Statin and muscle pain NOT cause and effect
 

A new study published in Lancet, one of the world's leading journals, reviewed all the published data on statins and muscle pain. You can read the original study, no paywall.

HERE

The simple summary of the findings, looking at a series a studies all of which had over 1000 patients each and lasted at least 2 years:

Those on statins are very slightly more likely to have muscle complaints than those on a fake drug, about 1 in 100 patients. 27.1% of statin users complained of muscle symptoms. But 26.6% of people NOT taking a statin had those same complaints over an average of over 4 years of follow up. Almost all the difference is during the first three months of statin use and more common with intense medication [higher dose].

Take home message is that you should not be avoiding statins because of muscle complaints. You should not be automatically blaming statins if you have aches as they are so very common in all of us.

The study concluded that the known benefits of statins on cardiovascular health far outweighed the small increase in muscle pain or weakness.

Now one note of caution. This Lancet article reviewed clinical trials of statins. It is almost always true that entry into a clinical trial requires that the participant pass some screening criteria. I did not review the many studies included. It is however likely that exclusion criteria may have included taking multiple other drugs, uncontrolled diabetes, renal or liver failure etc. So this conclusion that statins have minimal impact on muscle complaints should be limited to the range of patients that were able to participate in the statin studies.

I am sure that several people are going to be here absolutely certain that their pain was statin induced and that they are "allergic" to statins. No way could your pain be the result of age or activity or serendipity because you got better when you stopped and got pain again when you tried another statin. Argue with the authors and the data. Do what you think is best for you. I am just the messenger of this important contribution to the medical literature.

Statins are the most miserable pill in existence. Took months to get that. Poison out of my system. Studies are pharma ads.

[QUOTE=blueash;2131223]A new study published in Lancet, one of the world's leading journals, reviewed all the published data on statins and muscle pain. You can read the original study, no paywall.

HERE

The simple summary of the findings, looking at a series a studies all of which had over 1000 patients each and lasted at least 2 years:

Those on statins are very slightly more likely to have muscle complaints than those on a fake drug, about 1 in 100 patients. 27.1% of statin users complained of muscle symptoms. But 26.6% of people NOT taking a statin had those same complaints over an average of over 4 years of follow up. Almost all the difference is during the first three months of statin use and more common with intense medication [higher dose].

Take home message is that you should not be avoiding statins because of muscle complaints. You should not be automatically blaming statins if you have aches as they are so very common in all of us.

The study concluded that the known benefits of statins on cardiovascular health far outweighed the small increase in muscle pain or weakness.

Now one note of caution. This Lancet article reviewed clinical trials of statins. It is almost always true that entry into a clinical trial requires that the participant pass some screening criteria. I did not review the many studies included. It is however likely that exclusion criteria may have included taking multiple other drugs, uncontrolled diabetes, renal or liver failure etc. So this conclusion that statins have minimal impact on muscle complaints should be limited to the range of patients that were able to participate in the statin studies.

[QUOTE=Babubhat;2131229]Statins are the most miserable pill in existence. Took months to get that. Poison out of my system. Studies are pharma ads.

Yep, they can cherry pick participants to get desired results.

Some years ago my wife was on zocor and developed leg pains.

Remembered reading about this as a side effect and we told Dr about her pains and he immediately switched her to lipitor and the pain went away and has stayed away.

That is a completely untrue statement. Unlike many other facets of our lives, medical studies can NOT cherry pick their participants. They have to report exactly what the criteria was to include and exclude participants. The profiles are reviewed by institutional boards, journal editors, and printed very clearly in the study for your edification, if you are capable of reading the material.

The statin studies, again I did not read them, but would have had as inclusion requirements that patients had elevated lipid profiles for which taking a statin might be of benefit. It would perforce include men and women, all races if done on a population that is not homogenous.

