Atorvastatin side effects

[GeoffersTaylor]

Just a whinge this morning.

I've always had high-ish cholesteral, even since I was a young man. Genetic rather than dietary.
On becoming diabetic my doctor wanted to put me on statins straightway but I resisted, and my LDL/HDL /Trigs mix improved a lot under my LCHF diet. But the overall levels remained high and the GP still wanted statins.

Eventually, he retired (looked after 4 generations of my family - great guy), and the replacement still wanted statins, so eventually I gave in and started on Artovostatin 5 weeks ago.

During the recent heatwave I started struggling for energy and appetite, which I put down to the heat and the effect that can have on metabolism and blood sugar. But it's been getting worse since the weather has returned to normal. I feel very lethargic and have to force myself to eat. Even so I've lost 4 pounds this week and I'm not overweight anymore so that's not necessarily a good thing.

Doc has agreed to stop the statin from today, but it may take up to a month for the effect to flush out of my system. Hopefully the symptoms will start to decline fairly soon - I was in bed for 14 hours last night and I'm still tired now.

Whinge over.

 

[Pinkorchid]

I take Astorvastatin and I have never had any side effects from it but medication can affect different people in different ways

 

[bigjim19]

I take one per day and don't feel any change but as pinkorchid says where all different
Don't really think they're helping anyway but who knows

 

[Liam1955]

Hi @GeoffersTaylor - I take 20mg of Atorvastatin every night and have done for 16 years. Like @bigjim19 and @Pinkorchid I have not suffered any side effects.
But, I do know of a few people who have suffered with Muscle Pains and General Fatigue.
Hope you start to feel better soon .

 

[lindisfel]

Hi Geoff,
Statins block the Co-enzyme Q10 which is necessary for muscles to perform better, if you believe you need to reduce your trigs you could try Co-enzyme Q10 as a supplement with atorvastatin.
Some GP's put patients on a very high dose of Atorvastatin, when I took it some time ago 5mg a day got my cholesterol right down.
When I tried Atorvastatin again more recently it gave me migraines.
regards
Derek

 

[sasharhianna93]

I take one a day and the first few weeks were AWFUL. Every muscle in my body hurt, hard a hard time sleeping, and had almost no appetite. I no longer have these symptoms though! Sometimes it takes a while for your body to adjust.

 

[Dzeis72]

I had a few minor aches in the first two weeks of taking a statin, but now 8 weeks on I have no issues.

 

[srobertson06]

I took the statin for about 18 months - I had no initial problems but after about a year I began to get numbness in my arms and my hands - as I needed the feeling in my hands to do my job I spoke to my doctor who said the only way to know for sure was to stop taking them and see - so I stopped the arms and hands returned to normal, to be totally sure I went back on them and 2 months later came off them as the symptoms returned - now level is raised but not a major concern and I will just wait and see with regards to test results showing if it is getting worse or better or just simply staying the same.

 

[ickihun]

Just a whinge this morning.

I've always had high-ish cholesteral, even since I was a young man. Genetic rather than dietary.
On becoming diabetic my doctor wanted to put me on statins straightway but I resisted, and my LDL/HDL /Trigs mix improved a lot under my LCHF diet. But the overall levels remained high and the GP still wanted statins.

Eventually, he retired (looked after 4 generations of my family - great guy), and the replacement still wanted statins, so eventually I gave in and started on Artovostatin 5 weeks ago.

During the recent heatwave I started struggling for energy and appetite, which I put down to the heat and the effect that can have on metabolism and blood sugar. But it's been getting worse since the weather has returned to normal. I feel very lethargic and have to force myself to eat. Even so I've lost 4 pounds this week and I'm not overweight anymore so that's not necessarily a good thing.

Doc has agreed to stop the statin from today, but it may take up to a month for the effect to flush out of my system. Hopefully the symptoms will start to decline fairly soon - I was in bed for 14 hours last night and I'm still tired now.

Whinge over.

That's so dejavu.
I started as felt pressure from cardiologists. I'm in a similiar state. I stopped mine yesterday as I had pins and needled hands and arms.
Now. I put the no energy and sleeping down to vit d deficiency as gp practice called me yesterday to say I'm now needing 1000iu daily and delivering chemist have them ordered.
So yesterday and today I had no statins and had my vit d supplement.
I'm in bed as I'm typing. I'm aching all over and with no energy. It's like flu without a temperature.

 

[librarising]

Just a whinge this morning.

I've always had high-ish cholesteral, even since I was a young man. Genetic rather than dietary.
On becoming diabetic my doctor wanted to put me on statins straightway but I resisted, and my LDL/HDL /Trigs mix improved a lot under my LCHF diet. But the overall levels remained high and the GP still wanted statins.

Eventually, he retired (looked after 4 generations of my family - great guy), and the replacement still wanted statins, so eventually I gave in and started on Artovostatin 5 weeks ago.

During the recent heatwave I started struggling for energy and appetite, which I put down to the heat and the effect that can have on metabolism and blood sugar. But it's been getting worse since the weather has returned to normal. I feel very lethargic and have to force myself to eat. Even so I've lost 4 pounds this week and I'm not overweight anymore so that's not necessarily a good thing.

Doc has agreed to stop the statin from today, but it may take up to a month for the effect to flush out of my system. Hopefully the symptoms will start to decline fairly soon - I was in bed for 14 hours last night and I'm still tired now.

Whinge over.

More recently some opinion has swung away from concern about total cholesterol, LDL levels, and focussed on the trigs/HDL ratio as being all-important.
"If lipid values are expressed as mmol/L (like in Australia, Canada, and Europe);

TG/HDL-C ratio less than 0.87 is ideal

TG/HDL-C ratio above 1.74 is too high

TG/HDL-C ratio above 2.62 is much too high"
http://www.docsopinion.com/2014/07/17/triglyceride-hdl-ratio/

Your signature figures show this ratio coming down from 5.15 to 1. The higher ratio was BAD. Now it's fine (just above ideal).
Your best defence against statin-pushing HCPs is self-education.
Geoff
p.s. nice name

 

[lindisfel]

That's so dejavu.
I started as felt pressure from cardiologists. I'm in a similiar state. I stopped mine yesterday as I had pins and needled hands and arms.
Now. I put the no energy and sleeping down to vit d deficiency as gp practice called me yesterday to say I'm now needing 1000iu daily and delivering chemist have them ordered.
So yesterday and today I had no statins and had my vit d supplement.
I'm in bed as I'm typing. I'm aching all over and with no energy. It's like flu without a temperature.

Did you see Rangan Chattergee's prog from BBC1 Tuesday? You probably would find it quite interesting how he dealt with a lady patient with a lot of pain. It will be on the iPlayer. best wishes Derek

 

[librarising]

Did you see Rangan Chattergee's prog from BBC1 Tuesday? You probably would find it quite interesting how he dealt with a lady patient with a lot of pain. It will be on the iPlayer. best wishes Derek

Thanks for the heads-up. Didn't realise they'd put it at 10 45 pm
Geoff