Posted on 06/11/2011 4:34:55 PM PDT by chessplayer
No New Patients Should Get Highest Dose Due to Muscle Injury Risk
(Excerpt) Read more at webmd.com ...
Shouldn’t they know these things BEFORE it is prescribed?
Cholesterol drug. Am I the only person who has never had a cholesterol problem? Any time I have it checked my doctor tells me it’s perfect and to keep doing whatever I’m doing, which is, to eat anything I want, in whatever quantities I want, anytime I want. I am 65 years old.
Genetically lucky?
I told the doc I would never take a statin, started having oatmeal for b’fast and milk instead of half and half in my coffee, and my cholesterol dropped into normal.
No half and half is hard for a Norwegian, but sacrifice is part of life, I suppose.
Unfortunately, a lot of information doesn't come out until post-marketing. Clinical trials, even with thousands of patients, can't tell you everything that could be clinically significant.
Not long ago the outcomes analysis, statistical research people (who produce data of the type that the uninformed in government have shaped their ridiculous health care policy on) were pushing for everyone who had a myocardial infarction (heart attack) to be put on the maximum dose of Zocor (or an equivalent medication) prior to discharge from the hospital - as a policy edict. A lot of those patients went on to have side effects, but might not have if they had been started on a lower dose and then titrated.
Maybe you could come up with a great ‘heart healthy’ lutefisk diet, and become rich!
I told my doctor the same, but after a year of oatmeal and soluble fiber additives to everything I drank and exercising every day, my cholesterol had not budged. A month on 40mg simvastatin daily and it dropped by 100 points. Diet changes don’t work for everyone.
I drink H&H almost every day. My only complaint is that it costs twice as much as milk..... but still worth every penny.
After a couple of hits at that bong I quit cold turkey and did without tests for a couple of decades.
Over that time my cholesterol levels declined.
I've known about this "statin intramuscular pain" problem for a number of years.
It's very real. My doctor prescribed it for some reason and I told her I would start out real low, and even with 1/4 of a 10 mg pill I had pain in my hands and arms. Cutting that back to 1/8 of a pill I had pain in my hands alone but it lasts for about 2 weeks.
The problem is many of us (20%) do not produce the enzyme that metabolizes statins to remove them from our bloodstreams, so what we end up with is an OVERDOSE.
This article, or one just like it, starts with a discussion of an 80 mg pill!
OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very.
AHA! I had muscle aches with every statin on the market.
Now taking 2000 mg of niacin every day, and Dr is pleased with my cholesterol, and I don't feel like I'm ninety...
Yes, I know that I started to have muscle pains in my sides and shoulders after beginning on simvastatin. I was taking aspirin for it. A month ago I learned that statins reduce the body’s natural production of Co Enzyme Q10 as well as the LDL, so now I take 100mg of CoQ10 everyday and I don’t the muscle pains anymore. Studies on CoQ10 countering the muscle pains seem to be inconclusive, but it works for.
Well, you can imagine what happened to 20% of them who got statin injections!!!!!
They figured that one out real quick, but no one has made a general warning on the matter.
BTW, statins did nothing to relieve AIDS.
BTW, I really can’t relate to a 100 point drop. Inconceivable in fact. How do you guys walk around with that much fat in your systems.
The high cholesterol tribe considers low cholesterol to be a sort of illness!
You’re right. Statins deplete your levels of Coenzyme Q10. They create a strain on your liver and raise liver enzymes. Whoever is on statins needs to have their liver enzymes checked at least every three months.
Statin drugs are a scam.
There is no correlation between lower cholesterol and lower incidents of cardiovascular death. HMB-CoA reductase inhibitors produce rhabdomyolysis.
Since the advent of statin drugs the number of deaths due to heart attack and stroke have not decreased.
Example:
“Two widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, may not work and should be used only as a last resort, The New England Journal of Medicine said in an editorial published on Sunday.
The journal’s conclusion came as doctors at a major cardiology conference in Chicago saw for the first time the full results of a two-year clinical trial that showed that the drugs failed to slow, and might have even sped up, the growth of fatty plaques in the arteries.”
About a year ago, my LDL was a little over 100 and my HDL was 58. Since I am in the very highest risk category for heart disease, my doctor immediately prescribed Zocor for me. I refused to take it and wanted to try to lower my LDL on my own. I watched what I ate, exercised more, and ate about a cup of oat bran every day. (half a cup before morning meal, half a cup before evening meal) Oat bran is even more effective than oatmeal at lowering LDL. The higher the LDL the better oat bran works. Went in for a checkup 6 months ago and my LDL was 85, HDL was 89, and triglycerides were 29. But now the numbers are getting worse again. My latest checkup yesterday my LDL has risen to 100 and my HDL has dropped to 75. My nurse was amazed at the numbers considering I was`nt taking any cholesterol drugs. I was disappointed, though because my LDL is going up again and my HDL is dropping like a rock. Considering the risk factors I have, my LDL is supposed to be under 70.
Bodies are so different, aren’t they? I visited my great-aunt when she was 98. She still lived alone, got around in a walker. Her son lived nearby and she had someone dropping in on her to help, shop, etc. I offered to clean her frig, and when I looked in, it was all Sarah Lee and 31 Flavors ice cream and Sees Candy, top to bottom. I suggested that she needed fruits and vegetables. She said, “I have eaten like this all my life.”
She was not slim, kind of square-ish but definitely not fat. I bet her cholesterol was normal, too.
a small percentage of folks getting zocor get sore muscles and some even end up with inflamed muscles.
we usually use lower doses (20 to 40 mgs) in our patients, but still sometimes we pick up someone who gets achy on it. I never prescribed 80 mgs, but some cardiologists do use it for people with very high cholesterol and heart problems.
My mom had to stop it because of the achy muscles...she thought it was arthritis so didn’t bother to mention it to the doc, but complained to me...we stopped it and she stopped aching.
Once in a great while, you also see liver problems.
Every medicine is a “cost benefit” ratio...if you don’t get the muscle (or liver) problems with Zocor, and have heart disease, it’s worth it.
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