In the space of six weeks I have been put on two different types of statins. The first ones Atoravastin, made my joints ache and I already suffer from osteoarthritis. I was then put on another type and my face swelled and I could not pass urine well. The doctor said to go back to the Atoravastin but the chemical levels in my liver was high, the reason that I was taken off them in the first place. The doc said that it was ok! I have not taken any for a week now and I am just getting back to being able to walk! I am very confused and worried as my cholesterol is high. Having said this, I DO know why my levels are high, tis because I have not looked after myself for over a year due to having a lot of stress and eating rubbish. I am trying to look after myself now but I am very worried about the whole affair. I am 7 on the cholesterol scale
Why were you prescribed Statins in the first instance?
Hi Elaine
firstly let me say I cannot believe your doctor did not take seriously your liver problems and continued to prescribe statins.
Your cholesterol level of 7 does not mean anything really, do you have a break down? Like LDL, HDL and Triglceride levels?
A total cholesterol level is not an indication of anything so please don't worry.
mine is 7.8 and Ive never felt so healthy, when taking statins it dropped to 3.1 and I was so ill, that tells me something.
please google the " cholesterol myth' and you'll see that high cholesterol means you could actually be healthy.
I would be interested in the breakdown of your numbers if you have them?
I too had a reaction to Atorvastatin. I was put on the highest dose for over 2 years and then had awful pains in my legs. My GP was a bit sceptical about the connection but changed me to Simvastatin 20 g and after a few days my leg pains disappeared. I keep my cholesterol in check also by eating a vegan diet with no added oil or fat. Hope you manage to solve your problems soon.
If my cholesterol was 7 and I reacted to statins as you have I would be refusing to take them. When patients at high risk of cardiac problems with a cholesterol or 9 or so are on statins most doctors are happy when it gets to 7. If that's OK - there is no reason IMHO to crucify yourself to get lower than 7.
After 10 days of half dose atorvastatin I could barely walk 50 yards. I stopped taking them with the cardiologist's (later) blessing. I have lost weight since then (a lot, 37lbs) and changed my diet to do so. There is a fair amount of evidence that it is sugar and carbs that lead to raised cholesterol levels, not too much fat so a low fat diet often won't achieve much but cutting processed carbs, the junk food, will. It took me months to be able to walk properly again.
If you think it was your rubbish diet that got you where you are then tell the doctor that first of all you want to try with diet. Don't go all "low fat", if you don't eat cholesterol your body will make it and they have now rehabilitated eggs for example as a good food! My rule is don't eat it if it comes in a package and/or contains white carbs of any sort (flour, sugar). All the carbs I need come from leafy veg and any veg that don't grow underground (simple rule, although I eat carrots). I also used the 5:2 diet to start my weight loss - and it definitely helps you reassess portion sizes quite quickly.
You are worried and frightened - so you have the trigger to redo your diet. I was told by one doctor my cholesterol was "extremely high". It wasn't, it was about 7 - but if it had been 10 I still wouldn't have taken a statin again. There isn't much point reducing your chances of a heart attack with a pill that leaves you stuck in a wheelchair and in constant pain.
It won't change overnight - give it at least 6 months and start to do some exercise too. Lifestyle changes are more important than a pill - but I suspect your doctor gets paid more for signing a prescription than for telling you to go out and walk for an hour or so. Start with what you can and increase it gradually as you get fitter. And really eat healthily - not fruit juices either, full of sugar...
Hi Elaine. so sorry to hear you've had this added stress which I also went through with statins. My cholesterol reading was 9 which was a real shock to me, very upsetting. I blindly followed my doctor's advice and took the statins prescribed. I got to the point of calling an ambulance one day as I was so ill I literally couldnt move and it was the ER department who told me it was due to the statins. I heartily agree with Sonya's comments below, totally! A high cholesterol reading alone is not proven to be a sign you will have a serious vascular or cardiac event - in women it's now documented that only those with previous events show any benefit from statins. Sonya has explained it very well in her reply - there are numerous other factors to be taken into consideration not just a global cholesterol reading figure. My view on statins is that they are poison and I have lasting damage from being stupid enough to blindly follow my doctors advice to take them. However, I wouldn't dream of saying they should never be considered as for those with previous stroke or heart attack problems, they may well be a lifesaver.
Hear hear to what everybody has said before me!
Please stop those statins before they do you permanent and irreparable damage ....believe me I should know and I was only on Simvastatin for six months.... I am nearly chairbound nowadays as a result.
Your Drs cannot force you to take those tablets you know the final choice is yours and yours alone.
I totally agree a cholesterol level of seven is not a dangerous level in fact every particle of cholesterol one has - one needs ....so forget cholesterol and enjoy life.
If you want to improve your lot - just get your diet back on track and you'll be fine..... And what is more you will then feel like taking more exercise - like simple walking which is all you need to do to keep fit!
