Poll - side effects from statins?

[tim2000s]

Simva caused me extreme abdominal pain. Atorva has caused no issues.

 

[Daphne917]

My husband has been on statins over 4 years. He isn't diabetic. About 3 months ago he started having sleepless nights. No matter what he did, he just could not sleep. He mentioned this to the nurse when he went for his over 60's annual review recently. She told him it was most likely the statins as this is a common side effect. She advised him to start taking them in the mornings rather than at bedtime (despite what it says on the instructions about taking them at night). He is doing this, and his sleep pattern has improved significantly. Whether the statins are still working as efficiently is another matter.

I mentioned it to the DN I had at the time and also said that raised BS could be a side effect to which she replied that I shouldn't believe all that I read in the Daily Mail - her face was a picture when I told her it was from the company's own website!

 

[JeanBBell]

Because 2 of my grandparents had strokes, I took simvastatin about 2 years ago and experience severe cramp in my calf muscles and a swollen foot. I stopped taking them and all symptoms disappeared within a couple of weeks. Was persuaded to take atorvastatin last year and started noticing increasing muscle weakness in upper arms and shoulders and then thighs and hips. This got worse and I stopped taking the statin at Xmas. The weakness got steadily worse, couldn't lift anything above my shoulders, could hardly raise arms, getting slower and slower walking especially up slopes and stairs. Went to GP and was sent on to rheumatology who gave me a lot of investigations (muscle biopsy, chest xray, abdomen ultrasound, neurophysiology scan, blood tests for creatine kinase and liver function) they assumed this was myositis and put me on high dose steroids. The steroids had a bad effect on blood sugar so metformin increased, and because of family history of osteoporosis lots of extra medication for bone health. Biopsy results say this is all statin damage, even though I haven't taken it for nearly 3 months and it is still getting worse.
Since I have access to academic libraries I have been reading about statins, I wish I had done it before. The statistics do not support giving it to women and not to anyone who doesn't already have cardiovascular disease. I will never take it again and plan to have strong words with my GP about this.

 

[Purplepixie28]

I haven't had any drastic side effects but it seems to affect my blood sugar levels. My fasting BS is usually about 7 but this dropped to around 5.2 on the 4 days I ran out of statins.

 

[Spiker]

I haven't had any drastic side effects but it seems to affect my blood sugar levels. My fasting BS is usually about 7 but this dropped to around 5.2 on the 4 days I ran out of statins.

Interesting, I don't think I have heard of that side effect before.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Interesting, I don't think I have heard of that side effect before.

It happened to me, too. I dropped from the high 5's/6's to the low 5's when I stopped my statins and I'd only been on them less than 3 months.

 

[Daphne917]

It happened to me, too. I dropped from the high 5's/6's to the low 5's when I stopped my statins and I'd only been on them less than 3 months.

And me - my BS rose from the high 5s to 7.2 when I started taking statins but reduced once I stopped them.

 

[Pasha]

I have taken statins for over 20 years. I did have leg muscle pains and still have hip pains, but nothing has proved that its traceable to statins.
I continue to take them because of the correlation between LDL and CVD. My dosage is small ie 10 mg/day.

 

[Indy51]

There's a new article about statins increasing the risk of Parkinson's:
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style...-drug-risk-thousands-developing-nerve-disease

 

[Indy51]

There is a new thread by admin for people who have been damaged by statins that some posters in this thread may find interesting:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...er-been-prescribed-statins.82857/#post-930918

 

[Pollylocks]

I'm terribly divided about statins, really don't know what to think and have put various views in threads on here which are conflicting....

Divided/conflicting because Simvastatin, taken years ago, gave me awful back and leg ache, but I didn't realise it was maybe down to them until I Googled after two years so I stopped taking them, my GP said to try again after a while. On retaking them the pains re-occurred, so I stopped them again. Prescribed Atvorstatin but left them in the cupboard for a long time as I didn't want that pain again.

Anyway, for various reasons, I started taking them and felt absolutely fine for about three months, thought it was great, woo hoo these ones suit me, even said about it in a thread on here...then gradually developed really bad back and leg pain, stopped taking them and although the pains lasted longer, they've now almost gone. But I DID start taking them again inbetween time and the pains came back.

Soo, I'm seeing my GP this coming week. I really don't know if I just have a back problem or if its down to the statins. I really think its a bit of a minefield.

 

[graj0]

I'm terribly divided about statins, really don't know what to think and have put various views in threads on here which are conflicting....

Divided/conflicting because Simvastatin, taken years ago, gave me awful back and leg ache, but I didn't realise it was maybe down to them until I Googled after two years so I stopped taking them, my GP said to try again after a while. On retaking them the pains re-occurred, so I stopped them again. Prescribed Atvorstatin but left them in the cupboard for a long time as I didn't want that pain again.

Anyway, for various reasons, I started taking them and felt absolutely fine for about three months, thought it was great, woo hoo these ones suit me, even said about it in a thread on here...then gradually developed really bad back and leg pain, stopped taking them and although the pains lasted longer, they've now almost gone. But I DID start taking them again inbetween time and the pains came back.

