Lipitor and muscle/chest pain?

[aljdewey]

My husband has been on Lipitor for a few years for cholesterol management. Last last year, they upped his dosage.

Early this year, he felt a pain in his chest - thought he may have pulled a muscle. The pain is fairly constant, and he was worried. He''s been to his primary dr. and to the ER having testing done on his heart.....ekg, echocardiogram, chest x-rays, stress test, the works. Everything looks normal, and yet he has this constant chest pain.

Dr. at first thought it was pleuresy (in March); but didn''t clear up. I thought it may be a muscle pull, but oddly enough, the pain DISSIPATES when he does physical yardwork! (which would defy muscle injury presentation).

Recently, his Lipitor prescription expired, and he has had to wait for mail-order to arrive. Miraculously, no chest pain. He''s now been off it for 3 weeks, and not ONE complaint of chest pain.

Has anyone else had deep muscle/tissue problems with Lipitor? Suggested alternatives if he can''t keep taking it?

 

[Rod]

Alj.........I hope your husband feels OK. I was borderline high in cholesterol and they wanted to put me on lipitor and I refused. I''ve not heard great things about any of the statins and it scares me when they say, "Simple Liver Tests Are Required." So, I made some major changes in my life, such as quit smoking (over a year now), starting working out in a gym really hard, starting eating really healthy and I''ve added some good supplements to my diet. I take Fish Oil with Fatty Acids and Omega 3. I take CoQ200 mg and I take Red Yeast Rice, which is a natural statin and my cholesterol is now in the normal range.

I hope this helps..........

 

[FireGoddess]

That's great advice Rod but please don't forget that for some people, the familial/genetic cholesterol contribution can be so high (ie. your body makes too much cholesterol) that statins ARE required in ADDITION to lifestyle changes. My husband is one of these people. I know he has complained that his chest has hurt sometimes since taking lovastatin. They may have lowered his dosage in response.

 

[Rod]

Date: 8/31/2006 5:24:41 PM
Author: FireGoddess
That''s great advice Rod but please don''t forget that for some people, the familial/genetic cholesterol contribution can be so high (ie. your body makes too much cholesterol) that statins ARE required in ADDITION to lifestyle changes. My husband is one of these people. I know he has complained that his chest has hurt sometimes since taking lovastatin. They may have lowered his dosage in response.

Sorry if my response would lead you to believe that I don''t believe some people truly need pharmaceutical statins to lower thier cholesterol. I know several people who have tried exercise, diet, over the counter, etc., whithout success. Alj just asked if anyone knew any alternatives and I was just saying what I did, which fortunately for me worked.

That said, I also think some doctors prescribe statins when it''s not always necessary. I hope anyone who eventually winds up on them tried everything they could, including exercise, diet and healthy supplements before becoming locked into them.

Alj, there''s one more supplement I take that I forgot to mention. It''s Triple Lecithin 1200 mg. All the supplements I take can be found at any GNC.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Al, I didn''t respond to this thread earlier because I have nothing useful to tell you about the drug or whether your hubby should/shouldn''t take it, but I do want to say that I hope his doctors figure out the right thing for him to do and that he''s fit as a fiddle (or is it finer than a frog''s hair split eight ways?) in no time.

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 8/31/2006 10:48:38 PM
Author: Rod

Sorry if my response would lead you to believe that I don''t believe some people truly need pharmaceutical statins to lower thier cholesterol. I know several people who have tried exercise, diet, over the counter, etc., whithout success. Alj just asked if anyone knew any alternatives and I was just saying what I did, which fortunately for me worked.

That said, I also think some doctors prescribe statins when it''s not always necessary. I hope anyone who eventually winds up on them tried everything they could, including exercise, diet and healthy supplements before becoming locked into them.

Alj, there''s one more supplement I take that I forgot to mention. It''s Triple Lecithin 1200 mg. All the supplements I take can be found at any GNC.

No problem, and I do agree with what you''ve said in this post. We also take Lecithin from GNC as well as flax seed, which is also supposed to be good for cholesterol.

 

[Regular Guy]

Al,

Sorry of course, to hear. I''m on statins. Started off slow to control, and all lipitor...and only after first my trying behavior changes. To get numbers in order, graduated slowly from 10 up to 80 mg...and by then, I was pretty clearly associating muscle cramping with my taking of lipitor. I recall in my reading about Lipitor, it was a recognized side effect...but was also aware it might be a necessary evil. I reviewed with my doctor, and we changed from 80 mg lipitor to 40 lipitor and 10 mg Zetia, and we found this both got my numbers where they needed to be, and it stopped my muscle cramping.

Doctors are somewhat conservative beasts, or can be. If they''re otherwise competent, review details and concerns. If necessary, share my story. Seems like options should be explored.

Warm regards,

 

[diane5006]

Hi...muscle aches/cramping (aka myalgias) are a common side effect of statins...I am suprised your doctor didn''t suspect it...it tends to be dose related...lifestyle modification is always a good start...but that doesnt; work for everyone...Zetia may be an option as it works on a different mechanisn...as well as a combo drug that has just a little statin and another lipid lowerer

Best of Luck

 

[aljdewey]

Thanks, all, for your helpful suggestions. Realized I hadn''t updated this, so I wanted to chime back.

Primary doc was pretty surprised about our observations, but absolutely agreed we needed to move another way. Decided to cut back to half the dosage on Lipitor and supplement with Zetia. Hubby''s been doing that for 2 weeks. So far, no chest pain but has been having pain in his calves. I recall that being a potential side-effect when he first began taking it (until body adjusts), so wasn''t overly concerned.

He did notice yesterday, however, that leg pain decreased when he went out to mow the lawn. As doctor explained it, exercise promotes circulation flow through muscles which enables drug to disperse and reduces pain.

As to why he didn''t catch it from our descriptions previously? As I understand it, isolated pain only in one side of chest isn''t a common association with Lipitor. If we had been reporting pain in limbs, etc. and chest pain, he would likely have made the connection.

Since we described the Lipitor/chest pain connection to him, he''s subsequently done some research. He said in our follow-up this week that he went looking for hubby''s presentation (pain in left chest muscle only - isolated there and nowhere else) and found only 3 instances of that reported with this drug. Leave it to my hubby to be unique! LOL

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, and I hope others periodically share in this thread too. it''s good to know what solutions others find helpful. I''m learning that sometimes anecdotal information, while not scientific, can be really helpful. Thanks, everyone!