Yea, liver and muscle toxicity don’t sound like fun.
I don’t claim to be a doctor, but after being told my Cholestorol was high, I started doing research on the topic. My Conclusion thusfar is basically my diet is lacking in fiber..
Dietary intake can be reduced, but liver produces cholestorol and from saturated fats etc.. and your body absorbs it through the gut... the less fiber you have in your diet the more of it and longer amount of time it hangs out there to be absorbed. This is why things like oatmeal and oats (soluable fiber) tend to lower cholestorol when eaten regularly.
Certain folks just livers just produce more than others due to genetics, I’m very skeptical to put a drug into my body known to possibly harm my liver when it seems to me that diet is the main culprit.
Check out Milk Thistle.
I went to the Dr. today for a follow-up after 3 months on Simvastatin. My Cholesterol went fromn 206 three months ago to 158 today. My LDL went from 139 to 93. I made NO change in my diet so it had to be the statin.
My Dr. and I had a long talk about liver function before I agreed to take the drug. My liver enzymes actually decreased from the test three months ago (he said it was the first time he had ever seen that).
Here’s the deal about drugs. They have an effect on your body. It is impossible to have the desired effect without also having some undesired effect. The question becomes does the undesired effect outweigh the benefit of the desired effect? It absolutly makes sense to first try to bring cholestrol down by changing one’s diet (we tried that—I didn’t behave so it didn’t work). But the statins are valuable for those who can’t or won’t control their cholesterol by diet alone. As long as your physician and you know what to look for and are vigilant, statins drugs should have a healt imporving benefit for most people.