had all the same problems as you, that could have easily been me writing this! I am now alternating between having no emotions, to these huge adrenaline rushes/panic attacks – My doctor doesn’t seem to believe me! Can you tell me how long it took you to recover? I’m getting worried it’s taking so long! My theory is that you cannot make Cortisol in your body if you have no Cholestorol as it is synthesized from it, and that this is a rebound from being used to having very low amounts of Cortisol. I actually suffered something that I now think was an adrenal-crisis before I stopped taking them!
November 29, 2013 at 4:38 pm
I can only speak to my own experience which should *not* be taken as any sort of medical advice or for you to follow. I simply started eating as much cholesterol as usual, damn the doctors and my cholesterol level. My long-term effect is that my short-term memory is no longer what it used to be and my long-term memory takes longer to access. I can’t say anything about cortisol. Despite my asking to be tested for it several times, it never showed an abnormal level despite my being under a great deal of stress — which also tends to affect memory. I’ve never had panic attacks, so this is something I can’t relate to, sorry.
December 3, 2013 at 8:09 am
Thanks for your reply, it gives me some hope that I can return to a normal life! I’m feeling so much better and it hasn’t even been 2 months yet, so I am hopeful that I will at least make a partial recovery. I have been to see a Neurologist today, who didn’t seem to want to talk about the Simvastatin being a cause for these problems – I’m starting to learn that doctors aren’t very scientific in their approach! She couldn’t see that there was a connection between my physical and mental symptoms. I think I’ll try getting some more cholesterol in my diet for a while and see how it goes ;-)
I can’t believe they kept me on these stupid things! I was only 28 when prescribed them, was barely over the threshold, and was making serious changes to my life and diet. Seems like everyone I talk to is on them, and they all have some sort of side effect. Never mind, what is done is done I suppose.
December 3, 2013 at 8:54 am
No one bothers to see how many people diagnosed with dementia were also prescribed statins before their diagnosis. The pharma companies are powerful and will lie, cheat, steal, and bribe to keep their money coming in.
December 27, 2013 at 10:08 am
Just thought I would report back some things I have worked out that may be helpful in other peoples recovery. I noticed that I could get my mind working, and mostly get rid of the twitches and tremors by taking the amino-acid supplements, L-Tyrosine & L-Tryptophan. I also noticed, after throwing up one morning due to too much cod-liver oil, that I don’t seem to have any stomach acid! Upon further investigation I found out that you need hydrochloric acid in your stomach to stimulate the release of Pepsin, which is needed to break down proteins into these particular amino-acids!
I have started taking ALOT of digestive enzyme pills, containing Betaine Hcl and Pepsin, with my meals and am starting to notice improvements even after a few days – I suspect this low stomach acid, and fermenting in my gut is what has been causing most, if not all, of my symptoms including depression, muscle spasms/cramps and terrible sinus problems. I always complained to my doctor that I felt as if my sinuses were filling up with gas, and he more or less laughed at me!
I’m hopeful that my bodies ability to make its own stomach acid will return after I am properly nourished.
February 14, 2014 at 7:20 am
Have you contacted your regional office of the Epilepsy Foundation regarding contacting interns about simvistatin. This is serious? I am going to call headquarters. Some NY hospitals are not picking this up in some of the teaching hospitals for older well educated interns and the young ones.too This frightens me. Imagine the hospitals in the sticks?