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Worried Wife Needs Help

My husband has High Cholesterol.  They put him on Zocor four years ago.  Before the Zocor there was NOTHING wrong with him but the cholesterol.  He has now tested positive for kidney failure three years in a row and it has been getting worse, this past year his liver started showing distress.  He went off Zocor and magically all his numbers got much better (from stage 3 to stage 2).  So they put him on Lipitor.  He was only on it for a month before he got what he and the doctors thought was a sines infection.  I had him mow the back yard (which is small)  he only made it half way before he got really tired and sat down, by the next day he was complaining that he felt like he just did a hard work out and was having trouble with his legs.  Three days later he was at the ER.  His CKs were normal and Kidney's showed stage 1 failure levels, but he could not walk!  He could not sit up with out supporting his head.  He could not even swallow water. He had to "Sleep" in the rocking chair because he was in so much pain.  He also over the course of a month dropped close to 30lbs.  It's has been very scary to watch my husband waist away so quickly.

So Now with the test.  The kidney specialist said "Wow you are the first I've seen with Rhabdomyolysis.  Looks like you are statin intolerant",  The throat specialist "sounds like you had a case of Rhabdomyolysis", the pcm went with rhabdomyolysis although he did mention Guillain-Barre syndrome.  So Husband goes to a nerves specialist and the nerve specialist say "You have ALS"  

Now over the past 6 weeks (the beginning of this)  I've noticed improvements in my husband.  His arm that he could not lift above his head as no noticeable issues other then it's week.  His left leg that could support no weight is supporting a little, enough to get him up the stairs and walk without crutches.  He is not scared of falling over because he can feel the placement of his legs.  He no longer sleeps in the chair and can get out of bed without having to hold support his head.  He can put his socks and shoes on himself and he is able to drive again.  But the Neurologist Says ALS because his calf muscle and hamstring show no response in one of the tests.

So now we are scared poopless.  But after doing alot of research on my own i am trying to figure out how she could come up with this diagnosis without taking out half of the symptoms and the fact that he was perfectly healthy and lifting and hiking only three days before not being able to move.

So in the end I guess my question is Can ALS set in with NO symptoms that quickly?  He has never shown all the typical symptoms of ALS.  Also, does anyone have maybe a similar experience or a thought on something we are missing?  
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1756321 tn?1547095325
CoQ10 isn't the only thing affected when you take a statin. Statins inhibit the mevalonate pathway so besides inhibiting cholesterol these drugs inhibit the production of dolichols, ubiquinones (coenzyme Q10), squalene, heme A, sterols, and prenylated proteins.  And you need all of those in good supply to be healthy not just CoQ10. I found this info as well from Statin Side Effects - Statins and ALS May Have a Connection...

"As more and more research occurs with statins and the possible statin drug side effects that they might cause in people, it seems as though we are learning something new each day. A study by a neuroscientist named Meske and reported in the European Journal of Neuroscience talked about a connection that could exist, based on the study, of statins to neuronal degeneration. This could in turn cause some people to develop a higher risk of developing ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The World Health Organization also released a report in October of 2007, which showed that there could be connections with statins and ALS. While the studies in this area are not yet definitive, evidence is starting to show that people taking statins may have an increased risk of ALS. This was before people really starting noticing that statins had side effects."


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Avatar universal
Yes we put him on this last year and I am so surprised more people do not know about it.

We have a spinal tap today.  Hope they find protein in it so that it can take all talk from ALS...protein is an indicator of GB syndrome.  
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1756321 tn?1547095325
Have your husband start taking CoQ10 if he hasn't already.

Excerpt from Dr Greg Emerson - Cholesterol Reduction...

"Remember that these drugs are often associated with side-effects including nausea, headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbances, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, shortness of breath, memory loss, liver problems, muscle weakness, muscle pain, peripheral neuropathy and cardiomyopathy due to a depletion of Coenzyme Q10.

Recent studies have shown no reductions in death in people over the age of 65 or people with no existing heart disease on statins (regardless of how much their cholesterol was lowered) and no benefit at all in women of any age. It is very important to understand statistics here and the difference between relative risk and absolute risk reduction.

Much of the advertising with statins describe a 36% risk reduction in heart attacks. This is a relative risk reduction. The absolute risk reduction is a decrease from a 3% risk to a 2% risk. In practical terms, this means that in men under the age of 65 with pre-existing heart disease, 100 (the NNT- Number Needed to Treat) have to take a statin for 3 years to prevent 1 heart attack. The other 99 men receive no benefit.

Professor James Wright from the University of British Columbia states that “most people taking statins are taking something with no chance of benefit and a risk of harm.”

Interestingly, the small reductions in death in men under 65 with pre-existing heart disease was independent of cholesterol reduction and was almost certainly due to their anti-inflammatory effects (there are safer ways to get this effect)."

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