Brits taking statins should be warned about a rare but serious side effect, health chiefs have said.

Seven types of the cholesterol-busting pills, including all five dished out in the UK, have been linked to myasthenia gravis — a long-term muscle-weakening condition that can be life-threatening in severe cases. 

Patients taking the once-a-day pill should watch out for symptoms including droopy eyelids, double vision and difficulty swallowing, the medicines watchdog warned.

Atorvastatin, sold under the brand name Lipitor, pravastatin (Lipostat) and lovastatin (Mevacor) — taken by millions and proven to cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes— are among the varieties affected. 

Cases of myasthenia gravis were also detected among patients taking fluvastatin (Lescol), simvastatin (Zocor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and pitavastatin (Livalo).

The fresh advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) states that a ‘very small number’ of myasthenia gravis cases have been linked to statin use.

Around 9.5million Brits take statins, which usually must be taken for life to keep cholesterol low. 

It is thought the complication is ‘very infrequent’, the MHRA said.

Just 10 cases have been reported to the MHRA in the last three decades. Sufferers were in their 60s, on average. 

Symptoms began between a few day and three months of taking statins. No cases were fatal.

Most patients who suffered the side effect recovered after they stopped taking the medication but a minority continued to suffer from symptoms.

Some of those who restarted their medication or tried a different type of statin reported that their symptoms came back.

The MHRA told medics to refer patients suffering new-onset myasthenia gravis after starting statins to a neurology specialist. 

And patients who already have the condition should monitor whether their symptoms worsen while taking the drugs, it said.

Patients may need to stop taking statins depending on their individual benefits and risks, the watchdog said.

The warning comes after the European Medicines Agency in January ordered drug makers behind the seven types of statins to amend their in-pack leaflet to include a warning about myasthenia gravis.

The MHRA said this review was considered by one of its sub-committees, which agreed with the recommendations.

It said statin drug makers will have to explain that there is a risk of myasthenia gravis but that it is ‘not known’ how common it is.

Statins work by lowering the levels of ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol produced by the liver. 

Too much LDL cholesterol can lead to atherosclerosis — when the arteries harden and narrow — heart attacks, strokes and heart disease.

Brits diagnosed with a form of cardiovascular disease or those who have a family history of the condition may be recommended the medication.

Headaches, nausea and diarrhoea are well-known mild side effects from taking statins. But the MHRA warning adds myasthenia gravis to the list.

The condition weakens muscles, most commonly those that control the eyes, eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, swallowing and speaking. 

Difficulties making facial expressions, slurred speech weak shortness of breath are among the common symptoms.

Triggers, such as stress, tiredness and excess exercise, can worsen symptoms, as well as medicines, including antibiotics and beta-blockers. 

Medicine to boost muscle strength and surgery to remove a small gland in the chest that has been linked to myasthenia gravis may be offered to ease symptoms. 

While the condition doesn’t affect life expectancy for most people, it can be life-threatening if weakens the muscles needed for breathing.

By Katie Pickles, Health Editor

Published: 19:21 EDT, 26 September 2023 | Updated: 03:06 EDT, 27 September 2023

By Kate Pickles Health Editor

Published: 19:10 EDT, 26 September 2023 | Updated: 20:24 EDT, 26 September 2023

The Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines are being linked to unexpected vaginal bleeding in older women and women on birth control. 

While changes in bleeding and periods in menstruating women post-shot have been known for years, few studies have looked at the impact on women who don’t normally menstruate, such as the elderly and those on birth control.

However, a recent study using data from thousands of women in Norway looked at the association between these vaccines and unexpected vaginal bleeding and found that in postmenopausal women, the risk of vaginal bleeding increased two to three times in the four weeks after Covid vaccination compared to before vaccination. 

In women entering menopause and premenopausal women, the risk was increased three to five times. 

Researchers looked at data from August and September 2021. Ninety-eight percent of the women included reported receiving their Covid vaccines in January 2021, meaning they had received the original Covid-19 vaccine as opposed to any updated booster shots. 

Additionally, in Norway, where the data was collected from, Covid vaccines used included those manufactured by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca. 

When Covid vaccines were first rolled out, tens of thousands of women complained about late or unusually heavy periods. Before formal research was conducted, anti-vaxxers latched onto the reports and used them to infuse fear in Americans that the vaccines caused infertility. 

