E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
People, pay attention to the instructions on your meds. If not for your health – at least consider your hair.
A 16-year-old Bay Area blonde learned this last year, when a band of her hair suddenly and mysteriously turned nearly white. She first noticed the change a week after returning from a two-week vacation in Costa Rica. While on the trip, she took chloroquine phosphate, an anti-malarial drug. But instead of taking 500 mg of the drug weekly, she took that amount every day.
“You could see across her hair, there was just this band of lighter color,” says Dr. Vera H. Price, a dermatology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who described the case in today's New England Journal of Medicine. “They were very worried. She was concerned that something was drastically wrong and serious.”
It’s called hair hypopigmentation, and while it’s a weird side effect, it’s a harmless one. The bright blond hair is already starting to grow out, Price says. (The teen is lucky: In some cases, too much chloroquine has caused hair loss.) Most cases occur after three months of daily doses of 500 mg of the drug, but it happened much faster in this case.
“Whenever you take a pill of any time, for any reason, pay attention,” Price says. “Be careful, and know what you’re doing. It’s just a matter of respecting medications.”
Have you experienced weird side effects to your medications? Tell us about it in the comments.
To read more Body Odd posts, click here. You can also find us on Twitter and on Facebook.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
There was an instance of what might be this in a movie called "Young Sherlock Holmes", when in retribution for a horrible prank, the younger Sherlock causes a rival classmate's hair (all of it) to bleach out to solid white...
I had been taking 4 500mg glucophage tablets a day for years. suddenly my prescription got changed to 2 1000mg tablets a day but i didn't notice the change and so i was taking double the maximum dosage. had terrible diarrhea and felt dreadful. finally figured it out after a week or so. walmart pharmacy really should have warned me about that change.
4 - 500 mg tabs is the same as 2 -1000 mg tabs. And 1000 mg twice a day is the maximum dosage. If you were taking them all at the same time, you were always taking them wrong. The pharmacy didn't do anything wrong. Diarrhea is a common side effect of Metformin (glucophage)
I think they were saying they took 4- 1000 mg tabs every day. That's double the dosage.
What the person is saying is he/she didn't notice that the pills changed to 1000 mg so he/she was taking 4 1000 mg's a day (double the dose)......I don't think that the person was implying to bash the pharmacy, but it would be nice for them to let a person know that the pill is a higher dosage..........hopefully you understand what they meant now!?!?
It's true that the pharmacy should have told them about the change in prescription dosage. This person should also be aware of what they're taking at all times. Every pill has something on it to identify what it is and what its dosage is. One should ALWAYS check to make sure they're taking the right thing. Never just assume that it would be correct.
The change in dosage was the DOCTOR'S responsibility to tell the patient when writing the prescription. As our family has recently weathered a serious medical crisis we are learning that it is important to PRESS the physician on everything that he/she says and NOT to let yourself be dismissed by docs who think it is not your place to question them. Given the cost of medical care in this country and the people who are dying because of medical mistakes--you have to speak up and make sure you understand what your doctor is saying and doing.
The patient should also take charge of their own health care and ask questions about any medication they are taking and read all of the information that comes with the prescription thoroughly. The patient needs to tell the doctor of all medications they are taking,even over the counters ones.
But taking charge of one's own health care would mean showing some measure of personal responsibility. After having worked in the pharmacy business for more than 10 years, I can tell you that that's the last thing people want to do. Everyone seems to want to just blame someone else.
The kid is lucky, indeed. An alternative malaria preventative, Larium, can have side effects ranging from nausea to bizarre nightmares to schizophrenia. At least the symptoms go away when you stop taking the meds. Yeah, read the directions and pay close attention to listed side effects.
I to took the malaria pill incorrectly. I took the weekly pill daily! I found it affectled my ability to walk a straight line. I would get up from a seated position and veer off in one direction or another (not my intended direction). Army doctors had no clue as to what was happening! I happened to read the pill directions and they covered my symtoms! After taking the pill correctly, my symtoms went away.
Well she should have known exactly what dosage to take and every possible SE Of this drug. Last week I got lambasted for stating I rarely read all the literature that comes with a prescription and I have never had a doctor freely volunteer any info about it. It's like pulling teeth. Not to mention all the times you have A SE and they are like, Oh that's not because of the drug... whatever. So in keeping with all the holier than thou, know it alls, from last week, the girl should have known any and all possible SE and she should have known exactly what dosage to take.
