statin side-effects - (Atorvastatin 10 mgm)

Hi, I'm also on Atorvastatin and am getting lots of pains, on my hips especially at night, legs. When I sit down or try to get out of bed, it takes me ages to motivate but once i start walking I'm fine. Although I used to have back pain sometimes it seems more now. Also, I am feeling tired all the time. I did go to the Doctor for my tiredness and pains and I have been given to have blood tests for thyroid and vitamin D. And to go for an x-ray on my hip. Once I've had these done and go to the Doctor I will question him on the Atorvastatin.

When I was first dianosed with high cholestrol I tried to lower it by diet, but I was getting pains in my hands especially when I got my hot flushes. Went to see the Doctor and was told it could be blocked arteries, which frightened me and I so I started taking the tablets. The pain in my hands stopped, and then I got other pains.

I feel like an old woman when I try to get out of bed, and when I try and get up from a chair to walk. I'm definitely going back to my Doctor.

Belgin

Hi I have been taking Statins for about a year and started getting pains in my legs and arms. I could not lift my arms and it had got to the stage where I was worried that I would not be able to get out of the chair for much longer. I was sent to Physio and they could not find anything wrong. My weight has also spiraled and I have been had very swollen legs. I had been going to the doctor with the pains in my joints and nothing was done.

When a friend mentioned a few of the problems she was having with statins I went to the doctor and told her about this she has stopped my tablet now. My pains have gone and I an able to use my arms again. I am taking ginger everyday that is steeped in boiling water and try and eat a load of fresh carrots as often as possible. The weight is another problem and to get rid of that is another problem which seems to be impossible to shift. My water problems are still there and I hope that these tablets have not damaged my kidneys, which were bad to start with.

I am pretty mad that this was not picked up when it started. Also that I was given these tabs when I had a kidney problem and an under active thyroid which are 2 of the no no's to prescribe these tabs

Lyn

Hi

Thanks for the information, I'm going to go back to my Doctor after my x-ray tomorrow which is for the pain in my hip. My pains were terrible last night, while sitting on the bus going home from my daughter I was aching all over and became a bit tearful from it.

I shall definitely try the ginger and the carrots. My weight has gone back up to what it was after losing 3 stones 2 years ago and I'm not doing anything different. I even started to take Osteocare from the Health shop thinking it would help, but it isn't.

Belgin

I too have decided to stop taking statins due to awful breathlessness muscle pain and weakness.A week before I started taking them I was fit,exercised my horse and led a healthy outdoor life,I was only on them for six weeks but now after stopping them for three weeks I still feel very tired and my muscles still don't seem to have regained their strength.I wonder how long it takes to return to normal or if in deed you ever do! My doctor was rather evasive when I tried to get his opinion on this.I have taken steps to address my diet as my cholesterol level had risen since middle age,but I do eat healthily and take loads of exercise.Feeling very fed up.

Hi Marilyn, I have been off statins for about 8 weeks now and it takes a while before you start to feel better. I have been feeling a bit better every day for a while and the day before yesterday was the first day that I can say my legs did not ache as much. I know how you feel and that is why I am so mad , because I had been complaining for a long time about the pains and nothing was said or done until I brought up the subject. It seems that patients are having to do all the hard work to find out what is wrong with them and not the doctors. I have also been researching cholesterol and have come across another thing that helps bring it down. Sprinkle a bit of raw oats over your food which I have also been doing besides the ginger and carrots.

Thanks for that Lynette.I have started a big bowl of porridge every day made with soya milk and with a banana sliced in it.Having done a bit of research it came up as the only breakfast cereal that actually can lower cholesterol and clean the arteries.Missed the info on ginger and carrots! I eat quite a lot of carrots,but how do you take the ginger.

Thanks for that Lynette.I have started a big bowl of porridge every day made with soya milk and with a banana sliced in it.Having done a bit of research it came up as the only breakfast cereal that actually can lower cholesterol and clean the arteries.Missed the info on ginger and carrots! I eat quite a lot of carrots,but how do you take the ginger.

Hi Marilyn45, I take the fresh ginger and cut a few slices pour boiling water over and let it stand. The water tastes quite gingery after a while but pleasant

my dad had a bleeding in the brain because of this disgusting drug...before then his muscles were wasting away and his memory getting poorer each month...now out of hospital where they took statins off him but his stupid GP says he may prescribe them again...well over my dad body...no chance

and another thing statins destroy the enzyme COQ10 in the brain...genuine doctors should know this and tell you to take coq10 if you are on statins..Merck even patented a statin drug combined with coq10 but dropped it...no wonder because they were admitting this problem exists and didnt want to draw attention to it and the possibility of multiple lawsuits

Hello statin takers.My 65 yr. old brothessr recently suffered a massive stroke after.s 5 yrs on simvastatin.HE was fit & healthy.ANY SIMILAR EXPERIENCE re STROKES? Thanks

Hi, I am on pravastatin now, but I don't take it regularly and after having read all these comments and from the last problem with atorvastatin too frightened to take them. I had my x-ray and nothing showed up. And after 3 months of being of the atorvastatin my pains also stopped. but was put on the pravastatin instead. I've been taking ginger with honey and lemon, this also helped me with my cough that I had and now has gone. Drinking just the ginger now, but have being eating porridge for 3 years and taking soya milk for many years. I have to have another blood test this week to see how my cholesterol is now. Hope it is ok! I have been very restless in my sleeping and have been getting pains in my hips again.

My mum was on atorvastatin for many years, and always complained about pain in her muscles, and she was having trouble using her right hand after a while, becoming forgetful and her walking was getting poor and she ended up in a wheel chair. I don't want to be like this.

Then my Line Manager who is on the Atorvastatin seems not to be having any problems.

My doctor put me on Statins last year but I was wary of taking them.So I waited a couple of months.I did get brave an started taking them.After a while I was having awful breathlessness.I am on inhalers anyway twice a day.So I stopped taking the tablets for a while.Then started them again an same thing was happening plus feeling dizzy from time I got up in the morning and during the day.So have stopped taking them altogether now.Am going to see my dr next week then will explain to her.I don't like taking tablets at the best of times.

Mine are Simvastatin.

I am 65 year old male, generally fit but with mild type 2 diabetes. As part of my treatment I was put on 40mg Simvastatin about 5 years ago. Very slowly - so slowly I did not realise it was happening - I lost my mental sharpness, my memory deteriorated, I gradually slowed down and felt tired all the time. I assumed it was just ageing, and put up with it until it got so bad that I was losing the will to go on, and went to the Doctor who eventually diagnosed depression. He immediately stopped the Simvastatin and prescribed Atorvastatin instead, but I have not been taking them, and won't do until I start feeling better. Even then I'm not sure I will. I've been off the statins for 4 weeks now, and I'm still not right.

Statins affect different people differently, but memory problems, tiredness and depression are well known side effects. If not exactly widespread, I think they are more common than doctors admit, as a lot of patients put up with it and don't complain.