However, research later released showed while menstrual changes do occur following Covid vaccination, they are minor, temporary and do not impact fertility. 

Experts are not entirely sure why changes in menstruation occur, but some believe the vaccine causes some of the body’s tissue to become inflamed, causing changes to the lining of the uterus and hormone levels throughout the body.  

While the recent study did not investigate why these women experienced unexplained vaginal bleeding, sometimes referred to as breakthrough bleeding, scientists did suggest it could be linked to the spike protein used in the shots. 

Study author Kristine Blix from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, said: ‘We had already, from the early pandemic, biweekly questionnaires going out to cohort participants to monitor effects of the pandemic. 

‘In the first questionnaire that covered COVID-19 vaccinations, sent in 2021, some women reported in free-text fields that they had experienced heavy menstrual bleeding. 

‘This urged us to ask for bleeding patterns in a structured manner.’

Researchers looked at data from nearly 22,000 women who had already experienced menopause, women in perimenopause, the time just before entering menopause, and non-menstruating premenopausal women, including some who were on long-term hormonal birth control. 

They found 252 postmenopausal women (3.3 percent), 1,008 perimenopausal women (14.1 percent) and 924 premenopausal women (13.1 percent) reported unexplained or breakthrough vaginal bleeding throughout the entire year of 2021. 

Of the women who reported this, about half in every group reported their bleeding occurred within the four weeks following their first and/or second vaccine dose. 

The data showed: 45 percent of postmenopausal women, 51 percent of perimenopausal women and 55 percent of premenopausal women reported the unexplained bleeding.

Among these women, 28 percent of those in perimenopause characterized the bleeding as heavy, compared to 18 percent of both women who had finished menopause and who had not yet experienced menopause. 

Women in the senior cohort of the study were aged 61 to 88 years old and were considered non menstruating. Other non menstruating females were aged 32 to 64 years. Respondents were then grouped into the three menopausal categories. 

Vaginal bleeding in postmenopausal women can be a sign of a serious condition, such as cancer, and more women in this group than the others sought medical care after experiencing unexplained bleeding – 30.6 percent compared to 13.8 percent of perimenopausal women and 9.3 percent of premenopausal women. 

The risk of breakthrough bleeding in the first four weeks after a dose of Moderna’s vaccine was associated with a 32 percent increase compared to Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. 

Heavy menstrual bleeding has since been added as a vaccine side effect. 

The study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, analyzed data from an ongoing health survey called the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study.

An experimental drug that laces people’s skin with poison is being trialed to protect against Lyme disease.

Cases of the tick-borne infection have soared across America in recent decades with nearly 500,000 people now thought to be infected every year.

The new pill would be taken once every nine months and works by putting a drug that is harmless to humans but deadly to ticks into the skin, causing the ticks to suffer a seizure and die before they can transmit the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Dr Bobak Azamian, the chief executive of the California company developing the treatment, told DailyMail.com: ‘I think the power of this tablet is there is nothing like it that targets the root cause of Lyme disease, that is the trick.

‘What this would do is provide an opportunity for protection for lots of people, for landscapers, frequent hikers and gardeners.’

Trials have already shown it is safe, but it must now be shown to have a protective effect before it can be submitted for approval.

If successful, the team at California-based Tarsus Pharmaceuticals say it could be available by 2026. 

Lyme disease vaccines have not been available since 2002, when the Lymerix vaccine was pulled off the market.

Yet over the past three decades, Lyme disease cases appear to have more than doubled nationwide to nearly 500,000 per year.

The disease can be treated with antibiotics if caught in the early stages, but figures suggest some 30,000 patients every year don’t notice in time.

This means many patients may suffer in silence. Bella Hadid, who was diagnosed with Lyme disease in July, said she was left suffering an irregular heartbeat, joint pain and difficulty breathing by the infection.

The bacteria behind Lyme disease causes disease by hitching a ride in the bloodstream from the infection site to other areas in the body.

In severe cases, it can infect and damage heart valves and nerve cells leading to encephalitis — or inflammation of the brain.

The new pill contains a drug called TP-05, a parasitic agent that paralyzes and kills ticks.

Pfizer is also working on a new vaccine to tackle Lyme disease using the same mRNA technology that was deployed against Covid.

This will require at least three doses to be effectively, preliminary research suggests, and possibly a booster every year. It is not expected to be available until 2025.

