Question If You No Longer Take Statins.

[DavidGrahamJones]

I took a statin for 17 years and experienced a lot of leg muscle pain for all of those years. Despite this I religiously did as I was told and even tolerated the GPs stupid statements like "it's your age" (45 at the time), "it's your weight" (so how come the pain started when I started taking the tablets?) and my favourite "you exercise too much". It was because of the muscle pain that I started taking cocodomol, a questionable solution to the pain, but it made life easier.

It took a lot of research, carefully trying to avoid conspiracy theories and looking for the truth although anecdotally I was bumping into more and more people who were having problems. I finally dumped statins when my total cholesterol dropped to 3.5 after reducing my carbs. Total cholesterol is now 5.4 and although the powers that be might not like it, tough.

The fact that Merck Pharmaceutical were well aware of the muscle pain problem and knew that it was the prevention of the uptake of Co-enzyme Q10 being the cause way back in 1990 just made me angry, but at least it validated what I'd already discovered.

Now to the point, I still get muscle pain, not as bad, but it's still there. By coincidence I had some blood and urine tests a few months back (not GP, through my Nutritional Therapist) which showed that I lacked CoQ10.

Does anyone else still experience muscle pain and does anybody else know what their CoQ10 levels are? I wonder if the low CoQ10 is related to taking statins even though I have now stopped?

 

[Indy51]

Might be worthwhile getting genetic testing as there are quite a few mutations that cause a deficiency quite apart from the damage statins can do to your levels. I don't know why this isn't tested before prescribing statins, though no doubt cost comes into it.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Might be worthwhile getting genetic testing as there are quite a few mutations that cause a deficiency quite apart from the damage statins can do to your levels. I don't know why this isn't tested before prescribing statins, though no doubt cost comes into it.

Cheers for that, by coincidence I had genetic tests done by 23andme. Bit of a result really, I paid and they took three reminders over three months before I received the test kit . . . . . . and a refund. I'd only done it for the genealogy side of things but the genetic information is immense and I've used several free web sites and some pay web sites to get the raw data explained in a more readable format. 23andme do supply quite a bit of easy to read info, but the raw data is excellent. I better start looking.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Perhaps I should also ask the question "has anyone taken CoQ10 to overcome the side effects and did it help? I couldn't determine much of a difference myself but I know there has been a suggestion that ingested CoQ10 may not be any good because of what happens in the gut. Maybe dosage is critical, I know that the Japanese use it a lot for people who have had a cardio vascular event (heart is a muscle) and some countries prescribe it along with statins (Germany, Canada? - not sure). It can't be prescribed in the UK, at least when I last spoke to my GP it couldn't.

 

[Indy51]

Cheers for that, by coincidence I had genetic tests done by 23andme. Bit of a result really, I paid and they took three reminders over three months before I received the test kit . . . . . . and a refund. I'd only done it for the genealogy side of things but the genetic information is immense and I've used several free web sites and some pay web sites to get the raw data explained in a more readable format. 23andme do supply quite a bit of easy to read info, but the raw data is excellent. I better start looking.

Did you do the Promethease report? That's the one I got and it has so much info. I did a search for Q10 and luckily I have the favourable versions of all the SNPs

I've been taking the supplement for a while now, ubiquinol version. I find if I stop taking it, my BP goes up, so I'm pretty consistent in taking it.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Did you do the Promethease report? That's the one I got and it has so much info. I did a search for Q10 and luckily I have the favourable versions of all the SNPs

I've been taking the supplement for a while now, ubiquinol version. I find if I stop taking it, my BP goes up, so I'm pretty consistent in taking it.

Thanks for that, it's running as I type this.
I also take Ubiquinol now.

I'm not sure I fully understand the report, especially the section that says I have 7 X risk of baldness. I suppose it does only say risk. At 64 I still have a full head of hair, not even grey yet, although the beard is very "Father Christmas" LOL

 

[Enclave]

I did and still do get pain from Statins .. took them for about 15 years .. stopped them about 3 years ago. Tried to take Q10 but they made me feel 100 times worst, so stopped taking them.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

I did and still do get pain from Statins .. took them for about 15 years .. stopped them about 3 years ago. Tried to take Q10 but they made me feel 100 times worst, so stopped taking them.

That's interesting. I wonder why?

 

[Enclave]

That's interesting. I wonder why?

I have no idea why... but stopped taking them !!

 

[Oldvatr]

Perhaps I should also ask the question "has anyone taken CoQ10 to overcome the side effects and did it help? I couldn't determine much of a difference myself but I know there has been a suggestion that ingested CoQ10 may not be any good because of what happens in the gut. Maybe dosage is critical, I know that the Japanese use it a lot for people who have had a cardio vascular event (heart is a muscle) and some countries prescribe it along with statins (Germany, Canada? - not sure). It can't be prescribed in the UK, at least when I last spoke to my GP it couldn't.

Seems it may increase the problems of side effects. If you want to frighren youtself
http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/coenzyme-q10/interactions/hrb-20059019
http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/coenzyme-q10/safety/hrb-20059019

I was advised not to take it because of the heart meds I am on are contraindicated.
also I have not seen any reports that it helps with nerve pain or arthritis, so why bother? Its expensive. I am using ALA instead and finding that it helps to reduce mine

 

[Indy51]

Thanks for that, it's running as I type this.
I also take Ubiquinol now.