I had some serious side affects after taking a liquid vitamin a couple of years ago. I was aware of the recall of a particular vitamin, mine was a different brand so I didn't consider it a possibility. I got numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, lost over 5 lbs (I weigh 123 lbs) my veins were huge and very green and blue. My joints hurt like crazy and I was dead tired. I saw multiple doctors, no one diagnosed me. They all thought I was insane. I now know I had Selenosis.
A couple of years ago I took Depakote for my bipolar disorder. After a while of taking it, I started noticing more of my hair in my hairbrush than usual. I was concerned but it wasn't until one day in the bath when I pulled my hand away from my hair and saw that clumps of my hair was coming out that I was truly scared. I called and consulted the pharmacy, went over my medicines and was told it was most likely the Depakote. I went to my psychiatrist and told him. "You have to take me off this medicine, it is making me lose my hair."
I injured my sciatic nerve & my right hip, and was taking a muscle relaxer called Flexeril to relieve the pain. I wanted to still stay in as best of condition that I could although I was injured. I started taking the medication before I would do some low impact exercises thinking that it would help to combat the pain that I would be experiencing. When I tried to go to sleep at bedtime, I found that my legs were all jumpy. I couldn't figure out why. Then I read a small article in the Woman's World magazine that stated, that if you take a muscle relaxer before exercising, it could and probably would cause the jumpy legs that I had been have for a few weeks. I sure wish that the pharmacist, doctor or some informative info about this type of side effect would sure saved me some worrisome nights trying to get them settled, and wondering why they had all of a sudden had started. Ask and read, read, read about all of the medications the doctors give to you. You can't always count on the medical profession to point things out.
when i was first diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, the dr. put me on plaquenil, which is standard. Except that it has sulfa in it, and i am allergic to sulfa, which was in bright red letters on the chart. the pharmacist missed that too, and i first broke into hives then my skin peeled off like when you get a sunburn. Only from head to toe and over and over for 2 months. i only took the medicine a week before the reaction started. I was so sensitive to touch, and i was always cold, it was awful, and it took a toll on me. before that, my arthritis wasn't bad, after that it was so bad i ended up having to quit work and go on disability at 32 years old. Now i do my own research before i take any medicine, i don't trust drs. or pharmacists anymore.
Having worked in a pharmacy for more than 10 years, I can tell you it's a pretty common occurance for a doctor to prescribe something a patient is allergic to, however the pharmacist should have caught it if you previously told them you were allergic to sulfa. Or it is possible that the pharmacy DID catch it and when they called your doctor to verify the script he told them to give it to you anyway. That happens alot also. I've had doctors scream at me like a crazy person for questioning their judgement when they had prescribed something completely inappropiate for a particular patient.
a friend of our family was going on vacation to Panama and took the shot to avoid yellow fever or malaria. He is now paralyzed from the neck down and is making a very recovery. He has been in the hospital for weeks and is on a ventilator. He is doing some better now but his progress is very, very, slow. And its all very scary.
This girl should sue the quack that told her to take these drugs to begin with. Costa Rica is full of resorts and americans that live there full time and they NEVER take any of these drugs because these conditions just aren't common in the region anymore. Being a hypochondriac can have deadly side effects. If you're traveling somewhere, take your chances and just be careful, don't pump yourself full of drugs.
So while she had malaria she was vacationing in Costa Rica? I don't think thats recommended for her nor others around her!
uhhhh, she didn't HAVE malaria....the medication was a malaria PREVENTATIVE!
I am on various medications for chronic nerve pain, spinal stenosis, a few other problems thrown in for good (I guess). I read EVERY thing I get, and also make sure the medication is the right one. There have been times when one was not filled correctly. Went back to the pharmacy and they were mighty embarrassed!