The drug has already passed Phase 1 trials showing it is safe. During these, it was given to young, healthy adults and triggered no adverse reactions.

It is currently in Phase 2a trials, which will test whether it can kill sterile ticks that bite humans.

The trial will involve 30 participants who will each take the pill and then be bitten by a tick. 

These ticks will then be monitored for 30 days to see whether they die. A placebo group — receiving a dummy drug — will also be included.

It’s hoped that the drug, because it targets ticks rather than bacteria, could also spark protection against other less common tick-borne diseases such as Powassan virus, which can cause encephalitis or brain inflammation.

As ticks advance further north and are active for longer every year thanks to warming temperatures, doctors say there is an ever-growing need to find a way to combat the disease.

It’s not clear yet how much the treatment will cost but it is based on a similar once-a-month drug given to cats and dogs to prevent flea and tick bites. This costs upward of $18.99 per dose.

Dr Azamian said they would likely have results from this trial by the end of this year, but will still need to undertake phase 2b and 3 trials.

But he is confident that once they have the data, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will approve this treatment for use in humans. This could come as early as 2026, he told DailyMail.com.

I pass out almost daily. I get up, have a shower and everything is OK, but when I walk I suddenly feel lightheaded and sometimes have loss of vision. My doctor said my blood pressure had risen slightly and prescribed amlodipine (I also take losartan). Do I need a second opinion? I am 82.

Geoffrey Shaw, Hull.

From what you describe, I’d suggest you do need further investigation as soon as possible. But let me add that, once a firm diagnosis is made, I am sure there will be a remedy.

You say in your longer letter that your blood pressure is 120 over 68, which is excellent and suggests your medication is working well.

However, one possibility is that your blood pressure drops while you walk. As a result, blood pools in the legs and less is returned to the heart, causing a lack of blood to the brain, lightheadedness and other symptoms.

Certain medications can lower blood pressure further — for instance, tamsulosin is often prescribed to men who have an enlarged prostate. The drug works by relaxing the smooth muscle fibres within the prostate gland, but it has a potential side-effect of lowering blood pressure (as it also relaxes the smooth muscle fibres in artery walls).

Another possibility is that when you start walking, your heart rate drops at the very moment when your muscles demand more oxygen and a greater blood flow.

Your pulse rate (which you say is 49 beats per minute; 52 during exercise) is low for a man of your years. Because it’s low, there may not be sufficient force to pump enough blood around the body when there is this extra demand.

Do ask your GP about having a 24-hour blood pressure monitor, which also gives you a 24-hour recording of your heart tracing (known as an ECG). This will record exactly what is happening when you start your daily strolls.

My sense is that those ‘funny turns’ occur as a result of your blood pressure dropping — exacerbated by your low heart rate.

Is xanthelasma something to worry about? I have them — flat yellow patches under the brow bone — and I’ve read that if you have this condition you’ll develop heart disease or stroke. Is this true? I’m 41 and have developed two in the past three years.

Annie Woods, by email.

Xanthelasmas are common, affecting up to 4 per cent of middle-aged or older adults. Essentially, they’re deposits of cholesterol that form on the skin around and inside the eyelids.

It can be a warning sign of raised cholesterol. But you’re one of the 50 per cent who do not have this — your cholesterol levels are normal, as you say in your longer letter.

Other risk factors include being overweight, heavy tobacco use and high blood pressure.

Some medications can also cause xanthelasmas: most commonly, oestrogen, tamoxifen (a hormone treatment given to breast cancer patients) and prednisone, a steroid.

You mention you had steroids for a running injury in 2020 — and this injury, together with lockdown, led you to put on weight. It may be that the steroid and/or the weight may be the cause of the xanthelasmas in your case.

We’re not sure of the significance of xanthelasmas in people with normal cholesterol levels. However, a small 2015 study, in the journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, found that they could be at higher risk of having furred-up arteries than people without xanthelasmas.

The researchers said this suggests that rather than dermatologists proceeding with treatment for the patches, patients should ‘be fully investigated in order to allow detection and early management of such risk’. Given that your father died of heart disease at 60, this is something to take note of.

I suggest you request an annual review of your cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Buy a blood pressure machine and record your blood pressure monthly. And try to keep your body mass index (BMI) below 30. Also, raise your heart rate with daily exercise in order to regain your former fitness.

