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Old Wed Dec 5, 2012, 08:30 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by otryingo View Post
Hi - My father was diagnosed with myelodysplasia about a year ago. He has been healthy as a horse his whole life and dances 3-4 times per week. He has never used medications (not even aspirin) and would rarely see a doctor. He decided to get a routine checkup about 3 years ago and they put him on Lipitor. I've been suspicious for a while that the Lipitor could have caused the problem with the myelodysplasia and just did a google search to see if there have been any studies connecting the two. I did come across some that seem to be finding a connection. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I think ehealthme.com is reporting, in a rather mechanical way, the number of people who fall into both categories (take Liptor and have MDS) rather than showing that there's a connection between the two. And there's not much of an overlap in their data, since they show less than one tenth of one percent of Lipitor users also have MDS.

I've never heard of MDS being a side effect of Lipitor, although low platelets and low red cell counts have been reported as rare Lipitor side effects. The cause of MDS is usually unknown. Known causes include exposure to toxic chemicals (particularly benzene), smoking, or prior treatment with high-dose radiation or chemotherapy. If your father doesn't smoke then you can rule out the last two possible causes but it's hard to know what chemicals you've been exposed to over a lifetime.

I'm glad your father is a healthy guy. That can make a big difference if you require treatment for MDS.

Has your father needed MDS treatment yet? Do you know what his MDS "subtype" is or how they rate the MDS severity (risk level)?
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