So everyone is included in the study who might in the real world take statins except those where some other condition would disqualify. If you so distrust medicine please don't avail yourself of any product made by a major pharmaceutical company or approved by the FDA. Stick with only those things made by unregulated businesses. Have your surgery done with unapproved anesthesia and use untested materials to fix your problems. Please, see only healers who have not gone to rigorous intensive schools for their training. Please do not trust your healing to people who understand medicine and believe in science as a method to test and examine what does or does not actually work.

Learn how science and medicine work, how self correcting it is, how any paper or approach is always subject to alternative approaches and re-examination. This does not mean that medicine is always right at this or any moment. But it will find its errors, and it will find better methods. Because people are always retesting, refining, and improving with the goal of improving health outcomes.

All generics are not created equal
 

Been on a Lipitor generic for years. Doing fine. Except for one bout with a new-to-the-game generic Lipitor. My numbers went haywire, but I had not been doing anything differently. I did have a few aches that I had never had before, but as soon as I saw the numbers, I tracked down the previous generic, switched back, and everything was fine again.

I do not think all generics are created equal. I suspect quality control varies a lot........

and DAW does not do much good because the pharmacists often cannot locate the branded or if they do, it costs a fortune.

Pharmacists are pretty much held hostage by the contracts their employers, the big box drugstores, negotiate with the wholesalers. Those contracts change on a regular basis; therefore, the generic versions you get can change.

I will continue to take a statin. The numbers show they work for me, but I will continue to pay attention to which generic I am getting.

Boomer

Hmmmm........are night time wake you out of your sleep leg cramps the same as 'muscle pain' in those studies? Never had them 'til I started on statins - potassium level is great - as are cholesterol numbers w/statin and the rest of blood work numbers, too!

Crestor, the poison that caused my life to be worse than hell. I guess it’s muscles but it felt like my tendons stretching beyond their limits.. toes, feet , and hands contorted into positions they shouldn’t ever be. I personally believe statins are not for everyone..

Take CoQ10

Well, as Mark Twain once observed, ‘There are three kinds of untruths. Lies, damned lies and statistics”.

My own experience: simvastatin made me feel like I was run over by a bus. Pravastatin doesn’t.

Been on Pravastatin for over 30years.
Still here, and had no problems with it at all.

Guess statins are not for everyone but they do seem to work for me and my wife

There are biases in every study whether recognized or not. Family member began taking statins years ago and cholesterol was lowered so Dr issued RX to continue the med. Pharmacist asked patient if any aches and pains were bothering them. Patient mentioned shoulders and arms were very painful. Pharmacist sent patient back to Dr. for labs, liver enzymes were way off. Three different statins were attempted, same result every time.

As an aside, three male friends on a certain medication all developed myelogenous leukemia and expired. Coincidence? (This medication was not a statin.)

I have a bridge to sell you. Dig deeper. Drug trials are paid for by the pharmaceutical company producing the drug. The doctors running the trials ? Look up Dr Sinatra. The CDC has a board of doctors who agree or disagree on administering drugs or vaccines they feel are safe to the public. Research how the majority voted no recently on a few but were ignored and the drugs were made available to public. The FDA allows and has increased arsenic and heavy metals in baby food while other countries don’t allow it. No one knows the short term or long term effects of Covid vaccines but you can’t sue the drug companies. What’s going on here? Those of you who still believe the federal government protects and serves the people better wake up.I could go on and on but why waste my time.