How about wanting to be 'one less'? More like one less a menstrual cycle. Fact is, there just hasn't been enough testing on the drug Gardasil. We've all seen the commercials inspiring you to get it for yourself or your daughter, and what it says it will do is great. When it comes down to it, it only protects against a FEW types of HPV causing cancer. There are 7 times that many that are spread through genital contact..For me, it just doesn't protect against enough to be worth it. Especially after what I suffered as a side effect. Before I got mine, I'd read horror stories of girls losing all of their hair. Pages upon pages of moms leaving angry comments about how the drug caused their daughters to go bald. So naturally, I was terrified..What I didn't expect when I went into it, was no longer having a period. After I got the first shot, I didn't have a period for 9 months afterwards. I know it was stupid to wait and not go to the doctor until after then, but I was only 14 years old and I was scared to tell anyone. I finally broke down and told my mother, and she made me go. Their solution? 'Put her on birth control and see if that will force her into one.' So that's exactly what we did. Three months of birth control, and finally my period returned. I had to continue taking the drug for six months after that just to be sure my period would continue to come regularly. I hated the side effects of birth control, so I decided I wanted off of it after that. Now it's been several years since then, and still to this day I'm having problems. I often skip two periods, and when I finally have them they're very light and don't last for more than a few days. I can't even mark on a calender when I should be expecting my next one..because they just don't come like that. It may be a two months until my next one. There's just no predicting it.
Needless to say, I didn't go back to get the other two shots of Gardasil. And the doctor I talked to that put me on birth control agreed with me. She didn't like the shot and the risks involved with getting it. I wish I would have gone to her before even having it, because she would have told me not to.
Thanks a lot, Gardasil.
Life Won't Wait: As a female who matured early, receiving my cycle at 11yrs. old. When it first started I got mine every three months, heavy and lasting anywhere from 5 to 7days, and unbelievable crapping. hen I told my Mom, she got me to a GY Specialist (GY/OBY) who put me on a low dose birth control, which in turn made my craps even more unbearable (like couldn't go anywhere while on cycle); finally he took me off of the pill because I had missed too many school days but it did kinda regulate it to every other month. I didn't go back until my next scheduled appt. and when I did and told him what was going on he decided to let it be. As I got older it stayed that way most of the time, sometime I would get it twice in one month (the beginningand the end of the month). When I reached my 30s it just went whacky, so of course now it is time for testing, starting with the ultrasound of my abdomen, then the CAT scans, and finally blood work. Well after all of this they found that I was developing fibriod tumors; for which accounted for the longivity and heaviness of the cycle's course. These tumors are not cancerous tumors and were very small at this time (small as a dot) but causing massive problems for me that they did a laser surgery hoping that that would alliviate some of my pain. It worked like magic!!! But little did I know these tumors grow back and they did, 2years later, with a vengence as it seemed, the pain was worse then before and hen they did the CAT scan to see if that was the problem they came back quicker n bigger then before so no I had to have them surgically removed, ever had a c-section, exactly like that, staples and stitches all the way across my stomach but that wasn't the end of it either, they still return again, yes, the pain was even worse, so much so I ended up in the hospital in so much pain that I ouldn't hardly stand or move without blood spewing like a gusher (my hubby had to carry me in the emergency room when e finally got to the hospital), I literally almost bleed to death. The doctors stopped it all together long enough to complete the testing part of preping for surgery and then they just remove my entire uterus. OH yeah, I definately bought up the possibility of me taking one of those "only having 4 periods a year (Seasonal) or the gardasil and my GY Specialist like to have blown a gascit about those types of medications saying that they only cause more problems in the future or right away depending on the female and as it stood I was having plenty problems without their help. Needless to say I eventually had to have a total hysterectomy, never had any children of my own but was blessed with to sons when I married my hubby. TO ALL THE WOMEN..just because it sounds like a good idea does mean it is...I WOULD HAVE LOVED HAVING A PERIOD ONLY FOUR TIMES IN A YEAR but to women like LIfe won't wait, is it really worth the "after affects". Please please reconsider any alterations that you think may be a better way of handling something like our cycles because once they go wrong, you are putting yourself in very serious jeapardy....sometimes a little inconvenience is worth the trip!!!!
I took Lisiniprol for high blood pressure and developed an annoying cough/tickle in my throat that I couldn't get rid of. I coughed and coughed and coughed for almost a year. Needless to say, my coworkers thought I had bronchitis or pneumonia when it worsened in December. I finally said something to my doctor when I went back for my annual physical and he told 8% of people have this side effect. I now take Micardis and haven't had any side effects. Warning to the wise - pay attention to your body and don't hesitate to call your doctor for anything that lasts more than a month!
