Simvastatin Side Effects

I think that nobody really knows. I did take Simvastatin for a few years and thought I was ok. Like most people, I attributed my aches to getting older.

It hit me really hard though when the prescription was changed to Atorvastatin; extreme muscle weakness, shortness of breath, nightmares.

It took me a few months to make the connection that this was due to the drug - the controversy regarding statins at this time had made headlines in the general media -.

I stopped taking statins and will never take them again.

I think that some of the damage done may be permanent.

The fact is, that the so called 'clinical trials' have only proved one thing, statins will lower cholesterol. There is insufficient data as to what the optimum level of cholesterol should be, and whether it should be the same for everybody.

I call statins 'the devil's drug'.

I am following the articles written by Dr. Malcom Kendrick, who is fighting the pushing of statins onto about everybody over a certain age.

 

The world at large seems to think cholesterol is to be avoided at all costs.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

A normal amount of cholesterol is needed for proper brain operation, since the brain is made up primarily of fats.  40mg/day of simvistatin took my otherwise completely normal cholesterol down by a full 1/3, torpedoing my memory.  It got so bad I could not remember my account number at my bank, where I had been a member for over 25 years.  Not to mention all those things I didn't know I was not remembering...

I will never take them again either.  My cholesterol is now back to normal and I keep getting in touch with memories I had not known I had forgotten!  And oh are they sweet!  

Never again, statins.  You are a dangerous drug in my book, you should be on the controlled substances list.

It's like chemo - you hope it destroys the disease before it destroys you, because it's poison.  They wanted me on it for the rest of my life simply because I had had a heart operation.  I am totally convinved that had I done so, dimensia would have entered the picture within a few years, and from then on.  Dimensia is on the rise, and guess what?  So is statin use.  The drug companies say it has "negligible" side effects.  Right.  

Keep reading this thread and others on this site.  Stuff I have read here has curled my hair.

Not for me.  I like to be fully conscious and know stuff.  And know THAT I know stuff, too.  It all gets compromised with statins.

Statins are a powerful drug. I consider it almost criminal to subscribe a potent drug like statins as a 'preventative' medicine.

People with choloesterol above 4 are NOT ill; NICE has designed some form of assessment as to who 'is at risk'  to have a heart attack or stroke; GP's are basically instructed to offer statins to about everybody over a certain age; the reason being that there will be less patients in the future that need treatment for coronary deseases.

 

To not advise of side effects is just as criminal, IMHO.  

My cardiology dept. has had 3 years to tell me about them, starting at 3 years ago when they slipped those statins quietly into my post-op prescriptions directly after my heart operation, an operation which had had nothing to do with cholesterol or plaque buildup.  I had perfect cholesterol already, before and after the operation, and when I quizzed them I learned that the statins were "just in case".   "We like to prescribe them to anybody who has had any kind of heart episode, like yours."  I have to commend their caring, and wanting essentially to do good by me.  But it's a little misguided when you really research the undisclosed side effects.

The entire cardiology community seems to think taking statins is "a good idea" if you've had any kind of coronary episode.  I have a good friend Lair who had to have a stint put in, nowhere nearly as big an operation as mine, where my chest was cracked completely open, and they put him on them too.  He is now off of them too, due to my turning him on to the info from this site.  With a BIG thank you from his wife, one of my best friends for more than 30 years.

Thinking that any side effects would be negligible because nobody had said any different, I took them for more than a year before starting to finally notice episodes of patchy memory and then REALLY patchy memory, whereupon I started getting suspicious and researching it.  

Notice I said "notice".  Can't notice what simply is not being brought to mind, so only the peak lapses - like not being able to remember my bank account number while making out my deposit slip, which I had done hundreds of times before with no problem at all - were going to get my attention.  The rest was just never going to be remembered or brought to my conscious mind at all.  Including things that formerly used to be always popping in - pleasant memories from my past - unbidden and always welcome.  

Not on statins.

This suspicion brought me to reports of memory lapses and compromised ability for in-depth thinking, which I was also experiencing.  My life had become very one dimensional after the operation rather than colorful and full of promise like it had been before (even tho I hadn't really consciously noticed that yet).  

These reports came in literature from John Hopkins, Scientific American and a bunch of others including new, fresh warnings from the FDA (use fda dot gov rather than dot org).  And then here, where I found the anecdotal reports REALLY abounding, some from those who have had to take to the wheelchair after years of taking the statins.

Nada.  Not one word in 3 years from cardiology.  

I stayed on the statins, experimenting on going off of them for months and then back on them again, till I quit them and finally experienced the return of my memory and had learned enough here on this site and others - at many other threads here on this site alone - about their true character.  And massively dangerous - and often permanent - side effects.  

In a press release where I read that the drug companies are rolling out for more and more use in the coming year or 2 - even by those who don't need them - they call the side effects "negligible".  The side effects of statins are ANYTHING BUT "negligible".  As usch says, it is a very powerful drug.

Not one word from the cardiology dept in all this time.  Even after I took them articles to read, printed out reports from this site.  Last time I had a consultation with the cardiologist, in the opposite chair facing me, I told him I was not real happy about that.  Which was met with silence and a blank, studied stare, first at me and then over at the desk...  After a few interminable, silent moments I changed the subject.  I knew he had no answers for me.

Just a note, asw821 -

 

I was started on 40mg/day of simvastatin, then due to my memory reaction - once I noticed that it was even happening - was put on 20mg/day of Atorvastatin, where my side effects continued.  You are on 20mg/day of sim.  That could make all the difference.  

One of my cardilogists recommended Rosuvastatin, which only requires a fraction of either of those dosages/day.  He thought that might help, but maybe not because it just might be a lot more powerful than the others and that may deliver the same side effects.  But it was definitely a much, much lower dosage.

I never got a chance to try, because my going on and off of them again twice proved how dangerous and insidious they were to my memory, my mind and my mental attitude.  And possibly to my libido, which also took a giant hit after my heart operation.  That could have been because of the enalapril, which depresses one's BP.  But I am now down to 1/4 of their usual 250mg/day minimum dose of enalypril - and off statins completely - and feel like I am finally back in the saddle again.

But you might want to try it.

I got all the above.Problem showed up a year and a half after no side affects.My dosage was 10 mg a day I quit taking them.Took about 3 years for all symptoms to go away.