Adhering to this regimen will reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, but the only way to improve the appearance of the xanthelasmas themselves is to have these surgically removed, or removed using cryotherapy — freezing with liquid nitrogen.

Write to Dr Scurr at Good Health, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email: drmartin@dailymail.co.uk. Dr Scurr cannot enter into personal correspondence. Replies should be taken in a general context. Consult your own GP with any health worries. 

• Molnupiravir is given to thousands of vulnerable patients to treat against Covid
• The antiviral, made by US pharma giant Merck, forces mutations in the virus

By Emily Craig

Published: 19:28 EDT, 25 September 2023 | Updated: 20:44 EDT, 25 September 2023

Doctors have hit back against a controversial study that linked diet soda to autism.

Research by the University of Texas (UT) found boys diagnosed with autism were three times as likely to have mothers who drank diet soda daily while pregnant or breastfeeding.

They theorized that aspartame, the popular sugar substitute found in Diet Coke, may release toxins that cause oxidative stress in cells and tissues — a process linked to autism. 

But Dr Deirdre Tobias, a nutritionist at Harvard University who was not involved in the research, told DailyMail.com it was ‘shocking that the authors would feel confident enough in this design to draw those conclusions.’

Dr Rachel Moseley, principal academic in psychology at Bournemouth University in the UK, told DailyMail.com: ‘It would be highly premature and irresponsible to suggest a relationship between aspartame and autism based on this study. As every scientist knows, correlation between two things does not mean that the one causes the other.’

Dr Tobias said the study was ‘extremely flawed’ because the data was collected retrospectively and based on the mother’s memory of how much aspartame they consumed.

Dr Moseley added that the sample size is small and was recruited from a panel of parents with an autistic child.

‘Since autism has a large genetic component, having one autistic child is already associated with a higher risk of having another autistic child,’ she said.

‘Moreover, the authors did not rigorously confirm whether either or both of the parents were themselves autistic.’

In the study, the diets of mothers of 235 children with autism spectrum disorder were compared to a control group of mothers of 121 children who didn’t have autism.

The mothers completed questionnaires that asked: ‘While you were pregnant or breastfeeding your child, how often did you drink diet drinks containing artificial sweeteners?’

Diet Coke, Diet Dr Pepper, Diet Sprite, Crystal Light, sugar-free Kool-Aid, and Slim-Fast were suggested as prompts.

Each mother was also asked: ‘While you were pregnant or breastfeeding your child, how many little packets of low-calorie sweeteners (such as Sweet ‘N Low, Equal or Splenda) did you use in your coffee, tea, or other foods and beverages?’

Intake of the three leading sweeteners — Equal/Nutrasweet (blue), Splenda (yellow), and Sweet’N Low (pink) — was recorded. 

The researchers found that males diagnosed with autism disorder were between 3.1 and 3.5 times more likely to have mothers who reported an aspartame intake equivalent to one or more diet sodas a day during pregnancy or breastfeeding, compared with male controls. 

The association was greatest among males with non-regressive autism — where the condition is apparent before 18 months, also known as early onset.

The study did not find a statistically significant trend in autistic girls.

Conditions such as obesity and diabetes in mothers are associated with an increased risk of autism in children and may also influence a decision to use diet products. 

The researchers did not collect data on these risk factors, nor smoking, drinking, birth weight, prematurity, or the age of the parents. They did have data for household income, educational attainment, and ethnicity, which they adjusted for in the results.

Dr Tobias added that the three artificial sweeteners they examined are ‘completely different compounds, metabolized very differently in humans, and have been extensively evaluated for their safety. 

‘Thus, the fact that the signal for aspartame was essentially the same as the other chemicals further points to the bias in this study, perhaps due to errors in the mothers’ recall or other factors related to women who chose diet sodas.

‘It is extremely unlikely that any association they are observing has anything to do with the chemical aspartame itself.’

The study was published in the journal Nutrients.

During pregnancy, aspartame can cross the placenta and accumulate in fetal tissue. 

The substance can also cross into breastmilk, but other studies have suggested the mother’s body rapidly breaks it down.

Autism affects one in 36 children, meaning that more than 90,000 children are born annually with the developmental disorder in the US.

It is characterized by problems with social communication and interaction, difficulty expressing oneself and repetitive behaviors and interests.