I was taking this same medication for RA, but stop taking it after I had an eye exam and the doctor told me that this drug can build up a toxin behind the eye and cause blindness...REALLY?? My RA doc NEVER told me about this possible side effect. You are giving a drug for a specific reason and it may cause other problems along the way??? That's why I hardly take anything anymore!!!
A pharmacy once gave me another patient's perscription. Fortunately it was a different drug, and the name on the bottle was not mine.
Another time the same pharmacy combined two different style pills of the same drug. The perscription bottles always have a descriptor about the physical contents too. E.G. "Round, white 70-mg"
Kinda bad if you are taking drugs through international airports and there are two different types in a container. Worse yet if the pharmacy makes a mistake in the perscription.
While the girl should have paid attention to the correct dosage, i feel the doctor or pharmacist is more at fault. They should have prescribed only enough for the two doses needed while on vacation, not give her enough to take that much every day. Of course, the more medicine they give, the more money they get....
Actually that's not true about making more money by giving her more medication. They would have made more money if they had only given her enough for the trip and then she had to come back to get the rest and would have had to pay again. That medication is taken once a week for several weeks, beginning before your trip and continuing after your return.
I think I took a generic milk of magnesia laxative to relieve constipation. I took the suggested dose at night, but I felt my blood pressure rise. It was an uncomfortable feeling. I decided not to take it again.
Many yrs ago I went to my gyno who recommended that I go on a higher strength estrogen medication. This was in the fall and I followed his orders. In the spring I began to have something call supra ventricular tachycardia. I didn't connect the estrogen increase. I lived with this for five yrs with trips to the hosp and visited two of the top heart drs in the area. I was given another prescription on top of the two beta blockers that I was already on. I kept asking the drs if it could be the estrogen and was told no over and over by these drs. I finally took myself off the estrogen and within a couple of days the svt went away never to return. When you suspect something within your own body you should try to solve it if you can. I was furious for all that time that I was ill.
I had a UTI several years ago and was prescribed Septra DS by the physician. I woke up in the middle of the night and ran to the bathroom to vomit. That continued all night long. I called the Dr. office the next day and they told me it was a side effect from the drug, and I was given a new prescription. They also warned me to mention to any new physician that I had an allergy to that medication. A few months later the same thing happended, woke up in the middle of the night and vomitted all night long. This happened again and again for about 2 years. One Dr. said it was from stress and another pretty much told me I was over reacting. I FINALLY went to an internist who discovered I had Gall Bladder Dysfunction (which is rare at 22 years old). That pretty much mean my gall bladder wasn't working and it would make me sick. I had surgery and I'm fine! Now I know I wasn't allergic to any medication, something else was wrong.
solution found, wanna be a blondi?,
several yrs ago I went to my gyno for my annual exam. He recommended that I go on a higher dose of estrogen. I did as he told me to do. The following spring I developed something called svt supra ventricular tachycardia. My heartbeat was erratic and sped up at times. I didn't put this condition onto the estrogen as I didn't think that there was a connection. I visited two heart drs over the yrs and even had an emergency visit to the hosp. I was put on beta blockers for five yrs. I began to ask if there could be a connection to the estrogen and was told no over and over again. I finally decided to take myself off the estrogen. Within two days I was cured. I was very angry that I had suffered all those yrs for something that the drs should have known.
Read the label people! What happens if you have 8-10 meds to take daily, like I do. If you can't figure out how to read the label correctly contact your pharmacist or your doctor...your life may be in your hands.
I had the Gardasil three-series shot. With each shot, I noticed increasing numbness in my extremities. Started in my palms & feet & by the last shot, it was traveling all the way up my arms and up my calves. Until I figured out what it was, I was pretty darn scared & my family doctor even tested for Muscular dystrophy. Yikes!
My daughter has JRA and our dr. told us NEVER to give her the Gardasil shots because they had 10 girls just in their practice alone that developed JRA from the shot. They are sending their info to FDA but too late for those girls. I always be careful about vacinations just out on the market.
First of all, the correct spelling would have been "I too took the malaria pill incorrectly". I cannot understand grown people who don't know the difference between to and too, or there and their. But worst of all, why on earth were you taking this medication, any medication for that matter, without reading the directions FIRST?!?!? And the girl in this article, at 16 years old, why the heck weren't her parents overseeing her medication dosage? I seriously hope you don't have children to be responsible for.