Hoping a physician will notice this thread and give their opinion

Disagree with some of your conclusions
 

Evaluating a common complaint (muscle pain or weakness) in a group where it is very prevalent (older adults) is tricky from the outset. I read the study you mention (Effect of statin therapy on muscle symptoms:an individual participant data meta-analysis of large-scale, randomized, double-blind trials. Cholesterol Trialists' collaboration. The Lancet. 08/29/22). Of note, several of the authors reported significant associations with the pharmaceutical industry. Results were a 7% overall increased rate ratio (RR) compared to placebo, for first reports of muscle pain or weakness in first year of statin therapy. The RR was higher at 9% for women, although digging through appendices of the article reveals RR of 14% in first year for women on low to moderate intensity statin therapy. Breaking down symptoms further, biggest overall difference was for muscle cramp or spasm (9%). More intensive statin therapy was associated with more muscle complaints, especially in the first year. Other factors associated with complaints of muscle pain were increasing body mass index,
increasing age, and race (Asians fared the worst). Statin therapy was associated with a small increase in muscle enzyme blood levels that was not considered clinically significant. (Although individuals with serious statin-related muscle damage including myopathy and rhabdomyolysis were excluded from all of these studies.) Most participants did not discontinue statin use during the study period, and reports of muscle symptoms decreased after first year of treatment. Take-home message appears to be that statins do cause relatively mild muscle complaints in at least 5-10% of people who start them, & severe symptoms including myopathy (1 in 10,000 person-years) and rhabdomyolysis (2-3 in 100,000 person-years) occur rarely. Supporting data in this study for a biological connection between statins and muscle complaints include small increases in measured muscle enzyme levels in the blood & an apparent dose-response relationship based upon level of treatment intensity. Given the established benefit of statin therapy on preventing bad cardiovascular outcomes & death, patients need to carefully weigh their individual risks versus benefits when deciding whether to start or continue treatment with statins.

Ohiobuckeye
 

I had a Dr. Yrs. ago tell me that was a bunch of Hooie, there’s no medical research that proves that. Lipitor gave muscle pain but then eventually this same Dr. put me on the generic one of Lipitor, Atorvastatin. I’ve been on it for about 12 yrs. now & no pain! I agree statins do give you muscle pain.

Need to rephrase. Many people (up to around 60% per some studies) report muscle complaints after beginning statin therapy, but in only 5-10% of these cases do muscle symptoms appear to be a result of statin therapy. Remainder of my comments unchanged.

psssss pssst, Stu, I have been around here for waaaaay too long………

but, just for the record:

I am 99 and 44/100% sure that I picked up somewhere along the way that our OP blueash is a physician…….

He just does not seem to need to tell us that constantly.

Carry on…….

Boomer

Right !!!

Try Magnesium
 

You may be Magnesium deficient. You can also use topical Magnesium or products like Theraworx for muscle cramps. 😎

... "The study concluded that the known benefits of statins on cardiovascular health far outweighed the small increase in muscle pain or weakness." .... Study schmuddy.

I didn't have a small increase in pain. IT WAS MASSIVE. I was miserable. I tried all the different statins for more than a year with the same horrible results. After stopping the drug I had residual pain for over 6 months.

If you can take a statin - lucky you - however, MY quality of life far exceeded any benefits from a man-made drug. Don't overeat, don't smoke, drink in moderation, eat healthy, be active.

Doctors & pharmaceutical companies are human beings and they make mistakes. God's greatest ignorance is still smarter than any of man's greatest intelligence.

I’m leery of statin use because the heart is a muscle, a very important one. Cautions that I noted were that if muscle pain appears or increases, your doctor should be told.

Irregardless of all of back and forth we can tolerate statins and will continue to take them. Not to mention our Dr who we trust also believes we should stay on them and accept the benefits:pepper2:

What about the debacle of the Covud vaccines? No integrity and checks and balances!

Have you noticed the death rate substantially lower?

My experience is personal having taken statins for approximately 40 years and clinical being a general medical practitioner MD from 1977 -2014 in private practice and VA. True severe side effects such as muscle enzyme changes are quite rare. Complaints of muscle pain that have seemed truly related to the drug are uncommon perhaps 5-10% many of these will do fine with drug or dose change. Personally I have taken Pravachol, Lipitor ,Zocor and Crestor over the years honestly mainly related to the availability of samples. I have also changed around because of my perceived muscle aches and taken drug holidays for months to see if they went away and was not able to percieve a difference. My cholesterol would be about 260 and LDL of 160 without the medication and with present Crestor 20mg LDL is less than 90 and total 140-150. I have not taken Aspirin regularly with stomach concerns. Scans I have had done for other reasons do show moderate atherosclerosis but I have no clinical vascular disease so far. I believe the statins have saved and prolonged lives for the great majority including myself. The COQ-10 is probably a good idea but I can't say it made a difference for me in using it the past several years. Statins are powerful medications and should be monitored reasonably but not feared. Muscle effects or symptoms do occur but have been magnified by placebo effect, fake news and the medico-legal groups.

