Hi, I am a 47 year old female with high blood pressure. I take valsartan 160 mg. in the past year I have been noticing increased problems with my speech. Sometimes I start to say something and one of my words comes out completely different from what I m thinking. It is almost as if I m stuttering. I went for a physical and found out I m deficient in vitamin D and B12. I am going for a B12 injection next week. Still I am a bit concerned about this as I never seemed to notice this problem until the past year. Can you please tell me what you think could be wrong? I have had an EKG and the results were good plus my cholesterol was fine. Thanks, Carol
Hello. I have been through your question and understand your concern. Speech problems are a vast chapter of Neurology. It seems that you experienced what is called among neurologists a par aphasia which in your case can be a phonological or verbal par aphasia. It has many causes, most of which are benign condition with nothing to worry about. Vitamin D or B12 are not related to the speech problems, so I would exclude any relation between these two conditions. Still, since you have high blood pressure, I would recommend talking with your GP about planning a cerebral CT scan. Nothing to take seriously, but if you were my patient I better be 100% sure that the brain is not involved. Hope this helps, please feel free for further questions.