I'm not sure I fully understand the report, especially the section that says I have 7 X risk of baldness. I suppose it does only say risk. At 64 I still have a full head of hair, not even grey yet, although the beard is very "Father Christmas" LOL

I struggle with the risk factors too - but take them as very remote, especially the ones that tell me about my risks of prostate cancer, lol

The highest risk I have is for ankylosing spondylitis (20x) though in the notes it says that is an absolute risk of 2%.

I think the report is great as long as you don't suffer with health anxiety of any kind - if you do, it could become a source of worry. Luckily I've never had issues with that - I find it all fascinating, especially following the links to their website and the research papers behind the information they give you.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Seems it may increase the problems of side effects. If you want to frighren youtself
http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/coenzyme-q10/interactions/hrb-20059019
http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/coenzyme-q10/safety/hrb-20059019

I was advised not to take it because of the heart meds I am on are contraindicated.
also I have not seen any reports that it helps with nerve pain or arthritis, so why bother? Its expensive. I am using ALA instead and finding that it helps to reduce mine

I learn something every day, I'm pleased to say.

 

[Mep]

hmmm I just started taking lipitor and not sure if they tested me for CoQ10. I have to get my liver and muscle function tested next week though so not sure if that is it? I started taking fish oil as well but not sure if that has any definite benefit. I have high cholesterol in my family and they all seem to struggle with it. I'm the biggest person in my family at the moment by far thanks to recent weight gain. But my overall cholesterol came back at 6.8 which is the highest I've had since doing the LCHF diet years back. I'll see if this statin works. I already have aches and pains probably from my other meds so can't say I've noticed any difference as yet.

 

[Pinkorchid]

I took a statin for 17 years and experienced a lot of leg muscle pain for all of those years. Despite this I religiously did as I was told and even tolerated the GPs stupid statements like "it's your age" (45 at the time), "it's your weight" (so how come the pain started when I started taking the tablets?) and my favourite "you exercise too much". It was because of the muscle pain that I started taking cocodomol, a questionable solution to the pain, but it made life easier.

It took a lot of research, carefully trying to avoid conspiracy theories and looking for the truth although anecdotally I was bumping into more and more people who were having problems. I finally dumped statins when my total cholesterol dropped to 3.5 after reducing my carbs. Total cholesterol is now 5.4 and although the powers that be might not like it, tough.

The fact that Merck Pharmaceutical were well aware of the muscle pain problem and knew that it was the prevention of the uptake of Co-enzyme Q10 being the cause way back in 1990 just made me angry, but at least it validated what I'd already discovered.

Now to the point, I still get muscle pain, not as bad, but it's still there. By coincidence I had some blood and urine tests a few months back (not GP, through my Nutritional Therapist) which showed that I lacked CoQ10.

Does anyone else still experience muscle pain and does anybody else know what their CoQ10 levels are? I wonder if the low CoQ10 is related to taking statins even though I have now stopped?

I have thought of taking CoQ10 myself. I have been taking statins for about 10 years I have never had any leg pains or other side effects but think at my age 77 the CoQ10 may be a good idea but I will ask my doctor first

 

[JohnEGreen]

There was when statins were first developed a proposal that CoQ10 should be included in the tablets this was not done. When placed on statins really CoQ10 should be prescribed as well this is rarely if ever done.

There is a school of thought that statins damage the production of CoQ10 so badly that the body never truly recovers from it and that once the damage is done unfortunately taking CoQ10 supplements is of little use.

I hope that that is not the case as I have been taking statins many years and am taking CoQ10 to try and repair things.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Perhaps I should also ask the question "has anyone taken CoQ10 to overcome the side effects and did it help?

Yes I did and no it didn't. My nurse strongly suggested that I buy and take CoQ10 while I was taking statins. She thought it quite important. Within weeks I was off my legs and in an armchair for a month while the effect of the statins wore off. She doesn't give up easily though since we went through this performance three more times before I was registered as intolerant of statins.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

There is a school of thought that statins damage the production of CoQ10 so badly that the body never truly recovers from it and that once the damage is done unfortunately taking CoQ10 supplements is of little use.

Merck Pharmaceutical were aware of the problems in 1990 as can been seen in their patent application. http://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/statin-CoQ10.pdf Shame they never followed up on it. It's become a problem for me now because in the past I've taken cocodomol for arthritic knees, sciatica, muscular spasms at base of spine, I've also visited a reflexologist and chiropractor regularly. I can see that as I'm weening myself off them because I've got new knees and I think my exercise regime is helping with the back and sciatica, and cutting down on visits to reflexologist and chiropractor, those muscle pains are returning, the cocodomol was probably "hiding" the muscle. Now it's so bad sometimes that I just don't want to move.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

There is a school of thought that statins damage the production of CoQ10 so badly that the body never truly recovers from it and that once the damage is done unfortunately taking CoQ10 supplements is of little use.

I think this could be true. Before diagnosis and statins I did my own forrestry, cutting down trees and stuff. My legs no longer work right and often wobble off the straight line. They are also weak and prevent me doing some jobs. I could be told that it's my age but I had no trouble until the statins.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

I think this could be true. Before diagnosis and statins I did my own forrestry, cutting down trees and stuff. My legs no longer work right and often wobble off the straight line. They are also weak and prevent me doing some jobs. I could be told that it's my age but I had no trouble until the statins.

I do know somebody who had very serious problems also, after a matter of weeks. Luckily his GP acted promptly instead of the old "age", "weight", "too much exercise" excuses.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

I do know somebody who had very serious problems also, after a matter of weeks. Luckily his GP acted promptly instead of the old "age", "weight", "too much exercise" excuses.

A friend of mine from about a mile away went into hospital with a stroke. He tells me it was diagnosed as a statin seizure. An honest hospital.