Us, too, Stu.

Statins work for both of us………unless it’s just those walnuts I eat every day. :)

Boomer

Thank you for your informed opinion

What did the study say about statins causing alzheimer's? My cardiologist admitted that it does.

I took statins years ago and had major pain in my hands/fingers/thighs. Period to the statins, I was completing many marathons and half-marathons with normal aches that went away within a week after the event. I moved here and the doctor insisted that I go on statins due to being diabetic. I told him the history and he insisted I try again. For some reason I can barely walk because my thigh has turned to jello, rhe muscle is so bad. I complained and complained but for the same chat “not statins”. After talking to a good friend in CA, she said her husband just got back from the doctor after not being able to walk even to his workshop due to leg pain. The doctor took him off the statins for a month and he felt 99% better! I told my doctor I needed to stop the statins and was completely ignored. I’ve changed doctors, can’t wait to see what this one says. What else can it be! I used to train for half marathons almost all year and then I can barely walk since I started back on statins. Sorry not all articles and companies are correct! I live in pain every day, I’m just starting to be able to walk a mile again! Far cry from where I was at prior to statins!

Wow new one on me

Perform online search for further information.

5 months after starting on adovorstatin I could barely roll over in bed and could not play softball anymore. Dr took me off and aftet a few weeks started to recover. Now 6 months later am 95% back. Dr did a heart mri to evaluate placque build-up and found I did not have any, so am staying off cholesterol meds. My numbers are only a tiny bit above guidelines anyway.

I did earlier and say something form Mayo clinic that statins can cause memory loss but nothing about causing dementia.

Try again with “Statins Used to Lower Cholesterol Linked to Doubled Risk of Developing Dementia”.

It appears a certain type of statin may be the bigger culprit.

Wake up
 

The number of deaths from Covid ONLY are well hidden .

Use the old Boolean search method to find the studies by going to Google and typing in the following words: statins and dementia or Alzheimer’s.

That will bring up lots of info, including a study of the studies. You are going to find studies on both sides. There are many that say it is possible that statins might reduce the risk.


Statins have been prescribed for so many for so long that it seems like their correlation to risk for cognitive impairment would show up to be a whole lot stronger as cause and effect……..

But you know how it goes with so many things and the damned internet……you can find validation for whatever you want to think.

Pfizer’s Lipitor was introduced in 1997 and their patent did not expire until 2011. Then came the generics. (I said in an earlier post here that I once had an issue with one of the generics, then switched, and the next generic was OK. I am not a fan of generics because who knows how consistent the quality control is in all those places they come from, but — that’s Risk v. Benefit.)

For us…..so far, so good, after years on statins. So…….there it is — like so many things in life — Risk v. Benefit.

Boomer

Do you mean the validation of the original post? If so, I agree.

The site which I found regarding the Alzheimer’s association to these drugs and with that headline is from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, hardly a fly by night organization with an ax to grind.

I’m sincerely happy these medications help alleviate your high cholesterol readings. We all need to evaluate the associated risks with medication and decide which path to take from there. The problem is when some medication issues are suppressed.

Statins suppress the production of cholesterol but it also suppresses the production of CO Q10 both are necessary and vital in every cell in the body. The problem is platelet size, not the "number".

Many people have high numbers but do not have heart disease. Also, many have heart disease but have low numbers.

EU and Canada physicians that prescribe statins also put patients on COQ10, vital for every cell especially for muscle and brain function. That doesn't seem to be the norm in US.

I had a friend who was on lipitor over40 yrs. His last 5 yrs he was in so much pain and could hardly walk because his legs were so week. They took him off statins gradually, however, the damage was done and never recovered. Ironically, his cholesterol numbers never went up. He just gave up and past away rather than live in pain.