Poll - side effects from statins?

[donnellysdogs]

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.

Aah. But it would also be worth finding out if your Practice reported the side effects to the MHRA....



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[LittleGreyCat]

Simvastatin reduced me to a zombie.
One day when I was having to lie down in the middle of the day I decided this was ridiculous and stopped taking the statins.
Like turning a light back on.

I talked to the surgery and they tried me on Pravastatin.
This seemed O.K. but I tend to take holidays from drugs just to check that there are no side effects creeping up so slowly you don't notice.
I didn't feel any different but my partner told me that I had been very irritable when on the statins.
She hadn't mentioned it because if I had to take the statins for the rest of my life for my health there was nothing I could do about it and she didn't want to burden me with it.

At the moment I am off all drugs and on an exercise, diet and significant weight loss program, inspired by the Newcastle Study.
I want to see how my body copes with the new regime without any drugs.
If my BG control is still not in the non-diabetic range when I hit my weight target I will re-introduce the Metformin to see what happens.
I will NOT be taking statins whatever anyone says.

I Yellow Carded Simvastatin.
I would be prepared to bet a small amount of money (with no expectation of losing) that most of the people who cease or change statins due to side effects are not reported up by their health team, and so there are no accurate statistics.

Cheers

LGC

 

[Squire Fulwood]

"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."

I just used to think it was extremely unfortunate to be that one in 10,000 before I read a little more about it. Also a friend of mine was taken into hospital with what was thought to be a stroke but was diagnosed as a statin seizure.

What are the odds of two of us (one in 10,000) living in the same street? That's when my suspicions were really raised.

 

[annelise]

I Yellow Carded Simvastatin.
I would be prepared to bet a small amount of money (with no expectation of losing) that most of the people who cease or change statins due to side effects are not reported up by their health team, and so there are no no accurate statistics.
/QUOTE]
I wouldn't dare take that bet - even though it is only a 'small amount of money' - the unfavourable odds would would for sure send me out on a very thin branch - and I would hate to crash

annelise

 

[Dillinger]

What are the odds of two of us (one in 10,000) living in the same street? That's when my suspicions were really raised.

I think that those odds come out at 1 in 100,000,000 if Professor Collins is correct. Have you considered buying a lottery ticket?

Best

Dillinger

 

[Spiker]

I think that those odds come out at 1 in 100,000,000 if Professor Collins is correct. Have you considered buying a lottery ticket?

Best

Dillinger

Actually the odds are less than one in ten thousand, depending on the number of people who take statins. If there are a hundred people in your street, and one in ten of the whole population are on statins, then the odds of another affected statin user being on *your* street is 1 in 1000.

 

[IanD]

I just used to think it was extremely unfortunate to be that one in 10,000 before I read a little more about it. Also a friend of mine was taken into hospital with what was thought to be a stroke but was diagnosed as a statin seizure.

What are the odds of two of us (one in 10,000) living in the same street? That's when my suspicions were really raised.

With 10 mg simv I developed debilitating muscle pains, that I attributed to age & diabetes, until I read 2 letters in "Balance." I stopped taking them & within a week I was free from the pains. Dr approved my stopping, & did not suggest alternative statins.

Whe my wife developed muscle pains, we were assured that with a rarity of 1 in 10,000, the likelihood of otherwise unrelated husband & wife developing such pains was negligible. They did clear, but in the last few months, leg muscle pains have become intense, & stopping the simv for 6 weeks may have given a little relief, but not significant. Are such long term effects possible after (virtually?) no adverse effect? And after 10 years of taking them, how long would the effects take to wear off?

The current simvastatin leaflet has the warning:
Contact your Dr immediately if you experience unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness....
Muscle pain heads the list of rare side effects, RARE occurring in 1 to 10 users in 10,000.
There would appear to be NO common side effects - less than 1 in 1,000.

My wife has been taking them for 10 years - since a heart attack - Her total chol was before 4 with 20 mg simv, but the consultant doubled it because he believes chol should ideally be below 3.

 

[Spiker]

At this rate we must have the entire UK population of statin side effect sufferers on this forum... :-/

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[Totto]

With 10 mg simv I developed debilitating muscle pains, that I attributed to age & diabetes, until I read 2 letters in "Balance." I stopped taking them & within a week I was free from the pains. Dr approved my stopping, & did not suggest alternative statins.

