I've discovered the reason why I never post in this blog, why I never accomplish anything, why I forget simple tasks, etc. The FDA added new warnings to statin drug labels, including that in very rare cases statins are reported to cause cognitive impairment and memory loss.
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Just need to find an explanation for the juvenile dementia in the prior three decades of my life.
Interestingly enough, googling "statin warning" pulls up several front-page results on what to do and what your rights are if the police arrest you at a gas station. I did not know such a topic existed. Also, there's a blog called "gas station without pumps" which posted about the statin warning, so that's definitely front page on Google now. As will this post when I start talking about my upcoming statin-induced confused rampage through gas stations across America. Complete with a photo. See?
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On hopefully the good side, however, the FDA got rid of the need for repeated liver enzyme checks because statins pretty much never cause liver problems. This is a good thing, since the docs I see never seem to know what to do with those numbers anyway. (I mean, justifiably - I'm not cirrhotic, I don't have hepatic failure, etc. What do you do with normally fluctuating numbers in a normal walking-around person?)
I used the FDA link above, rather than a news story link, not because I like the FDA but because frankly I think the news industry does a lousy job reporting medical issues and I don't want to further promote their status as the single most important distributor of medical information to the public.
p.s. if you don't recall, I started using statins a couple years back when I discovered my LDL cholesterol was well over 300 and my HDL was in the toilet. I don't really like the idea of taking a drug to fix things, or blaming "genetics" or family history, but not even losing 20 pounds and frequent exercise and taking the normal starting dose of a statin really moved my cholesterol much. I know some people dispute whether a high LDL means anything, but frankly I'm not taking chances.![]()
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Interestingly enough, googling "statin warning" pulls up several front-page results on what to do and what your rights are if the police arrest you at a gas station. I did not know such a topic existed. Also, there's a blog called "gas station without pumps" which posted about the statin warning, so that's definitely front page on Google now. As will this post when I start talking about my upcoming statin-induced confused rampage through gas stations across America. Complete with a photo. See?
On hopefully the good side, however, the FDA got rid of the need for repeated liver enzyme checks because statins pretty much never cause liver problems. This is a good thing, since the docs I see never seem to know what to do with those numbers anyway. (I mean, justifiably - I'm not cirrhotic, I don't have hepatic failure, etc. What do you do with normally fluctuating numbers in a normal walking-around person?)
I used the FDA link above, rather than a news story link, not because I like the FDA but because frankly I think the news industry does a lousy job reporting medical issues and I don't want to further promote their status as the single most important distributor of medical information to the public.
p.s. if you don't recall, I started using statins a couple years back when I discovered my LDL cholesterol was well over 300 and my HDL was in the toilet. I don't really like the idea of taking a drug to fix things, or blaming "genetics" or family history, but not even losing 20 pounds and frequent exercise and taking the normal starting dose of a statin really moved my cholesterol much. I know some people dispute whether a high LDL means anything, but frankly I'm not taking chances.