Worry re commencement of statins after shoulder damage!

Posted , 10 users are following.

Hi

I am worried that after stopping taking Atorvastatin 3 months ago due to severe arm & shoulder pain (still have both frozen shoulders) that despite carefull dieting my cholesterol is now 8.5. My GP has advised me to try Simvastatin 40 mg. Im frightened that my shoulders could get worse if I go back to statins. My Gp thinks that because my shoulders have not improved during my rest from Atorvastatin that it wasnt the cause (even though my phisio was convinced the Statin has caused the frozen shoulders!

I am worried re my cholesterol level as I had a heart attack last October but just as worried now re the side effects i.e shoulder and arms in severe pain and regular feet and leg cramps. Dont know what to do Drs seem to insist statins are not to blame!!!

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  • Posted

    Will jump about a bit as I'm answering questions. Holland and Barratt is a British company in the UK similar to Boots. Found a website dealing with our problem and they reccommended CQ10, Magnesium, Carnitine and D-Ribose to reduce the effects of the statins but only take the first two. Somewhat reluctant to hit my body with too much unless it worsens.  I will post back when I find the website. In the end I can only quote my personal experience. After much trial and error I found that when sugar was in my diet, any sugar, I reacted with bloating big time, breathlessness, fatigue and brain fuzziness. If I avoid it, I don't.

    Finally if you take statins to avoid heart attacks then fine it's your choice. I know people who have taken them with no reaction at all, however it is a lottery and there is no test to determine your reaction which could result in years of pain. If you get the slightest muscle pain, think twice!

    • Posted

      Do you mean the website is a company recommending all these supplements and selling them?   I NEVER take any notice of medical advice on websites selling anything and I reckon there's a fair chance "alternative" drug companies have picked up on how many people have issues with statins and are jumping on the bandwagon.

      Yes, I am cynical!   Dietary supplements, vitamins, etc are manufacturered & marketed by huge multinational companies, just like the statins companies, they're not made out the back of the health food shop by your friendly naturopath ....  I only take supplements which have solid INDEPENDENT research behind them

  • Posted

    Great discussion going on here. Thanks Loxie and Jude for your responses to me. On the evidence of real people like us who have suffered with statin, and the potential for low cholesterol to be related to dementia and alzheimers, it seems silly for the medical profession to ignore comments on this forum.
    • Posted

      While I don't think doctors should ignore their patients' negative effects from any drug, I wouldn't expect them to change their prescribing regime based on this forum, for obvious reasons:  if we were all 100% happy with statins we wouldn't be on this forum, would we?   We're hardly a representative group of statins users.

      In fact, just in my circle of friends and acquaintances, many people take statins with no short or long term problems.

      What would be ideal would be some totally independent research, fully peer reviewed and documented, of a large number of statins users over a long period of time, which I doubt will happen.

      I"ve raised this before on here:  why are there no legal class actions happening by people with long term permanent damage from statins?  If I were in that category I'd be starting the ball rolling in Australia, but fortunately I stopped taking them in time.   The anwer I've usually got is that people are waiting for someone else to do it .... I won't comment on what I think of that attitude ......

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