I am currious of those of you who began having PMR, had it after being on a 'statin' drug.
I have been on a statin for almost 15 years and developed PMR two years ago. Interesting! Have studies been done to determine if there is a correlation since statins do cause muscle or joint pain in some people?
Hello
Yes I was diagnosed with PMR after taking statins for a short while - although the Doc did not think there was any connection at the time as I had only been on them for a month
So many people are put on statins that it is not surprising if a large percentage of PMR victims were on statins. I was, but who knows?
I was persuaded to take statins when in hospital 4 years ago because my cholesterol was high. I had had PMR for several years already at the time and had been in to have myofascial pain syndrome problems due to spasmed back muscles sorted out. I bounced out of hospital - I'd had a LOT of i.v. pred a week or so before - but within 10 days I was in awful pain and almost unable to walk up a slight slope even with crutches and more than 100 yards was absolutely not on without sitting down.
I stopped the statin, I'd only taken half doses anyway, and within a week or two it improved a lot but it took over a year to get back to where I had been before. The cardiologist was fine about it - SHE didn't think it was needed as a female with no cardiovascular event history (stroke or heart attack) even though I have atrial fibrillation.
I was put on statin drug after suffering a heart attack. Within three weeks I was at the emergency room with severe pain and cramping in my hands and wrists. Three doctors told me they believed it to be statin drug induced and to get off statin drug and never go back on them again. So I went off them but I continued to have have serious neck and shoulder pain, foot ankle swelling, and pain in multiple other muscle groups at various times. Doc's all said the drug is out of my system now, which I believe is true, and should not be a cause at this time. But my question is, did that statin drug change the DNA makeup to which it now is at work destroying rather than building good muscle?
Gillian, what was your steroid dosage?
PMR is actually listed as a possible side effect of the most commonly used statin: simvastatin.
I have read that there is no benefit to statins for any females, and only limited benefits for males who have already have heart disease or diabetes.
Short answer is no, but my cholesterol was only just above normal on my bloods after starting pred. and it's controlled by diet which also helped to reduce a small amount of weight gain in the first few months of PMR
There is no proven benefit for women who have had no cardiovascular event, there is a small benefit for women with such a history. There is a benefit for men with or without a history - though how great it is is debatable!
On the list of side effects that comes with all prescriped drugs, the one for Simvastatin alerts you to the fact that this drug can cause aches and pains in the muscles and you should contact your GP immediately.
If everyone read the side effects and then filled in the Yellow Card it would be noticed much more.
There was Professor who worked in Cardiology (now retired) who flatly refused to allow any of his patients be to issued with or prescribed Simvastatin. Other statins do not have that warning.
Right, I misread the item, which is a bit ambiguous in the way it's expressed.
...there has never (as of 2008) been a clinical trial showing that statins are beneficial to women of any age or men over sixty-five who do not aleady have heart disease or diabetes.
This from a doctor on faculty at Harvard medical school.
I undertand cholesterol should no longer be considered major risk factor for heart attack, and it is far better to improve diet and get exercise than to rely on medication like statins which improve odds only marginally.
already
Private messaging you a link to item regarding new FDA guidlines for statins, issued 2015.
I had been on Simvastatin for 15 years when I was diagnosed with PMR a couple of months back. I've stopped taking it. My cholesterol was not of particular concern but I had hypertension so the statin is advisory. These days one of the side effects listed for Simvastatin is Polymyalgia Rheumatica. You couldn't make it up!
I never took a statin drug, but I was under a lot of stress when I got PMR.
I think there must be nearly as many causes for PMR as there are sufferers! No wonder the researchers give up on us so quickly. Hard to find common denominator.
I wasn't on statin when I contracted pmr. I "read somewhere" (didn't we all) that pmr increases the risk of coronary events by about the same amount as diabetes. I had a coronary stent inserted about a year ago (pmr now2 1/2 years) having had no symptoms but blocked artery showed in stress test. No apparent adverse effects from the statins. Corelation does not imply cause.
I suspect changing dna may be getting a bit fanciful.
I'm suspicious of "public health big statistics" approach to medicine which can show massive cost benefits from very small changes in risk if enough people are counted but is difficult to justify at an individual level where we are all vary by so much.
Thus, I avoided statins for prevention. Hence the stress test. However, once a breakdown occurred their use became part of maintenance.
As to whether I really required a stent .. there's an interesting (to me) article in a popular science magazine this week listing 10 popular medical procedures which may not be as necessary as once thought. Something about the increased need for evidence based medicine (along with everything else).
The side effect of the stent was rehab. I believe exercise in controlled environment helped my pmr progress lots.
Interestingly - both the 2015 recommendations for PMR and those for GCA recommend a tailored exercise programme to avoid the risks of the effect of pred on muscles - in the case of PMR it should be part of the treatment. In fact, the Leeds group are currently undertaking a clinical study in which they are introducing an exercise programme by giving the participants a pedometer and encouraging them to build up their step count slowly to see how it impacts on their progress.
Have to say - don't see it ever becoming part of NHS management of PMR but exercise in a controlled environment as is used for cardiac rehab is the only way most older people will learn to exercise more.
The figures my comment was based on were achieved by reanalysing the figures from the clinical trials - which originally pooled the results for all patients to make their claims. When you separate them out the conclusions are different for men and women and with and without previous recorded events. It was one of the things that led for calls for all figures from studies to be made available in the public domain. It's the dividing line between statistics and (almost) lies. You can prove pretty much anything if you choose the right statistical tests and are economical with what you reveal - it happens all the time.
Nothing will persuade me to take statins again - my brother takes one in the belief our family history makes us at a higher risk of cardiac events. Our father actually died of cerebral aneurysm, not stroke as my brother believed. Our mother survived a cardiac arrest at 68, had a triple bypass and eventually died at nearly 80, her sister was in her mid-70s when she died of a heart attack. She probably wouldn't have done had her GP been aware of the fact women present differently with heart attack symptoms - she had shoulder pain which is common in women. Whatever - either way they didn't count as premature deaths from cardiac problems.