40mg lipitor side effects

Hi Mark.  Unfortunately some 'side effects' are not just side effects they are long lasting and often permanent.  My best advice is review carefully why you are on them.  If it's just to lower cholesterol, stop before they do serious and permanent damage.  Unfortunately doctors are guided by NICE re prescribing statins and other cholesterol lowering drugs and it's not always on the basis of best advice for the patient but more to do with pharmaceutical industry influence and funding.  If you are already feeling such bad effects, regrettably this will continue and will get worse.  I personally ended up in A&E without knowing what was happening or causing the problem and was told by the attending Registrar that it was statins causing it and I should stop immediately before irreparable damage occurred - very scary.  I would also suggest you read the thousands of forums comments on here about the devastating effects these drugs can have.  Take no nonsence from your GP, insist they find an alternative way of managing your condition WITHOUT this poison.

I can emphathise about the suitcases:  I've told this story on here before so sorry if I'm boring regular users.   Last winter ON statins I had 2 cm of firewood delivered and it took me two weeks to get it stacked under cover on the verandah:   a couple of months later OFF statins an identical load took me two days.

The point is they DO lower cholesterol and most people don't have any negative effects from them:  it's just that those of us who do have life-limiting effects and in some cases permanent muscle and nerve damage.

I don't uderstand the reference to friends being "rough off statins"?

I felt better about a week off them, but this varies from person to person from posts I've read on here.   You seem to only have the exhaustion effect:  most people who have that also have muscle and nerve pain, depression and loss of libido.

If you can find a doctor who knows of any alternative way of managing high cholesterol please tell us what that method is!   We'd all love to know

 

William - unfortunately we both had to find out the hard way.  I had heated discussions with my GP, who basically called the hospital doctor a 'liar'.  Thankfully I had the sense to stand my ground and refuse to take them again, even with open threats from my doctor that I would be dead soon! That was six years ago and I'm no worse off now than I was previously, other than I now have fibromyalgia and both the neurologist and the rheumatologist agree that there is a possibility statin use triggered the condition by damaging the muscles.

IF I were you I'd stop the statins for a week or so and see if the symptoms recede or vanish:   document everything thoroughly, then go back on them and document what happens.   This should convince your doctor about the effect statins are having on you, but don't expect an alternative remedy other than fear inducing statements about risking a heart attack or stroke.

Blood pressure can be kept down with daily exercise and meditation, I've done it and so have thousands, maybe millions of others.  Mind you I know fo no negative effects from BP medication at the right dose.

A high fibre diet can bring cholesterol down:  eg psyllium husks - I take 4 tsp of the powder in my morning porridge, just be careful to never eat it dry because it expands on contact with liquid and you don't want that happening in your throat or gullet.

Hi Jude. My cholesterol is at 7.5. I did use to take 20mg daily several years ago but stopped taking them, cannot recall why I stopped. I had a full blood test in June and my doctor said my cholesterol is very high and I need to take 40mg daily. I started to notice how tired and drained I was. Recently it has got worse over the last few weeks, I didn't even think my statins could have any involvement until I read on these forums. It is quite scary to say the least. Hope it settles soon because its proving difficult holding down a full time job when I'm unwell like this.

Have you tried other ways to reduce your cholesterol?  For example, exercise and lots of fibre?   If you have a look at the topic about the Beta Heart product I have info there about psyllium husks, which have lowered my cholesterol a bit and I'm going to try this other product and see what happens.

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Do you  have other risks for cardio vascular issues?  Eg smoker, overweight, stress, high blood pressure, genetic factors?  There's a fair bit of info on the internet to the effect that high cholesterol alone isn't necessarily a health risk anyway:  lots of people with it don't have heart attacks, lots of people without it do 

There are a few generic factors. My father had raised cholesterol, heart failure, diabetes etc. My Doctor says I am a carbon copy of my father and wants to treat the symptoms now and hopefully I will not have to go through the same as my father. I am overweight by a couple of stones, I have a very demanding job and my diet is not the best, unusually eat on the go. I did smoke but quit 12 months ago. Last night was the first without a statin and today I feel so tired and drained nauaeas and dizzy and upper stomach cramps. Hope these effects wear off soon I'm back in work tomorrow for a 14 hour shift.

My dad also had high cholesterol in pre-statin days and eventually died of cardiac arrest, but he was about 80 by then.  My mother died of the same, but at the age of 86.

Quite honestly I don't want to be that old if I don't have quality of life and anyway it's unlikely because I have emphysema from far too many decades of smoking.

It's great that you've stopped and it would also be good if you could improve your diet:  it does take a bit of practice and planning but you would find it worth it, I'm sure.   Just don't try & do a drastic change all at once or you won't stick to it:  gradually introduce healthier food as you phase out the unhealthy stuff and one day you'll find yourselt eating healthily most of the time.    I just can't even eat junk food or high salt or high sugar food any more, it tastes terrible.  Fortunately I LOVE vegies and even grow some of my own, mainly in pots so I don't have to do much bending.

Take care of yourself!  I didn't have any side effects when I stopped statins quite the contrary, so I hope you're feeling much better soon

I too have a family history of heart disease - my father's family (him and nine siblings) all died of heart related problems, none of them reaching age 70.  However, their lives were very very different to ours in many ways, not least medical science advances.  Treatment options are wider - statins are just the cheapest and 'easiest' but not the only option available.  I asked my GP whether he could prove that high cholesterol killed off my father and his family and of course he was at pains to say that back then they wouldnt have known.  Precisely - there is no way of determining whether any or all of them specifically had high cholesterol.  What they did have was hereditary heart defects, which can now be identified much earlier.  I have no such heart defect - proven by tests.  I do however have abnormally high cholesterol in isolation.  Will this high cholesterol cause me to have a heart episode? Again, not proven.  Im with Jude on this one, I do not want to live to a 'ripe old age' if all of my later life I have nil quality of life due to the destruction of my muscles, my brain and my liver from taking statins.  End of story.

I totally second that steve.  Statins are effectively poison.  They reduce cholesterol yes - but they reduce both GOOD and BAD and low good cholesterol is actually more life threatening and destructive.  Particularly for brain function, as sadly with your father. So sorry to hear that.  As others have mentioned, people with heart disease dont always have high cholesterol and others with high cholesterol dont always have heart disease.  The industry is fixated on cholesterol - and you hit the nail on the head - it's totally and absolutely only because forcing everyone to believe erroneously that cholesterol is the enemy creates massive profits for the pharmaceutical industry producing and selling statins - a drug thats been around for a long time and thus costs them almost nothing in research costs or to produce.