2009 02 22

I had a heart-attack almost two years ago, and have been taking a selection of chemicals to prevent a recurrence. They have been causing me some grief, especially pain in my joints and muscles, which is inconvenient, to say the least. Yes, it's better than the alternative, but I would really like to be out of pain for at least short periods each day. So, I have a new doctor, and I want to reassess the drugs that I take, and started doing some research.

I have come to the conclusion that we don't know what the hell we are doing.

Some combination of chemicals is discovered to relieve or reverse, say, high cholesterol. Unfortunately, these drugs not only sometimes do what they are intended to do, they also cause things: chest pain, headache, fatigue, dizziness, rash, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, heartburn, increased transaminases, myalgia, cough, influenza, allergy, lens opacity, libido change, memory impairment, muscle weakness, neuropathy, paresthesia, taste disturbance, tremor, vertigo, anaphylaxis, angioedema, cholestatic jaundice, cirrhosis, cranial nerve dysfunction, dermatomyositis, erythema multiforme, ESR increase, fulminant hepatic necrosis, gynecomastia, hemolytic anemia, hepatitis, hepatoma, lupus erythematosus-like syndrome, myopathy, pancreatitis, peripheral nerve palsy, polymyalgia rheumatica, positive ANA, purpura, rhabdomyolysis, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, vasculitis, angioedema, cataracts, depression, dyspnea, eosinophilia, erectile dysfunction, facial paresis, hypersensitivity reaction, impaired extraocular muscle movement, impotence, leukopenia, malaise, memory loss, ophthalmoplegia, paresthesia, peripheral neuropathy, photosensitivity, psychic disturbance, skin discoloration, thrombocytopenia, thyroid dysfunction, toxic epidermal necrolysis, increased, transaminases and vomiting - in that order of occurrence.

How can a drug cause a virus like influenza?

And that is just the cholesterol drug I take, one of, I don't know, eleven or so. Each of the others has more or fewer 'adverse reactions' in its arsenal. And they work in combination, or fight one another, or affect the performance of one another, or play merry hell with one's liver, kidneys or heart. Some foods, notably grapefruit, cause unknown amplification or suppression of some drugs' actions. Anti-depression drugs cause ... depression. Asthma drugs cause ... bronchiospasm and difficulty breathing. One asthma drug causes high blood pressure, which I take another drug to lower. The drug I take to lower my pressure causes some other drug to do something else that causes some other drug to cause me to take a drug to combat the nausea that they all cause. Is this sounding rational to you?

I've come up with a list of drugs that I think do all the things that my current selection are supposed to do, and, according to a web-site designed to track these things, don't interfere with one another, I started a spreadsheet of the adverse reactions, and now am not sure that I should change any of them: I'm accustomed to the way I feel taking this set, and don't know if I'm interested in accommodating a new plethora of side-effects. The myalgia and arthralgia caused by this set are absent or way down the list on the new set, so it may be worth it. We'll see what my doctor has to say next week. Wish me luck.