Delayed side effects from common medications

[NHE]

Some medications can cause delayed side effects even after years of taking them with no apparent problems. These can be debilitating. Examples include chronic diarrhea and vitamin B12 depletion from metformin; angiodema of the face, neck and abdomin from ACE inhibitors and cataracts, memory impairment and myositis from statins. Note severe myositis is not reversible and can lead to wheelchair use and/or long-term nursing home care.

Sneaky Delayed Drug Side Effects Fool MDs and Patients

A surprising number of popular medications can cause delayed drug side effects. They may not show up for years or decades. Protect yourself!

Joe Graedon - November 12, 2023

https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/article ... d-patients

If your doctor recommends a new drug to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, hypothyroidism or elevated LDL cholesterol, you should be informed about the most common or worrisome side effects. Actually, that should be true for just about any medicine you take. During the first few days or weeks you are likely to be vigilant for adverse drug reactions. If nothing bad happens, doctors and patients assume all is well. But sometimes delayed drug side effects don’t become apparent for months or even years.

Recognizing Delayed Drug Side Effects Can Be Challenging:

A surprising number of medications can work well for a long time without causing obvious problems. Then, seemingly out of the blue, a patient may develop unexpected complications. Many people don’t connect their new symptoms with a pill they have been taking safely for years.

Doctors may not be much better at detecting delayed drug side effects. That can make it difficult to diagnose the problem. What makes this so challenging is that there are no easy tests to predict who will and who won’t develop delayed drug side effects.

We have been monitoring this problem for decades. What follows is an abbreviated list of medications that can seem perfectly fine for months, years or even decades. Then, without warning, strange or serious symptoms start to show up. That’s why we always like to rule out adverse drug reactions first.

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