Side Effects

Hi Sandy - thanks for your response. I was wondering which side your pain is on. It could be due to an inflamed liver. I could not lie on my left side and the shoulder ached incessantly. If the pain does not diminish, it is unlikely to be a strained muscle. Blood tests will alert you whether the liver is compromised - provided the doctor is honest with you (you are entitled to request a printout of the results for independant evaluation).

Your comment re: pharmas testing till they get favourable results is absolutely and criminally true. I read somewhere that they can conduct hundreds of tests in order to just get the three required to prove the efficacy of the drug they hope to impose on vulnerable patients. They don't have to mention the multitude of failures. Another tactic they adopt is feeding the test subject the specific drug before commencement of the test, then withdrawing it. The test subject complains of feeling such and such (nausea, muscle pain, headaches etc) which magically diminish while the subject is engaged in the actual test. Yet another common trick is the use of young people who are in the peak of health and resilient to the introduction of poisons to their system - hardly a representation of the demographic for which the drugs are bound.

The business model for pharmacuetical companies is to get every human being reliant on at least one drug. Statins, with their compounding side effects that lead to serious issues like alzheimers, renal failure, liver disease and others, is an efficient tool used to this end. Those doctors who are strangely and cruelly comlicit, ignoring the constant and real complaints of patients, need to question themselves as to who they are actually serving and read the hippocratic oath again: "Do no harm."

Best of luck to you Sandy, I hope you can find the health balance thats right for you. You are not alone.

Hi Wayne...I assume your pain is gone... hope so.   the pain felt like it was a single place... right below the lowest rib on the right... would get a sore shoulder, back pain...which felt like refered pain.  Couldn't sneeze, burp, or cough without a great deal of pain.  (I never realized how much I sneezed, burped and coughed!) Now I've been off Pravastatin for 2 weeks and side pain mostly gone... just feels sore and all other symptoms complely gone.  

so glad to have this forum... My doc is good... teaches at the med school here..but I wonder how much she has read past the literature promoting statins.  

how's your cholesterol now?  mine will be back to 230 soon... triglicerides are low normal... and at 73, i'll just keep it that way.

thanks for your note.

one more thing... I do want to get the word out anyway I can about statins... there may be subclinical damage it does that is not felt ... till the damage becomes evident.  makes no sense that it hurts 'just 10%'.  

Hi Sandy, thanks for your response. Yes the pain has gone. I was on atorvastatin @ 80 mg for two years and took it religiously as I thought it was something to stop the rejection of a stent inserted to clear a blockage. No-one told me it was for cholesterol, neither did they mention any side effects. Problems started appearing after 12 months including risk of type 2 diabetes, bloating, hair loss, excema, aching restless muscles, shoulder pain, despondancy, depression and more. I couldn't figure it out until a documentary aired detailing risks of statins. The station that aired it was forced to issue a public apology because the powerful medical fraternity stated it was "misleading and dangerous."

I sprang into action like a groaning Spiderman. Without telling my negligent doctor, i started weaning myself off statins in August last year (2015). I felt better within weeks, though even now, 5 months later, i am still dealing with bouts of muscle aches, liver pain, flare ups of excema and other inconveniences. The bloating diminished, i felt brighter, looked better and cursed ever having heard of statins. I am hoping there has been no long term damage. I totally agree that there is hidden damage - some survivors have terrible stories to tell: crippled legs, nuerological damage, liver damage - even one of a wife whose husband died of cancer with the oncologist stating that he had seen cancer cases spike because of statins and that he wondered "why no-one has sued the parmacuetical companies yet." Probably because those companies have billions at hand (in the US alone there are 40 million statin patients worth an annual 20 billion dollars), and can litigate until the complainant is broke or dead. Where's Erin Brokovich when you need her?

You mentioned that you never realised how much you burped, coughed and sneezed. Gas is another side effect, and I was constantly burping, trying to relieve an abdominal discomfort that sounds much like yours. So glad to read that you are virtually symptom free and good on you for taking charge of your health, and, yes, these forums are a relief. It's comforting to know we are not alone.