More Reasons To Hate Lipitor

[Lucky]

High cholesterol has been my unwelcome buddy for many years now. I hate the drug Lipitor since it caused severe pain in my calves. But, I had to take it. So, I took 10mg a day even thought that is a low dose. When the leg pain would have me screaming, I would stop for a week. Then, earlier this year, the doc switched me to Crestor, but only two days a week at 20mg. My cholesterol numbers plummeted and I have little calf pain. For the first time in years, I had a normal level.

All of this is to preface new warnings today from the FDA on statin drugs, whether Crestor or Lipitor or a generic. It seems that they can cause memory loss and confusion. Given that older folks tend to be the ones taking them, this is no small matter since we don't need any more help to forget things. And I am always confused! besides muscle pain, it is thought that these drugs can increase the likelihood of getting diabetes.

Yet Big Pharma seems not ready to rest until we are all on statin drugs. So, start with your diet, and then exercise, and see if you can avoid these drugs altogether. Reading this article may encourage you in that direction:

Article on Cholesterol

Another medical study in the news yesterday was on the dangers of long term use of sleeping pills. (You die earlier.) Don't get me started on how dangerous Ambien is. I have stopped it altogether.

Article discussing Danger of Sleep Pills

[RA1]

I quite agree with you. I used to refer to my family doctor as Dr. DuPont because he was pretty quick to prescribe something. However, some things seem to require Rx. I have had gout for 15 years or so and diet alone has not "conquered" it. I don't eat many of the items listed as problematic like organ meats but I do love fresh asparagus when it is in season so I do indulge in it to some extent. One side of my family has a history of gout so I suppose I have come by it honestly. I take Allopurinol which has limited my acute attacks to about 5 in the last 15 years which I treat with Indomethacin which I always carry just in case. However, I just looked at the date on the label the last time I refilled it and it was 2008 and I still have some pills in the bottle.

In case some do not "get" the Dr. DuPont reference it refers to a slogan they used some time back that said, "better living through chemistry". Medicine and patients also benefit from chemistry aka Rx but "better" life style is the best until that no longer works.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest hitoallusa]

Doctors get kick backs from pharmaceutic companies.. One time a sales manager instructed her associate not to talk to a doctor too long because he has cold so he dosen't get annoyed. The doctor who can't even read EKG properly prescribes these drugs like candies.

[Guest EXPAT]

Fortunately I've had good luck with Lipitor. I'm just glad that it dropped in price from $140 for a 60 day supply to $20 for a 60 day supply after their patent ran out in November. It's unbelievable the price difference now even for the brand name.

I've never had high cholesterol. My "number" has never been higher than 170. And now after 2 years on Lipitor it hovers around 130. But the reason why my doctor wants me on it is it raise my good cholesterol above 40. It's very hard for men to have a high good cholesterol number. So we keep trying. I'm right at 40 now and she would like me at 55. I resisted being on this drug up until 18 months ago.

[Guest CharliePS]

My doctor prescribed Lipitor for moderately elevated cholesterol, and I, too, developed cramps in my calves, so he stopped the prescription, and told me to instead get red yeast rice pills at the health foods store. One pill a day has kept my cholesterol at acceptable levels for a couple of years now.

[TotallyOz]

Thanks for this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9111217/Are-sleeping-pills-really-that-bad-for-your-health.html

I was just prescribed Ambien by my doctor and it really just knocks me out. I wake up alive and ready to go but I do wonder the long term effects. One of the interesting things the article said was these drugs may be as harmful as cigarettes.

I will have to keep my eye out for other ways to sleep that isn't so addictive.

[MsGuy]

I was just prescribed Ambien by my doctor and it really just knocks me out.

Yep, really knocks you out for the first few weeks (can also cause especially vivid dreams if you're into that sort of kink ).

Unfortunately you gradually get habituated to it; then it doesn't work so well. And getting off the stuff is a bitch. Be ready for a stretch of real difficulty falling asleep and a lot of restless nights.

[Guest FourAces]

besides muscle pain, it is thought that these drugs can increase the likelihood of getting diabetes.

Yet Big Pharma seems not ready to rest until we are all on statin drugs. So, start with your diet, and then exercise, and see if you can avoid these drugs altogether.

On my most recent doctors visit, a few weeks ago, he was shocked I am not taking a statin drug. Hes been my doctor about 2.5 years and I see him every 3 months for my diabetes lab work and results but WTF? Anyway, I asked him why I need to take one and he indicated because of my type 2 diabetes. Even though my bad and good cholesterol is well within the range acceptable he felt I should begin taking this additional medication.

I reminded him I take a aspirin each day (full dose) and have been for nearly 30 years. Just as quickly as he urged me to start the new drug he blew it off by saying well that should work for now.

My confidence in him has been declining and this past visit did not help.

I dislike taking medication of any kind. I took enough drugs when I was a kid to last me a life time plus. But I do understand at ties certain medications are needed to continue a happy life.

[Suckrates]

I have been on Lipitor for over 35 years. Oddly, I too had cronic leg pains and over the course of the 35 years, have been to hundreds of doctors trying to find the cause of my pain. Although they found no reason for it, it was suggested that I had a herniated disk which COULD be the cause, so i had back surgery, never having a pain free day Since the surgery..

Interesting finding out that Lipitor could be the cause of my problems all these years.....

anyway, recently was switched to Generic lipitor, which at the very least, saves me a ton of money...

[Lucky]

Suckrates, consider switching to Crestor as I did. Only with your doctor's blessing, of course.

FourAces, that video is one of the best ever! I loved it.

[eeyore]

Thanks for the heads up on this. My cholesterol has moved into the borderline area. Like Charlie, my doctor has started me on the red yeast rice pills along with fish oil pill, plus the aspirin a day. We'll see if this works before going the statin route I guess. Interesting about the pain in the calves. I get this intermittently, though I'm not on statins. It sometimes keeps me awake at night. Magnesium pills seems to help (I learned this from my barber...). Below is a companion article the WSJ ran today.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203833004577251773862418082.html

[Lucky]

Back to the sleeping pills, this should help you out tonight:

"A new study suggests that the 6% to 10% of Americans who use prescription sleep medications such as zolpidem (Ambien), temazepam (Restoril), eszopiclone (Lunesta) and zaleplon (Sonata) are more likely to develop cancer, and far more likely to die prematurely, than those who take no sleep aids.

The increased rates kick in at really low levels too, the study says. For those prescribed as few as one to 18 sleeping pills in a year, deaths during the period of the new study were more than three and a half times greater than for those who got no such prescriptions, the study says. And for patients who took home the largest number of prescriptions for sleep aids--for more than 132 pills per year--the risk of death was five times greater than among those who appeared to take no sleep aids, according to the study."

Oh, read on. It's not necessarily all bad: Will I Awake?

Then there is this other article: Sleep apnea may make people more prone to silent strokes

I won't even link that one. Sleep well.