I am 79 years old and have been on 40 mg simvastatin for 2 or 3 years. Recently I have noticed problems with memory loss and have had several short episodes of transient amnesia. Any connection?
Some statins are associated with memory problems - and there have been studies about it.
I would not normally recommend anything from the Daily Mail - but there was an excellent article yesterday about statins:
"Millions of healthy Britons are set to be prescribed them, but why do many GPs say they won't take statins?"
I took a statin for 10 days - never ever again! I couldn't walk more than 50 yards - using crutches. And my cardiology consultant didn't argue for a moment. I thought she would want me to try a different one but she said "No, that's fine" - it wasn't her who had said I needed them but a general medicine specialist on the ward.
Hi John
Statins do indeed affect memory loss it's one of the most serious side effects.
Dr Duane Graveline has written a book called ' Thief of memory' after suffering 2 bouts of transient amnesia while taking statins.
Please google him and you'll find really good information that'll help you realise it's not you it's the terrible side effect of your Simvastatin.
I suffered short term memory loss while on 40mg Simvastatin so I have first hand experience of this horrible drug.
Please go back to you doctor and inform him/ her that you're suffering these episodes, if like many doctors he doesn't believe it's the statins and refuses to accept it then please point them to the MHRA website where it clearly states that '' when prescribing Simvastatin it is important to inform patients of possible memory loss as a side effect'.
Good luck and please keep us informed on how you get on
I suffered both memory loss and general loss of mental sharpness (e.g. slowing of mental arithmetic). It culminated in gradual descent in to full depression and only then was I taken off it. It took 5 years to get to that state with me, and because it was so gradual I thought it was just the ageing process. I too was on 40mg of Simvastatin. This is the standard preventive dose to reduce cholesterol. Your doctor will not monitor for side effects and most won't even warn of the possibility. It is up to you to go back if you don't feel right.
Hi all statin takers keep all posted of sideeffects! Regards Gerry
I also am 79 years old and have been on simvastatin 40mg for several years. Since last winter I have had about 10 episodes of transient amnesia. Initially they lasted for 5 or 10 minutes after waking from sleep. More recently they have lasted several hours and an episode occurred today from which I have still not recovered any memory of what I did yesterday. Some time ago I went to my doctor who referred me to a specialist and was diagnosed as having "sleep inertia". Today I searched the internet for this condition and found it has NO CONNECTION with amnesia. I am appalled at this mis-diagnosis by the specialist.
I just resently was perscribed 40 mg a day of simvistatin should i quit taking it
Yeah it's fascinating the nonsense we endure about the benefits
I had the same thing happen to me. I was on 80 mgs of lipitor for a couple of years before I noticed the change. It was gradual but one day I tried to subtract in my head and I could not do it. My memory was getting worse as well. My Dr. Cut my dosage in half but it continued. I then began taking the drug every other day but still no change. I finally decided to get off the drug 4 days ago and I can already see the difference. Memory is coming back and my mental capacities are getting sharper by the day.
Do have a good alternative for lowering cholesterol?
Hi John. A couple of years ago my GP advised me to go on statins because my cholesterol count was 'slightly' up so I tried Simvastatin for a few weeks. I have never felt so bad. I didn't have muscle pains but I couldn't sleep properly, felt so depressed at times and worst of all started to forget really stupid every-day things. My doctor advised Artovastatin instead but it was much the same. I wasn't even 60 yet so I didn't put it down to age and my brother, who is a year older, was getting the same side effects from the same statins so we both stopped them. Within a couple of weeks we both felt ok again and I even beat the computer at scrabble! I just don't think that it is any coincidence there is such a rise in cases of dementia and the widespread use of statins and I don't buy the spin from GPs, I wonder how many of them take them? Surgeries get lots of 'incentives' from pharmacutical companies, I know that for a fact.
And the most recent research suggests that stains increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes considerably. Don't think there is a lack of association between the explosion in statin use and Type 2 diabetes.
They don't get the incentives they used to from the reps, not in the UK at least, but there is a lot of hidden self-interest n the part of the committees at NICE who make the recommendations...
Hi Douglass,
I was on the srarins for 13 years before I started to have the same symptoms. I just turned 59. I was taking artovastin 4Omg. And just have been one week off and I am almost back to normal. Are you taking any substitute that is natural to reduce your. Cholesterol?
Hi there,
Well I've read that your cholesterol level goes up slightly when you get older anyway but I'm sticking to lots of fresh vegetables and especially fresh tomatoe soup and fish oil. The best kitchen gadget I've bought so far is our Morphy Richards soup maker. My doctor reckoned that the 'mediteranian diet' was an option but doubtful but it is reckoned that tomatoes are especially good for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Anyway, I like tomatoe soup.
I was prescribed Simvastatin 40mg about 4 years ago. Was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes in October of 2013. I walked into the hospital with my sugar at 890! Now they have me on a daily pill for my sugar. Never knew about the relation between statins and other issues until recently. I have been going to different doctors for muscle pain for the last 5 or 6 months as well. They told me to take COQ-10, and that would fix it. It has only gotten worse. All of this and I am only 45. Now to meet with my doctor, armed with this new information. It should be interesting.
