Poll - side effects from statins?

[Flowerpot]

Simvastatin had a frightening effect on me pretty soon after starting taking it. I felt as if I had lost control of my leg and arm muscles and was worried about standing because I felt so weak. My limbs didn't feel as if they were connected to me. I stopped taking it after speaking to my gp and about 48 hours later started to feel normal again. I have taken an alternative drug Ezetimibe ever since with no problems.

 

[donnellysdogs]

I took Ezemtibe instead of statins but a consultant at a research centre I visit annually said they were actually less effective at protecting heart etc than taking 1 10mg atoravastin a WEEK...I stopped then tried the atoravastin again.. Same effects as previously mentioned.

As I do not want to live till I end up in a care home with no family to visit me I decided enough was enough... No pain from statins was woth lengthening my life by the short time they supposedly do.


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[kesun]

I'm grateful to statins because they led to my getting a more accurate diagnosis for my diabetes. Apparently cholesterol is produced by the same channel as co-enzyme Q10. Statins partially block the cholesterol and as an unwanted side-effect also block Q10. If your pre-statin Q10 level was normal, you may well have some side effects associated Q10 deficiency - especially muscle aches and tiredness - which is why anyone on statins with mild side effects should take Q10 supplements. I turned out to have a natural Q10 deficiency: I'd suffered progressive muscle aches and lack of energy since my teens. Q10 deficiency is associated with various forms of mitochondrial diabetes, notably LEMAS and MIDD. My bad reaction to Simvastatin led to my diagnosis of mitochondrial diabetes. (My initial diagnosis had been LADA, then changed to type 2 when against medical advice I did LCHF and stopped injecting insulin; neither diagnosis was accurate or helpful.)

I'd have preferred a less frightening and painful method, but the diagnosis and taking Q10 supplements has turned my life round. I no longer have painful muscles and joints, I no longer lose energy before I can finish a task, and I no longer need an afternoon nap and a 7.30pm bed time.

EDITED TO CLARIFY: these symptoms are what I suffered before starting on simvastatin. The statin magnified them to an unbearable level and added truly frightening cognitive problems and cold sweats and tremours, which may have been due to shock at having my tiny supply of Q10 suddenly blocked.

Kate

 

[donnellysdogs]

I also take Q10 highest dose available as (can't spell it) ubiquinol... Still experienced and experience the leg pain.. Despite statin free for 6 months it will probably take another 18 months for it to go. If HCP's really believed me they would not have told me to try again.. I had been clear of pain for 1 year.. Back to square one again...


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[Bluetit1802]

• I have taken Simvastatin since January this year with no known side effects at all. My husband has been taking them for 3 years, also with no side effects. My cholesterol returned from bad to good within a month of taking them. After my next blood test in June, if all remains well, I would like to stop taking them and see what happens.

 

[AnnieC]

I take 20mg Simvastatin and don't have any side effects

 

[Pollylocks]

...I took simvastatin for over two years and I never connected the pain in my legs [thighs] with this medication until I saw links about it on the internet.....by this time I had muscle wastage.......saw my GP who said to stop taking them for a month and then try them again to see if thats what it was causing the pain.....I did, and two days back in I had horrendous pains in my back as well as legs, so bad I had to take a week off work.....so I thought I'd take my chances....

.....two years later my cholesterol reading was 6.9 and a GP at my surgery [different one] prescribed Avorstatin, he said to try them and stop if I have any pains as he looked at my history.......they're still sitting in the cupboard, cannot pluck up the courage to take them and I don't want to anyway...

...I've done quite a bit of research on the internet re statins and cholesterol over the last few years and from what I can gather as a layman, there is no higher incidence of heart attacks in people with higher cholesterol than there is in people with lower cholesterol. Our bodies produce cholesterol naturally and I wouldn't have thought our bodies naturally produce something that is harmful to us....even doctors are divided in their opinions on statins....

....I also wonder that if statins caused muscle wastage in my thighs, what have they done to the unseen muscles inside...?

...Sorry for the rant, statins are my bugbear, it annoys me that they're prescribed so lightly...

 

[IanD]

Bump up.

 

[desidiabulum]

Ideally one would have a poll that would also indicate how long people have been on statins, as I often hear of cases where side-effects did not emerge for a long time, so 'no side-effects' may sometimes reflect shorter periods of usage. I have been on Atorvastatin (low dosage) for 9 months with no side-effects that I am aware of.