CHEERS and all the best....
just a quick added comment following other posts - stress will raise your cholesterol quicker than anything else, even diet. I was told my diet was good and not to blame, I had 'familial' ie hereditary high cholesterol. However, what the doctor didnt tell me in his rush to prescribe toxic statins was that because I was under severe stress my adrenal gland was in hyperdrive and he didnt test my cortisol levels, which I've since found out will have a major impact on cholesterol. I had an allergic reaction to SSRIs prescribed for anxiety so I'm now trying more natural methods, ie meditation, exercise (the very very best cure for a whole range of illness!) and keeping my eye on what food I eat - I've never eaten junk but some quick release carbs do cause problems. I haven't had my cholesterol tested again, mainly because I cant face fighting with the GP about statins but I feel fine, so I'm willing to accept the risk of stroke as to me its less than the risk of permanent disability by taking unnecessary pharmaceuticals.
My Doctor takes Simvastatin and runs marathons in hid 50's.
Me, I would have been in the wheelchair marathon.
Had to smile at that Derek 
Being ill is no joke but laughter is the best medicine:-)
hi i m a newbee on here just had 2 stents was prescribed the usual stuff simvastatin 40mg//clopidogrel 75/bisopolo fumarate1.25 and finally good old asrin 75mg had operation in November 2015 cholesterol 7/8 before hand but that was just after coming back from a boozy holiday in BENIDORM usual eating drinking wrong things and very stressful year loosing 8 friends and my dad and dog so all in all not good...Since November i have never felt so ill aches in right arm bending also pins in feet and hands could not stand on my feet due to sevre cramp had bad nightmares with hot fushes around the 4am mark urin strong and sexual appitite going down hill and i am only 49 went to doctor and he cut the dossage down to 20 mg and put me on atorvastatin similar pains so after alot of thought ive knocked the statin on the head guess what feel 100% better the heart lady said the clopidogrel will also stop so asprin will continue id rather live a life with out the pain and cramps and take my chance i feel the doctors and so called specialist are just using cholesterol as escuse for the drug companies to kill us of...keep your chin up and be strong
My GP said of a cardiologist at the local hospital when talking of statins.. 'He'd put it in the local water supply if he could'
Well he should try the pain and the side effects of these so called wonder drugs and see what its doing to us long term,,it killed my dad of last year who died 81 and up until he was 78 was fit and strong and never had a problem till he had a cancer scare and these wonder drugs sneaked there way into his life aches pains new hip etc etc same stuff ive had but i did not realise what they were doing till unfortunatly i started the same drugs but not warfrin it drove him mad and ended in hospital for 5 weeks where he died on the ward of a massive stroke due to nurses telling he had no chance shock killed him and the drugs
Luckily he can't...
Oh that is so scary! But the drug companies would love that, wouldn't they? I keep hearing of people put on statins as a "preventative" measure when they've never had high cholesterol and have no family history of it - who benefits from that???
Elaine,if you look back through the posts on this site you'll find your story is all too familiar. After a heart attack just over 3 years ago, I was put on different statins of different dosages downt to the lowest available and generally felt like sh*t - pain, depression, utter lethargy, libido vanished ...... I'll correct that, the side effects didn't show up for the first year, until I discovered that the St Johns Wort I'd been taking for years for depression was preventing the statins and also other medications from being absorbed - stopped the SJW and bingo, every side effect hit me and life just wasn't worth living.
I tried "alternative" methods such as high dose fish oil and cayenne pepper, with no change at all in my cholesterol levels.
A few months back I stopped worrying about cholesterol readings after discovering mine would've been regarded as normal before the levels were changed back in the 70's by a US committee composed mainly of drug manufactuerers .......... need I say more?
One GP prescribed a non-statin cholesterol lowering medication and guess what? Same side effects started after a few days so I stopped taking it. This has led me to believe that it's the lowering of the cholesterol which is the problem - our bodies do need some and no-one seems to know how much is the "right" level.
I've heard there's some research suggesting that because the brain needs cholesterol, people with "high" levels are less likely to develop altzheimers, but I haven't located the relevant studies yet. If this is true, could statins be responsible for the "dementia epidemic"?
To conclude, I've given up having my cholesterol checked and I've 99% given up worrying about it.
I'm on similar meds to you Graham. Atorvastatin, clopidogrel, aspirin, bisoprolol and ramipril after a May heart attack. When on a cocktail of drugs it's not always simple to work out which one is causing which side effect. Don't think there is much choice but to grin and bear clopidogrel - you can probably come off it after one year and leave aspirin to do the trick.
I would think that sexual appetite going downhill relates to bisoprolol which is a beta-blocker and renowned for blocking more than just betas. Too much booze not a good idea either. Speak to your doc
Will leave the statins for others to discuss but you need to write to Fisherman re adopting his healthy lifestyle and Bobsleigh for his beetroot and avocado smoothie recipe.
Welcome to this forum and hope this year is much better for you.
Alex
Graham - I'm sorry for the loss of your father but I think it's a bit unreasonable of you to blame all his medical problems at the age of 80 on medication, especially I don't think warfarin "drives you mad" and I don't think anything nurses say would cause a stroke without other factors existing.
I don't see why he would've been prescribed statins (the subject of this site) for cancer, as they're specifically for high (or "high"
cholesterol.
Statins DEFINITELY affect libido, also most information on the subject says "erectile disfunction" - being a woman, I didn't have that problem with statins, but I did have loss of libido and orgasmic disfunction.
I haven't taken beta blockers for over 3 years and it's not about booze with me (I think that's a male thing anyway, isn't it?), it was totally noticeable that my libido vanished when on statins and returned within a week or so of going off them, vanished again on non-statin cholesterol reducers, then came back again ...