Hi John
I've been on 40 mg Simvastatin daily for about 3 years. Over the last 15 months I've had 13 episodes of transient amnesia. I've been referred to two neurologist. They were both puzzled and say that it's not TIA or TGA. My episodes initially were all on waking from sleep but in the last six months have all occurred while awake. They last from a few minutes to half an hour. During an episode I cannot remember who people are, local geography (streets), the day of the week, the time of year, or what I did recently, etc.. On the same days that I have had an amnesia episode, but NOT coincident with it, I have often had one or two episodes in which I feel I am going to pass out. Thiese have occurred after I saw the neurologist. My GP is not interested.
JUST READ THE REST OF THE POSTS ...AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF....SO MANY PEOPLE CAN'T BE WRONG....I WISH I HAD STOPPED THEM LONG BEFORE I DID..
I too had been taking different statins for a number of years....and thought the muscle pain and weakness was old age creeping up....then 8 years ago I was diagnosed with type 2.....I stopped the statins about 4 years ago...and my blood sugar readings are normal.....I don't take any medication for diabetes..
your gp won't want to admit that it's the statins causing the memory loss
HI John I have suffered severe memory loss whilst on statins and frightening it is too. This along with muscle/eye headaches etc make me stop taking them every 2 months or so to get myself right again. I have tried every statin in the book but all with the same effect. As we know doctors will never admit to there faults--statins that is--as they get favours from the drug companies for using them on patients. All you can do is stop taking them or as I now do --take one every other day it seems to work,, not perfect but better--and stay off all fat and never touch red meat.
I was on Simvistatin 40 mg for 2 years following my heart operation in 2012, on automatic treatment from my cardiologist. Protocol for patients having had heart operations. My LDL was/is not out of range and has been within fully safe limits, but my HDL could be higher.
My heart operation was NOT cholesterol related, the need for the operation came from other directions, this is straight from the doctors because I asked. Even in view of that, he said that taking the statins should be done as a preventive measure. Even dating back to our initial consultation, he has never once made any mention of any side effects, much less some very serious ones listed in the FDA's current advisory posted on their website.
My cardiologist is very convincing and says it is best to be on statin drugs if you've had any heart condition. I asked him at the time how long, and he said for the rest of my life. That in itself is a bit shocking, as I don't believe in making my body dependent on ANY drug.
The memory patchiness - being a patchwork quilt with massive blank spots - came up gradually and almost unoticeably over that 2 year period, until finally what I was not being able to remember became unmistakable. Words I would reach for and not find, names I knew were there but I simply could not recall, no matter how hard I tried.
Once I noticed the memory patchiness had gotten really noticeable on the simvistatin - it's hard to be aware of what it is you are unaware of - I went off the simvistatin and gradually my memory became reliable again, filling in the empty patches and delivering three dimensional life again, which had gone very one dimensional while on the statin.
(Unfortunately one of the drugs on the list that is known to cause that memory patchiness is thyroid supplementation - which I need because my thyroid gland was hit by the Xrays in the radiation therapy in '80, while being treated for Hodgkins Disease. Now I take 100mcg every day. Can't stop taking that one.)
Recently during an office visit with my cardiologist I told him about stopping the Simvistatin a year ago and he started me on Atorvastatin 40mg instead, saying Lipitor would have less deleterious effects on memory than Simvistatin. But the advice I have read from the FDA earlier today says that all statin drugs act alike. And in the month I have been taking Atorvastatin, I find I am reaching for people's names more now again, like before, and this time I am not allowing it to creep up on me. I can't help but wonder what it is that should have been occuring to me these days, that is NOT occurring to me because of the blank/blind spots in my memory. Again, what is it that I am supposed to be aware of that I am not aware that I am unaware of?
As of today's FDA advisory reading, I am now worried about my liver, diabetes, and potential muscle damage as well. "The rest of my life?" I don't think so.
I will be showing my cardiologist the FDA warning and will probably stop the atorvastatin at the end of the month, unless he presents me with compelling proof that I need it. Had to do the same thing in the hospital after my heart operation when they were hitting my lungs with searing Atavan and other breathing drugs 4 times a day, burning my throat and IMHO scarring it. My breathing was just fine! I rebelled. When confronted with my demand for proof of the need for such treatment, they went away and came back later, saying it was my choice, I could quit if I wanted. They could not present me with any earthly reason for me to be taking it except that "It's protocol". So of course I quit it.
Why did they endanger and stress out my delicate breathing apparatus for no good reason? What would have happened to my lungs if that had continued, 4 times a day, until I was released on the 9th day? Why don't they find the side effects of these things as important as the POTENTIAL help I would get from keeping my already safe-level cholesterol levels down further??? These side effects were not even MENTIONED by my cardiologist. Ever.
My chiropractor says our brains are made of fat and need a certain amount of cholesterol to function properly. I think that, at least in my case, the statin drugs are depriving my brain of that, and making me unaware of things that should be occurring to me naturally. In which case I consider these drugs not only deleterious, but insidious as well. Taking it for the rest of my life? Sorry Charlie.
Not an option.