Posted on 10/12/2007 8:08:03 AM PDT by crazyshrink
Statins are known to be good for lowering cholesterol and maybe even fighting dementia, and now they have another reported benefit: they appear to slow decline in lung function in the elderly— even in those who smoke. According to researchers in Boston, it may be statins’ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that help achieve this effect.
To determine whether smoking status modified that effect, the researchers also divided their subjects into four smoking groups: never-smokers, long-ago quitters, recent quitters and current smokers. “Within each smoking group, those not taking statins were estimated to experience faster declines in FEV1 and FVC than those taking statins,” wrote Dr. Schwartz, noting that the size of the effect varied a bit with smoking status.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Red yeast rice?
The statin drug manufacturers would like us all to believe that their product needs to be put into our drinking water. I can personally attest to the fact that painful muscle aches and weakness are a side effect. (Not to mention the potential death from blood clots and liver damage or failure.)
If you are of Scots-Irish decent, watch out for that “rare but serious side effect.”
You are very right. I ahve had the same problems with the statin Lipitor. I now take Simvistatin for high BP.
Statins that are approved for use in the U.S. include lovastatin (Mevacor), simvastatin (Zocor), pravastatin (Pravachol), atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol), and rosuvastatin (Crestor).
More important info on statins:
http://www.medicinenet.com/statins/article.htm
More info on red yeast rice:
http://www.medicinenet.com/red_yeast_rice_monascus_purpureus-oral/article.htm
And I take simvastatin for high cholesterol, not high BP!!!!!!!!! My mistake.
More info on red yeast rice:
http://www.medicinenet.com/red_yeast_rice_monascus_purpureus-oral/article.htm
And I take simvastatin for high cholesterol, not high BP!!!!!!!!! My mistake.
More info on red yeast rice:
http://www.medicinenet.com/red_yeast_rice_monascus_purpureus-oral/article.htm
And I take simvastatin for high cholesterol, not high BP!!!!!!!!! My mistake.
Yea, liver and muscle toxicity don’t sound like fun.
I don’t claim to be a doctor, but after being told my Cholestorol was high, I started doing research on the topic. My Conclusion thusfar is basically my diet is lacking in fiber..
Dietary intake can be reduced, but liver produces cholestorol and from saturated fats etc.. and your body absorbs it through the gut... the less fiber you have in your diet the more of it and longer amount of time it hangs out there to be absorbed. This is why things like oatmeal and oats (soluable fiber) tend to lower cholestorol when eaten regularly.
Certain folks just livers just produce more than others due to genetics, I’m very skeptical to put a drug into my body known to possibly harm my liver when it seems to me that diet is the main culprit.
Check out Milk Thistle.
I went to the Dr. today for a follow-up after 3 months on Simvastatin. My Cholesterol went fromn 206 three months ago to 158 today. My LDL went from 139 to 93. I made NO change in my diet so it had to be the statin.
My Dr. and I had a long talk about liver function before I agreed to take the drug. My liver enzymes actually decreased from the test three months ago (he said it was the first time he had ever seen that).
Here’s the deal about drugs. They have an effect on your body. It is impossible to have the desired effect without also having some undesired effect. The question becomes does the undesired effect outweigh the benefit of the desired effect? It absolutly makes sense to first try to bring cholestrol down by changing one’s diet (we tried that—I didn’t behave so it didn’t work). But the statins are valuable for those who can’t or won’t control their cholesterol by diet alone. As long as your physician and you know what to look for and are vigilant, statins drugs should have a healt imporving benefit for most people.
I took Pravachol for two years. After first hearing that “no one else has reported this” I researched and found that it was a fairly common side effect. Then when there were reported deaths caused by Baychol (Bayer’s version of statin) I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. When I stopped taking the Pravachol, my cholesterol didn’t go up at all. I control my cholesterol levels with diet and excercise, which is what most people should do. Lower your excess body fat content, and your bad cholesterol will drop.
Simvastatin helps with cholestrol. If you have any side-effects, don’t quit but just reduce the amount you take.
That statins are indeed known for causing arthralgias and muscle pains, and I’ve seen it happen frequently. But they are a pretty remarkable drug class: cardioprotective in that they stabilizie plaques in your arteries by limiting inflammation, lower LDL, elevate HDL, and now this.
Frankly, I’d just cut through all of the crap and ask for Crestor if your doctor is going to put you on a statin. It’s the strongest statin, so you need less of it to achieve optimal results—and the muscle aches are directly related to dosage of the statin, not its strenght. It also employs the least use of the liver’s commonly used CYP 450 enzymes, so it’s less likely to interact with other drugs.
I’m just a medical student, but I saw quite a few patients who had problems on other statins do quite well with it.
The Announcements sidebar is reserve for FR business. Not this.
Thanks,
AM
Lots of thin people have high LDL (though the incidence is not as high as with overweight people, as you suggest). My own high cholesterol problem started when I was still skin and bones.
It is extremely uncommon for LDL to be not at all responsive to statin therapy, as you experienced. Virtually unknown, and would have to indicate a very unusual metabolism, or possibly a defective statin product (has happened with counterfeits).
Non life threatening muscle and skeletal side effects are not uncommon, such as most myapathies and myalgias; serious ones do happen but rarely in any one clinician's experience. A doctor may never see a case of rhabdomyolysis.
Every patient should have a liver panel every year or so, more often at the beginning of therapy.
I have several friends who have taken various forms of statin drugs, and every single one of them reports severe muscular pain and weakness. Almost all agree that the potential statin benefits are far outweighed by pain and weakness, and no one wants to live their life weaker and in constant pain.
I actually have a greater percentage improvement on simvastatin than you do, but started higher and ended higher. My HDL has always been pretty good. Now I’ll see if I can post this without getting “temporarily unavailable”
Well, like I said, I had the same problem with Crestor, but so far no one I have had contact with has had problems with Zocor or Lipitor (I realize some people do).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.