Statin side effects

[remar]

I've tried statins 4 times since my heart attack last May. I was put on Pravastatin in the hospital and immediately started having muscle weakness, joint pain, bladder pain and urgency. This continued until I took myself off of it. Then the pain and urgency went away. I waited 6 weeks to have labs done and my numbers are higher than they should be considering I'm a heart patient. So, back to the statins and the side effects for the 3rd time. I asked to be tried on a different statin, Simvastatin. Started it on a Thursday and by Friday evening I felt like my lower back was broken. It continued to get worse to the point of me hardly being able to move off the couch for a week. Everything in my body hurt. Of course I quit taking it. My sister went through the same thing with statins and just can not take them. I'm wondering what I can take that's natural. I do take Plavix and a baby aspirin everyday. I know Krill Oil is out. Already checked on that. My Cardiologist is'nt being of much help. He keeps pushing the statins but I'm really afraid of what can happen if I try another one. I am on a pretty strict diet. I've been a vegetarian for many years, so no meat. Fat free organic milk, lots of veggies and fruit. Any advice someone could give me would be great. I'll run it by my Dr first before I try anything. Sorry this post is so long. I'm just at a loss as to what to do to get my numbers where they should be and it looks like I can not take a pharmaceutical statin.  

[erijon]

Sorry you feel that way but the bottom line is that serious side effects from statins only occur in less than 1% of those who take them. To be accurate .53% for a reaction severe enough to cause muscle damage, those are the facts. I can show you study after study that show lower cholesterol reduces the odds of a cardiac event, that is also just a fact. The odds of that many people in your family having a bad response is very remote and I would hope that their doctors are looking for other causes as well, especially given that a biopsy is not 100% accurate in isolating statins as a cause for muscle damage.

A recent study may have answered the real question, what is an appropriate Here's a link;

http://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002-9149(12)02655-0/abstract

They looked at the cholesterol levels of "hunter - gatherer" societies compared to the general population and show that the true normal range may be 50 - 70 for LDL. You can read the summary but you need to be a subscriber to the AJ online and as one I will not cut and paste the article but you can get the idea as it is against thie rules.

As far as my evidence, read this link. Get to the results and you'll see that in a meta analysis involving 20,523 people the number of cardiac events was 24% lower in high risk patients, 29% lower in those with diabetes and 19% in the elderly in individuals on a statin and thus have a lower TC. These are the numbers and they are beyond dispute. Can you show me evidence that cholesterol does not cause heart disease?

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/110/2/227.full

Also, your comments about JUPITER and their peer studies is not correct. The results were adjusted to include all that quit due to side effects. Another recent study shows that those that stop statin use from side effects and go on another statin stay in the new statin and experience no side effects 92% of the time.

Sorry you and your family are having a bad experience and I hope things work out, but remember that what you don't read on line is comments from the millions that take statins with no ill effect and get good results, like me. You will normally only hear from those that have a complaint.

Good luck,

Jon

[Johnnyonearrow]

Please do not believe the 1/3 or 33% risk reduction they attribute to statin. This is a false math called relative risk reduction. The legitimate math calculation for the risk reduction is about 1/3 of 1%. If you want real information investigate the term NNT (Number Needed to Treat). You can look it up on the internet or ask you local pharmacy. We all know statistics can lie.

[Johnnyonearrow]

Please do not believe the 1/3 or 33% risk reduction they attribute to statin. This is a false math called relative risk reduction. The legitimate math calculation for the risk reduction is about 1/3 of 1%. If you want real information investigate the term NNT (Number Needed to Treat). You can look it up on the internet or ask you local pharmacy. We all know statistics can lie.

