When I google the title, I either get woo sites that say don’t take them or sober ones that give only the very serious ones. So I ask the Dope.
My wife takes Crestor (actually a generic version, which might be relevant). There seem to be a couple of side effects in the sense that both disappeared when she stopped for a couple weeks. The first is benign, but I wonder if it could be a symptom of something more serious: her urine gets a funny odor. Our doctor says it might be from the coloring. The other is occasional (maybe once a week, so the two week hiatus was not really diagnostic).
Are these known side-effects? Could they be symptoms of more serious side-effects?
Only side effect I know of is muscle pain. And generally you either get it, and they take you off the drug, or you don’t. Once you’re past the first month or so, if it hasn’t happened you’re home free. I am not a doctor, just a moderately informed Crestor taker.
She might want to try the non-generic version to see if that eliminates the side effects. Of course that has the side effect of rendering you broke.
I’m on Lipitor and considering getting off of it. My cholesterol, trigs, etc were all excellent pre-heart attack/stent, but my cardiologist said survival numbers for me were better on a statin.
I’m having muscle pain and cramps as well as pretty extreme fatigue following exertion. I spent a few hours mowing and felt like I’d run a marathon. Sucks.
When my doctor started me on Lipitor, he specifically told me to watch out for the muscle pain side-effect, which I guess is fairly rare but can be serious. And he even told me that if I felt like he wasn’t taking me seriously, I should grab him by the straps of his overalls (yes, my doctor wears overalls to the office :D) and tell him “I’m in pain!” Luckily I never had a problem with it.
so - if I wanted to see if some of my fatigue/muscley stuff is not old age but is related to my statin -
How long after stopping them should I be able to tell a difference?
Will my blood immediately clog up ?
(I ask part in jest and part seriously - I’ve been wondering if some of the things I complain often about are related to my cholesterol pills - The dr shrugs most of them off as “old age” - but, I’m only 48!)
Well, if cracked.com is your idea of a reputable source…
Hundreds of people have reported this effect, which goes away when you stop taking the drug (usually not a problem, since you don’t remember that you’re supposed to take it, but missing a day of work because you don’t remember you have a job can be a problem).
Every doctor I’ve talked to in the past ten years has prescribed Lipitor, and I’m declining, as my numbers are within the healthy range.
Never shrug off new pain on taking a new med as “old age” or any such nonsense.
I’m not on a statin, but I tried to move from Januvia to a cheaper diabetes med. Within a week I was getting random pains, which got more frequent and more enduring. Within about two weeks I was in full body agony. Only then did I find that a very very small percentage of the people who take that med have that side effect, and if so, stop immediately. I stopped taking it, switched back to Januvia (that I still had on-hand), and the effects faded away within a couple of days. Immediately called my doctor and had him renew the Januvia prescription.
So here’s the test. You’re not going to die in a mere few days if you stop taking a statin. The effects of higher cholesterol are long term. So stop taking it for 3-4 days. Do the symptoms go away or fade a bit? If so, see your doctor immediately. If not, raise the issue again with your doctor on your next visit. There may be something else going on.
And I do always recommend a strong course of googling for side effects and drug interactions with everything you take. Who knows. Maybe the Framistatin you take doesn’t play nice with the Goodmoodinal you take.
I’ve been on Atorvastatin (generic Lipitor) for about 7 years now and fatigue is the side effect that gets me. That’s exactly what I feel like, kayaker
My lipid numbers have always been marginal despite diet and exercise, so I can’t give it up. In fact, I also take Niaspan to help the Lipitor to do its job. Niaspan has a pretty ferocious side effect - flushing - like my skin is on fire.
Statins can cause rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle proteins, which can cause severe kidney damage.
I want to know just how dangerous this can be. Specifically: If this happens at all, does it happen suddenly or does it come on gradually? Does kidney damage happen quickly or gradually? If it happens suddenly, and is promptly discovered, and the medication is discontinued, does the patient recover? Or is the damage (especially to the kidneys), once done, irreversible?
The Wiki page seems to suggest that the muscle damage and resulting kidney damage can happen very quickly, within 2-3 days, but also suggests that if stopped soon enough, most patients will recover full kidney function.
So, when doctors prescribe any statin, especially when starting a new patient on it for the first time (or changing from one statin to another), how closely do they monitor blood chemistry? Do they ask the patient to come in for lab work every 2-3 days for a while? Or do they tend to wait until the patient complains of muscle pain? And, if the latter case, is it too late? Do doctors in HMOs tend to leave their patients to rot more often?
Purely anecdotal but for what it is worth a doctor prescribed me erythromycin whilst I was taking a statin.
Within two short weeks I had noticeable muscle weakness in long muscles. This was to the extent that it was difficult to disembark from a car as one leg couldn’t adequately support me or even climb ladders without depending on my arms to also pull me.
It took nine months, nine fucking months before I fully recovered from the effects of rhabdomyolysis all the while trying as hard as possible to cover up the symptoms from work colleagues!
Previously, I knew that eating or drinking grapefruit with statins ( simvastatin in my case) was contraindicated but I figured I would have to drink a whole carton daily for a toxic effect.
Not anymore. I don’t want a repeat of that miserable episode.
Additionally, I only have one kidney which nowadays is only slightly enlarged. I may have dodged a bigger bullet than muscle wastage with that.
For the muscle pain associated with statins- Does the pain subside when one stops the medication, or does it stay?
I took Lipitor for a year or so a while back. I also started having trouble with my feet and legs around then. I gave up the Lipitor, but my leg and feet troubles persist.
I don’t know it there was a relationship between the two things or if it was just a coincidence.
Sorry for quoting myself but to follow up on the muscle pain thing, the way my doctor described it was not like your ordinary sore muscle pain as if you’d been working in the yard all weekend. He described it more as a severe “feels like my muscles are being ripped from my bones” kind of pain. He may have been over exaggerating but the point was that you would know this was not your typical muscle pain.
My doc has blood drawn every six months to check my kidney function, among other things. When I first started taking Atorvastatin, she had me in there every four months to monitor for side effects. Because I haven’t seemed to experience any, we’re both okay with me continuing to take it. My numbers are dangerously high without the statins – diet and exercise help, but don’t quite cut it. However, on the statins, I’m well within healthy range, so we are now experimenting to see if I can still maintain good numbers on half the dosage. I started out at 40mg once a day and now I am down to 20. If that works, we’ll try 10. The idea is to take as little as possible while still keeping good numbers. And then I’m told at the first sign of muscle pain, to call the doc asap and get in to be seen. I would imagine bloodwork would be checked more frequently if there were any signs of blood chemistry shenanigans. And I do not have an HMO, so I can’t address that bit.
I take atorvastatin. While there are no studies that confirm vivid dreams or nightmares, I have what I call “anxiety dreams” constantly. They always involve pretty much the same parameters and are pretty vivid. I hate them and usually wake up tired from them. Weird, I know.