Whe my wife developed muscle pains, we were assured that with a rarity of 1 in 10,000, the likelihood of otherwise unrelated husband & wife developing such pains was negligible. They did clear, but in the last few months, leg muscle pains have become intense, & stopping the simv for 6 weeks may have given a little relief, but not significant. Are such long term effects possible after (virtually?) no adverse effect? And after 10 years of taking them, how long would the effects take to wear off?

The current simvastatin leaflet has the warning:
Contact your Dr immediately if you experience unexplained muscle pain, tenderness or weakness....
Muscle pain heads the list of rare side effects, RARE occurring in 1 to 10 users in 10,000.
There would appear to be NO common side effects - less than 1 in 1,000.

My wife has been taking them for 10 years - since a heart attack - Her total chol was before 4 with 20 mg simv, but the consultant doubled it because he believes chol should ideally be below 3.

It took hubby a couple of months before he was rid of the pain so it can take time.

 

[Brunneria]

At this rate we must have the entire UK population of statin side effect sufferers on this forum... :-/

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Or maybe there is something about being diabetic (carb intolerant) that predisposes diabetics to statin side effects.

Just a thought.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

At this rate we must have the entire UK population of statin side effect sufferers on this forum... :-/

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So far we have only had 39 voters on the poll so I think that no-one cares who has side effects.

 

[Spiker]

Or maybe there is something about being diabetic (carb intolerant) that predisposes diabetics to statin side effects.

Just a thought.

Interesting thought actually.

 

[donnellysdogs]

I care about the poll but can't contribute by iphone.

My pains 1st time round took almost 3 years to go. Then had 1 clear year and then told to retry....stopped just after xmas just gone. Still got pain.. Pain clinic did emg tests on my legs for diabetic amyotrophy... Negative.. Scans on lower back negative.. So what else could it be besides statins... Pain clinic consultant, diabetic consultant and gp refuse to believe its statins.. None of them have reported to MHRA.


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[carrington]

Tried 3 types of statins,twice after just one tablet---hives.the third time I ended up with a cough,doctor said nothing
to do with statins.Had 5 trips to the doctor for ivestigations and could find nothing,twice for chest xrays again nothing.
I then found I could not walk properly and had weakness in one arm and so had to go for a mri scan to check ms all clear.After reading about statins here I stopped taking them, so far my arm is back to normal,the cough has nearly cleared and at last the doctor
has decided it was the statins.So for me never again.
Crrington

 

[Pollylocks]

Or maybe there is something about being diabetic (carb intolerant) that predisposes diabetics to statin side effects.

Just a thought.

...... quite a frightening one and I really hope that wouldn't be the case as it could open up a can of worms for all medication as they all have side effects and who knows which people with whatever illness could be badly affected by medication they take ...

 

[Brunneria]

@Pollylocks

Huge numbers of medications have side effects that interact with medical conditions and other drugs.

It's been going on as long as drugs have existed - definitely not a new problem, but I think it is a growing one.

There are even online checkers for anyone to read up on how their medications clash:

http://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/content/19/4/202.full

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722513_10

http://www.healio.com/endocrinology...e8284a7945aa}/drug-interactions-with-diabetes

http://reference.medscape.com/drug-interactionchecker

http://www.webmd.com/interaction-checker/

http://www.healthline.com/druginteractions

Please do not EVER take any new medication without checking for interactions first.
Doctors don't do it (in my experience) and pharmacists rarely do it.
So the buck stops with you.

 

[Totto]

Or maybe there is something about being diabetic (carb intolerant) that predisposes diabetics to statin side effects.

Just a thought.

Or maybe it is that diabetics regularly are prescribed statins.

 

[Pollylocks]

...I've used links like that Brunneria, great information. I remember my doctor warning me that a cortisone injection he needed to give me for a frozen shoulder would shoot my bs levels up....already knew as I'd looked it up lol....the injection worked fantastically though!

 

[Spiker]

Or maybe it is that diabetics regularly are prescribed statins.

Yes, but the interesting point is that if diabetics are more likely to be affected, that would help to explain why the high incidence of side effects we anecdotally appear to see in our own community, isn't reflected at all in the official side effect stats. Not the whole reason but maybe part of the reason.

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[Pollylocks]

..I think its fairly widespread Spiker....I used to belong to a forum, currently belong to another, both general ones, but the Health sections in both have several threads devoted to statins and the stories there are the same as in here....I have a friend who has had side effects like me but according to statistics that shouldn't happen...

...When many of us were prescribed them we didn't find out about the side effects until we had them.....nowadays its fairly well documented in the papers and on the internet, so hopefully people will question it when they are told they need them....because unfortunately they seem to be dished out like smarties....