[notafollower]

Jon:
You sound like someone on the statin drug payroll.  Your dismissal of the symptoms listed in these posts borders on cruelty.  My mom took Baycol for 2 years only - was sick and hospitalized several times for pain, nausea, neuralgia, numbness, difficulty walking, vision effects etc. etc.  She felt strongly it was due to the statin drug but no dr. believed this and they guilted her into staying on it.  12 years later she is in bed for 20 out of 24 hours with miserable back pain and spasm and leg pain.  My cousins were also urged to take statins and one was disabled immediately, after stopping she got better but will never take another.  The second took crestor for two years, gaining symptoms like type 2 diabetes, dermal rashes and strange bruising, severe gout, and when she got pneumonia and was given an antibiotic she had severe muscle failure with 10 days in the hospital, a 10 inch slice down the front of her leg for her biopsy.  The biopsy conclusively showed muscle damage due to stain drugs and a total of 5 doctors agreed that this was due only to statin drug damage.  Talking about the relative safety of these sounds like a stubborn commitment to drug that is a time-bomb for many of us out there.  My mom would rather be dead from a heart attack than to live the last years of her life with such pain and always numbed out on pain killers.
Show me your statistics that say high cholesterol causes heart attacks.  
All you guys who are suffering out there,  keep looking for a doctor who believes that statin drugs are not for everyone and that a total cholesterol of 300 and more can be normal and healthy for many people.  
Be careful quoting the Jupiter trial and its cousins, and be ready to explain all the people who are tossed out of the studies because of their immediate reaction to these drugs.  

[erijon]

Thanks for the post. Your comments are misleading, reckless and incorrect. Let's start with your statement that just as many people with low cholesterol have as many heart attacks as those that have normal cholesterol. That is the most over used and misleading statements made by the anti-statin group. Here's the fact, not all heart attacks are from blockages, it is that simple. Some heart attacks are caused by electrical issues with the heart, some are caused by vasospasm and others by small vulnerable plaques and still more by various cardiomyopathies not to mention drug and alcohol abuse. So when one of these conditions causes a heart attack and the victim has a normal cholesterol, people that are opposed to statins will point fingers and try to place the blame elsewhere. The truth is that these issues will always skew the numbers. If you only looked at heart attacks that are due to blockages, the number with high cholesterol is estimated at 82% by the AHA. Therefore to say that half of the heart attacks out there are in individuals with normal cholesterol is very, very misleading.

There are side effects from statins, however they are much safer than most people are willing to admit. The chance of dangerous muscle damage from statins is less than 1% and only one death occurs in 53 million prescriptions world wide. By any standard that is a very good safety record. In addition, the FDA has dropped potential liver damage from the  list of side effects and even told the medical profession it is no longer recommended that doctors do follow up tests to check the liver function of those on statins. They did add a warning about TEMPORARY muscle pain and confusion to the list of side effects even though by their own statement they can not say that there is a direct tie to statin use, but it has been observed. There is no evidence of serious or permanent damage from long term statin use. If you find otherwise please share the study with us.

Lastly, why throw the drug companies and doctors under the bus? So many people make these statements and have NOTHING to back it up. If you had a bad experience with a doctor, get a new one.

Simply put, if you don't want to take a statin, don't. Just remember how many have benefited from their use.

Jon

[bubasmom]

I have talked to a lot of people taking statins and some feel no side effects and others get them bad and right away. I react very badly to them and got off of them several times. My sister reacted the same way when she got on them. One question to ask yourself is why to people with low cholesterol have just as many heart attacks as those with high...that's because cholesterol is not the total picture. Inflammation is. I personally feel that long term use of statins can cause cognitive problems and muscle damage but of course we can't argue with the drug companies and doctors because they no it all. I'd rather take my chances with my very good high cholesterol than worry about my total cholesterol!

[normahi]

What a great forum. Thanks for all your comments.

I had the same experience that coenzyme Q10 didn't help with statins. I did some research, and it seems that most of the time, the "experts" who say it does help are usually connected to a company that sells coenzyme Q10.   :(

I'd be interested to hear about how helpful is a high-fiber diet for lowering LDL. Anybody have significant results through this approach?
  

[remar]

You've been on the Plavix for awhile. They recommend a year after having a stent. Since you've noticed your anxiety lessening, it very well could have been the Plavix. I really thought I was nuts or the only one that was getting panic attacks or severe anxiety after taking it. I told you that I did research on it and have talked to other people and they have that same symptom. You might want to think about changing to a different statin. There are several to choose form. I know they help. My original post was not to try and get everyone off them. I just could not take them. For days after the last one I tried I could hardly move I hurt so bad. Pretty sad when your husband has to shower and dress you.