“My Internal medicine doctor had me switch to 5 mg of Crestor so I didn’t have to split the 10 mg Lipitor pill. I had never had migraines. I was 73 years old at that time. The Neurologist wanted to blame it on migraines - I think because I had a lingering stiff neck and slight headache at the back of my head. Doctors did ultra sound, CT Scan, EEG, stress tests and found no cause. But after I woke up I kept repeating myself and she thought I might have had a small stroke. “According to my wife, I had continued to talk to her and the people on the other side until the meeting started. At a dinner business presentation, sitting and talking to people on one side and my wife on the other, I suddenly ‘woke up’ and realized I didn’t remember anything that had happened for the previous 40 minutes. I was taking 5 mg of Lipitor (half of a 10 mg pill) and had been for over a year. “My situation is similar to others in terms of cholesterol and TGA. It may also be that pravastatin doesn’t get into the brain as easily as some other statins such as simvastatin or atorvastatin. That may be because pravastatin (Pravachol) is prescribed less often than atorvastatin. We have had far fewer reports of memory problems associated with pravastatin than with atorvastatin. “Physicians need to inform their patients on Lipitor–and probably some other statins–of this serious and upsetting side effect.” Both the muscle pain and the amnesiac experiences stopped! Later, because I had leg and muscle pain on Lipitor, my family physician changed me to Pravachol. I saw a neurologist for an Alzheimer’s test: I had no symptoms. “I was a university professor for 30 years who remembered everything. A second time I had a memory blackout: forgot my S.S.#, my telephone #, my bank card #, even my birthday date. “I, too, had amnesiac experiences on Lipitor: on one occasion I lost an entire day–bewildering. William in Huntingdon, PA shared this scary situation: My cholesterol is not as low as it was on statins, but is in an acceptable range.” I went off statins and now control my cholesterol with other strategies. My final diagnosis was that I had suffered TGA (Transient Global Amnesia). I was tested for stroke or other possible causes including blockage of carotid arteries. I was hospitalized and thoroughly tested, including MRI, EEG and EKG. “I suffered from 10 hours of amnesia in 2009 when I was 63 years old. Graveline, we share some of those stories with you: Graveline’s story with readers we heard from many other people who had also suffered episodes of transient global amnesia. Over that time he wrote several books including Lipitor, Thief of Memory, and Statin Drug Side Effects.Īfter sharing Dr. He was convinced that his episodes of TGA and his subsequent degenerative neuromuscular condition were caused by statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. I am more convinced than ever of a Lipitor relationship.” Dr. After six weeks I landed in the ER with a twelve-hour episode of total global amnesia. Believing it must have been a coincidence, I restarted Lipitor a year later. “Other doctors and pharmacists were unaware of similar problems. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me so I suspected Lipitor and discontinued it. Six weeks later I experienced my first episode of total global amnesia lasting six hours. Two years ago at my annual astronaut physical at Johnson Space Center (JSC) I was started on Lipitor. “I am a retired family doctor and former astronaut. Duane Graveline, MD, MPH, wrote to us with a strange story: We first heard about a rare medical condition called TGA (transient global amnesia) in 2001 from a reader of this newspaper column.

Some health professionals were outraged that we dared to discuss this issue at all. When we begin writing about a link between drugs like atorvastatin ( Lipitor), lovastatin ( Mevacor), or simvastatin ( Zocor) and forgetfulness or brain fog 15 years ago, we were told it was all in our heads. The relationship between statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs and memory problems has been controversial for decades.

Transglobal amnesia causes