 

[))Denise((]

The side effect I had of taking Simvastatin 40mg was that they took my cholesterol too low to 3.0. Having had Vitamin D deficiency, I need my cholesterol to convert sunlight into Vitamin D.

 

[borderter]

I react to statins but due to recent heart surgery must take them. Am on pravastatin and less side effects than the others and yes ive had them all so really did try but hate them

 

[Dillinger]

Great post @Spiker !

I voted yes as I had severe but random muscle pains in my hands which completely cleared up when I stopped taking the statins.

Here is the position of Professor Rory Collins (who was the person who complained about the discrepancies in the recent BMJ articles)

"Professor Collins has said previously that evidence shows statins are “very well tolerated” by patients, with a small increase in diabetes and one in 10,000 patients suffering muscle weakness."

Full article here - http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-who-warned-of-drugs-sideeffects-9388337.html

Now, the total membership of this forum is listed on the main page here as 101,703 people. If we assume that every single one of those people have a) taken statins and b) completed the poll and that c) the complications people note above are muscle problems then according to the Good Professor 10 people (at most) would have ticked the complications.

The fact that at the time of writing 543 people have looked at this poll and more than 50% of those voting have had side effects is kind of weird if you believe the Professor; according to him 0.01% of those 543 would have had muscle problems or in effect none of them.

Remember the Watergate scandal and the inside informer Deep Throat's advice to Bernstein and Woodward to 'follow the money'. Sounds like that advice is still worth following...

Best

Dillinger

 

[cathie51]

I am 63 years old and although not as thin as I would like was quite active. I have several medical problems as well as being type 2 diabetic on insulin. I take several medications and I had been taking Simvastatin for 3 years when it was suggested I change to Atorvastatin within a week I was in agony with pains in my legs, cramps and muscle spasm and even attended A & E. I stopped the statin and was immediately much better.

Told the GP who actually agreed it must have been the pills and put me back on the Simvastatin. however I still had pains and they have got so bad that I am now unable to walk more than a few yards and have to use a walker to even do that it has completely stopped my life as it was. I have back pain and hand and arm pain which comes and goes but the pain my legs is constant and I get awful spasms. So in the last year since this happened I have become so ill that I am registered as disabled.

sorry this is a bit of a rant but I feel really strongly about this problem I got no warning that it might ba a problem.

 

[Dillinger]

sorry this is a bit of a rant but I feel really strongly about this problem I got no warning that it might ba a problem.

Cathie, have you stopped taking the Simvastatin? If not why not!!!?

 

[Squire Fulwood]

I had been taking Simvastatin for some months when my right calf muscle sort of "cracked" while I was out walking one day. I had to come home on one leg. I had previously read the bit of paper in the pillbox and it said to contact the surgery if this happened. Over a period of a month off the statin the leg improved.

DN said she had another statin she would like me to try which I did and the same thing happened as before. It didn't take so long about it this time but it did take another month off my legs before it got better.

I had made a pact with DN that I would never lie to her or stop taking pills without her agreement ............so.

She prescribed a third type saying that absolutely no-one had ever complained about these ones. Over a period of a few weeks I got more and more stiff in all my joints. When I next saw DN my shoulders were glowing and I couldn't move my head at all and my arms had lost much mobility. She panicked, took a blood test and sent me to the GP who stopped the pills and sent me to the physiotherapist.

The fourth statin caused an ongoing gastro enteritis like problem. I only had to look at food at the end of it. Doctor's again and bottles of stuff.

DN has now formally recorded in my medical notes that I am "Intolerant of statins".

I only wrote out this detail because elsewhere I have come across the inference that I stopped taking pills without the knowledge of my GP. Rest assured, he knows.

 

[1andylock]

Am i thick, how do I vote or where do I vote

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[daisy1]

You can vote at the top of the page. Just two choices.

 

[Spiker]

You can vote at the top of the page. Just two choices.

You can only vote from the web page, not as far as I know from the phone app.

@Giverny is that true ?

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[madusmacus]

when I started taking simvastatin I had about a year of progressive walking problems in the end I almost could not walk
But... this eased off and Now I can walk perfectly - weird

Maybe it was not the statins I dunno

 

[JANROU]

Took simvastatin for about three weeks and developed numb finger tips, tried another one avorstatin or something like that sma thing. Told GP didn't want to try any more. My cholesterol at that point about 6 years ago was 4.4 but was told if over 40 and type 1 should be taking them (the fact I was nearly 50 passed them by). Cholesterol has crept up to 5.4 now so have been persuaded to take ezetimibe but await result of next blood test and if they aren't reducing the level significantly will stop them.


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