Quote:
Originally Posted by shari
I have some weird memory things going on: my short term memory sometimes can only hold 2 bits of info at a time. Sometimes I forget the words for common objects, like refrigerator. And once I even forgot how to get home from the supermarket.
A friend suggested this might be due to medication side-effects. I take fluoxetine and amitryptaline for fibromyalgia, and mobic for an as yet undiagnosed auto-immune process that affects my connective tissues, and provigil for the fatigue. Does any of this affect memory?
My rheumy wants to replace the fluoxetine with Cymbalta or Effexor -- is one or the other more likely to cause side effects in the cognitive area, or in muscle weakness?
Thanks for your input.
==Shari
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Hi Shari,
Gosh, when I read what you'd written I had to write to you. I had such similar problems, and I found them so scary.
One of the things that I've observed is that many medications, especially antidepressants, affect memory.
My feeling is that they lower our B12 levels and it's really the low B12 that is affecting our memory.
Are you taking Methylcobalamin at all? It can sometimes help. It will always help if you are low on B12, but if you don't know if you are low on B12 then it might or might not help, depending on your underlying B12 levels.
Sorry, that was pretty convoluted. It's just that B12 is so important and is so often overlooked.
At the same time, it isn't a problem for everyone.
You might want to take a look at a page I've been working on that shows how fingernails reflect low B12:
http://health-boundaries-bite.com/Fingernail-Lines.html
If you have those kinds of ridges or are losing the moons on your fingernails, then look at the whole list of symptoms of low B12... if they fit you, if they are what you are experiencing, then you should get Methylcobalamin and keep notes as to what you experience when you are taking it.
((((((((((Shari)))))))))))
Don't worry, but do take these steps.