Autism is a lightning rod issue and often comes up in antivaxxer messaging. 

In a recent poll, one-quarter of American adults said they believed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism – a widely studied and discredited claim that emerged in the 1990s.

Claims that shots can lead to autism have been peddled by anti-vaxxers for almost 25 years, but the link has been repeatedly disproven.

The disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield made the claim in a now-retracted 1998 Lancet study.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, publicly described the research as ‘fundamentally flawed’ in 2004 – nine years after it was published.

Dr Horton alleged that Andrew Wakefield, the gastroenterologist behind the paper, was paid by a group pursuing lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.

The prestigious medical journal finally retracted the paper in 2010.

Just three months after his paper was pulled, Wakefield was banned from practicing medicine in Britain by the General Medical Council.

In 2011, the British Medical Journal conducted a damning probe into the findings of Wakefield’s original study.

Its investigation found only two of the 12 children included developed autistic symptoms after being vaccinated – as opposed to the eight Wakefield claimed.

Since then, studies involving millions of children have failed to find a link between the MMR vaccine and the neurodevelopmental disorder.  

Deaths were nine times higher than normal in parts of Europe during the darkest days of Covid, official figures show. 

Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, recorded 156.1 deaths per 100,000 people in the week to March 20 in 2020 — 800.5 per cent higher than the average for that time of year.

This means it logged Europe’s deadliest spell during the Covid crisis, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

For comparison, Birmingham, where deaths spiked most in the UK, saw a 239.5 per cent rise during mid-April.

Nationally, Italy, the first European nation to be engulfed by the virus, saw deaths skyrocket the most.

The ONS looked at relative age-standardised mortality rate across Europe for every week between December 28, 2019 and July 1, 2022.

The figures show the difference between the death rate logged for each of these weeks compared to the average logged between 2015 and 2019.

Nationally, statisticians found that the peak in death rates was logged by Italy in the week to March 27, 2020, when 74.1 per cent more people died than expected.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be swept by Covid. It spotted its first case in February 2020, in the northern region of Lombardy, and its first wave of deaths peaked in March.

The nation’s high death toll has been put down to its ageing population and overstretched healthcare system.  

Spain (138.5 per cent) and France (50.2 per cent) logged their peak one week later, with deaths concentrated around Madrid and Paris.

The UK saw the most deaths in the week ending April 17, 2020, when there was 38 deaths per 100,000 people — 97.9 per cent higher than expected.

Deaths in England (38.7 per 100,000, 107.6 per cent) and Wales (34.8 per 100,000, 68.7 per cent) spiked that same week.

The fatality rate in Scotland skyrocketed in the week to April 10 (37.4 per 100,000, 71.7 per cent), while deaths reached their highest point in Northern Ireland in the week ending April 24 (28.7 per 100,000, 48.2 per cent).

The ONS broke down rates by areas — called Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics — of which there are 179 in the UK and 1,166 in Europe.

After Bergamo, El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, logged the highest spike in death rates in 2020 (621 per cent), followed by Segovia, northern Spain, (620.4 per cent) and Cremona, northern Italy (554.6 per cent).

In 2021, El Hierro (595.7 per cent), Lungau, south west Austria (389.1 per cent), and Mayotte, a French overseas territory (379.1 per cent) saw the biggest increases.

The largest spike in deaths in 2022 were reported in Lungau (376 per cent), Außerfern in Austria (228.9 per cent) and Eilean Siar in Scotland (184.1 per cent).

The ONS also examined which areas saw high excess deaths for the longest period.

Bucharest, in Romania, recorded a death rate at least 50 per cent higher than expected for a quarter of all weeks over the 30-month period. 

It was followed by Sofia, in Bulgaria (17 per cent), and Birmingham (9.4 per cent). 

In the UK, Birmingham logged the highest death rate compared to the pre-pandemic average, with a spike 239.5 per cent in the week to April 17, 2020.

London (220.8 per cent), Manchester (206.8 per cent) and Cardiff (146.6 per cent) logged their peaks in deaths that same week. 

Since the pandemic began, nearly 7million virus deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization. The UK has logged around 230,000 fatalities whose death certificate has mentioned Covid as one of the causes.

By Sophie Freeman

Published: 16:26 EDT, 24 September 2023 | Updated: 16:28 EDT, 24 September 2023