Soo, I'm seeing my GP this coming week. I really don't know if I just have a back problem or if its down to the statins. I really think its a bit of a minefield.

It is a minefield and I spent years trying to read enough background information to form an educated opinion but the problem is that it's all very complicated and not helped by certain people having undeclared interests who are advising us.
For me it was in the end very simple. I had bad leg muscle pain to the point where going up stairs was a struggle, I had very poor sleep and really irritating brain fog. I knew that statins prevented the uptake of CoQ10 which is required by muscles to convert stored energy to be used by the muscle, hence the leg muscle pain. I knew that ingesting CoQ10 orally didn't necessarily compensate that and even the GP couldn't advise. I knew that Merck Pharmaceutical were aware of this problem in 1990 which makes all the excuses (lies more like) my last GP gave me especially irritating. After cutting out bread/pasta/potato/rice my cholesterol dropped to 3.5 and that was the impetus to stop taking them. Most of the three major side effects have now gone after 2+years, although not completely. An issue I should look into, long term side effects but I expect it's even more complicated and less supported by anyone with the money to do the research.

 

[Spiker]

Let's face it no one is getting paid to prove the extent of side effects and burst the bubble of enthusiasm for statins.

 

[Pollylocks]

Let's face it no one is getting paid to prove the extent of side effects and burst the bubble of enthusiasm for statins.

You're right, the bubble of enthusiasm came from the medical profession and who are we to burst it, we're just patients who supposedly know no better, our feedback doesn't seem to count for much

I have a friend who was prescribed simvastatin years ago, has no side effects whatsoever, thinks I'm a bit paranoid about them but I don't think so.

 

[graj0]

You're right, the bubble of enthusiasm came from the medical profession and who are we to burst it, we're just patients who supposedly know no better, our feedback doesn't seem to count for much

I have a friend who was prescribed simvastatin years ago, has no side effects whatsoever, thinks I'm a bit paranoid about them but I don't think so.

You're not paranoid, it's one of the weirdest things because only this morning I've been talking to two friends who in the last three months have been prescribed a statin. Both are in their 60s, both are avid tennis players and golf players, both quite fit. Both are now experiencing the muscle pain and struggling to play tennis or golf at all, never mind their previous level, a change noted only in the last 3 months and considering what to do next.
What annoys both of them is that they both have relatives who have absolutely no problem whatsoever. What's the good of lower cholesterol if you stop exercise. My father can't even walk to the Tesco Express not 150 yards from his house since his GP "INSISTED" he took the **** things. He's 88, if cholesterol was a problem, I think he'd know by now.
Even the poll at the top suggests that 1 in 3 experience no pain or tolerable pain.
My research into statins started because when I was first prescribed them in 1997, they were happy for my TC to be under 7 and over the years that has gone down to less than 4. Big question for me was why and who says. The "who says" is scary because it's the likes of Professor Collins who receives certain funding from the pharmaceutical companies as do several of the others involved in giving us advice. This information is available online or their are several books available Statin Damage Crisis is a good one.

 

[Spiker]

Who is this Professor Collins? Hadn't heard of him. Do you have any links?

 

[LucySW]

He's the guy who runs the Cholesterol Treatment Triallists' Collaboration in Oxford that is custodian of statin trials data. He's the one who sees it as efficient to prescribe statins to the whole population. Which it would be, cf the quality of each individual life.

 

[Spiker]

He's the guy who runs the Cholesterol Treatment Triallists' Collaboration in Oxford that is custodian of statin trials data. He's the one who sees it as efficient to prescribe statins to the whole population. Which it would be, cf the quality of each individual life.

Presumably he is of the old established school of thought that, if a patient reported an outcome, you can be sure that outcome never happened. :-/

 

[Indy51]

From memory, Sir Rory has a patent for a polypill containing a statin among other medications - but of course, he's in no way biased

 

[graj0]

Presumably he is of the old established school of thought that, if a patient reported an outcome, you can be sure that outcome never happened. :-/

I first saw this gentleman on a program called "The Truth About . . . . . ." if my memory serves me well. They had been discussing statins and he sat there saying that the aches and pains only affected some ridiculously small number like 1 in a 100,000 people. The very next person interviewed was a GP who said 10% of his patients taking a statin had reported aches and pains, emphasis on "reported" because so many people say nothing, throw them away, or if you're my MIL, ceremoniously chuck 1 down the loo every day and say nothing, too afraid to say anything to the GP.
I think more and more people are willing to say to their GP, this is making me more ill than having what some people say is high cholesterol. How much we need is very important and I personally thinks it's more than what the medical profession are telling, they're trying to get it too low. Every time I think it's gone quiet, some stupid idiot in the Express or Mail will have headlines that say something like "statins prevent cancer" or "make you a better lover" or something equally stupid.
Going back to Prof Collins, he has a lot of data given to him by the pharmaceutical companies and when I last looked, he wasn't sharing it with anyone, not an iota. I wonder why?