[TennesseeGirl]

Simvastatin is also known as Zocor. Also, "The addition of fenofibrate to simvastatin therapy failed to reduce the rate of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes, according to new results of the ACCORD Lipid Trial." http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=61934

[Vaquero]

ALL Statins are Neurotoxins...

I cant take them because of that.

[Marty62]

Had very bad reaction to that stuff.
Called my pharmacist and she told me to stop taking it immediately. and that was 5 years ago.

[Mercat]

I have three months to balance out those numbers. Might now take it anyway. Neurotoxins. Wow. Who knew.

[conservaDave]

80mg is a very high dose. I was on 40 at a high and now 20. Numbers good.

[vaudine]

Statins cause the liver to quit/slow the production of cholesterol, but also cause the liver to quit/slow the production of something vital to heart health.More and more reaearch is showing no correlation to statins and prevention of strokes and heart attacks.

Part D of Medicare would be totally solvent if it refused to pay for statins, which it should do.I guarantee about 80% of Medicare patients take statins.

vaudine

[goodnesswins]

Hope all of you taking statins are taking CoQ10! Also, up your Vit D3 to 5000iu a day! Unless, of course you spend 1/2 hour a day almost naked in the mid day sun!

[OrangeHoof]

I’m on Lipitor which does not have a generic but my insurer for pharmacy prescriptions, Medco, has been pushing me to switch to a generic for Zocor for two years now for the cost savings. Lipitor has been doing the trick well for several years now so I won’t change and this gives me even more reason not to. Eventually, a generic will come out for Lipitor and I’ll switch to a generic then.

[HomersNose]

Yep....check out what the Space Doc has to say about statins also....http://spacedoc.net/

[Pit1]

Been taking since 1980 and chol is 125. Already had 16 angioplasty's. Wish they had them avail when I was 18. Such is life. Still active and happy. 67 yo.

This is the FDA trying to help ObamGoof's healthreform. Like NYC trying to ban salt.

Semper Fi!

[truthguy]

My doctor wanted to put me on Statins because my LDL was 112. For many years if you were under 130 everything was OK. Then all of a sudden the recommended level was dropped to 100. Think of all the millions between 100-130. That's a lot of prescriptions. With diet and exercise I lowered it to 104 and he finally stopped bugging me about it.

I cannot believe how fast he wanted to put me on these drugs. Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Viking2002]

I'm on an 80 mg. dose of Pravachol, and get weird muscle aches, too. Chalked it up to being on the downhill side of 50 while still trying to do things like I was 20, but now I think I'm going to have a little talk with my doc at my next checkup. Seem to be getting more lethargic, too. I chalked that up to marriage , but it's only been since I was put on cholesterol meds several months ago.

[calex59]

All statins have the same side effects, that is why I don’t take them.

[truthguy]

FTR:

Total Cholesterol= LDL + HDL + (Triglycerides ÷ 5)

[CaspersGh0sts]

This is old news, folks. They’re talking about rhabdomyolysis, which is where your muscles can begin to breakdown, ache, and cause renal failure. It’s pretty rare.

If you’re on a lot of meds, it might be a wise move to consider crestor (rosuvastatin). It’s the cleanest of the statins with the fewest interactions with other meds.

[bolobaby]

I took this stuff and my muscles were SOOOOO sore. We switched to Crestor.

[kalee]

pi

[Excellence]

self-ping.

[mtrott]

Wow, this has been known since around 1990. I used to sell a competing statin and it was well known that simvastatin and lovastatin had a propensity to cause rhabdo at high doses. But, 80mg is a very high dose of simvastatin. I’ve been prescribed 40mg of pravastatin, and I do think I have had some issues from it as well, if I take it every day.

The nice thing about Crestor is that it is apparently pretty effective even at doses as low as 5mg. I think if I switch, I’d like to try Crestor.

Also, I am concerned about how low they are trying to drive cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is necessary for formation of the connective tissue in the brain. I wonder about the wisdom of driving cholesterol down to very low levels in the elderly, who are at higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke. If you have lived past 70, you need to ask your doctor about your particular risk/benefit equation with respect to statin therapy.

[tang-soo]

Great. My Dr. just prescribed this for me.

[AFreeBird]

Liptor, Zocor... whatever they call them, they are nasty drugs.