Muscle pains and statin drugs

This Week In The HSI Forum

A current thread on the HSI Forum serves as a perfect follow- up to last week’s e-Alert about cholesterol-lowering statin drugs (“Broken Ground” 3/11/04). The thread is titled “Lipitor or Statins and Muscle Pain,” and the number of postings from members who have experienced muscle pain while taking statins is truly remarkable. Statin manufacturers would have us believe that this side effect is minor or rare. But if you’re one of those who are experiencing soreness and muscle aches, it’s far from minor. And as you’ll see, it’s certainly not rare. Here are just a few first hand accounts:

A member named Steve had muscle pains with a statin drug, and now he wants to know, “Does the muscle pain ever go away? I have been off for about 1 week and it is a little better but still hurts.”

Jo says she took statins for only one week. Her reaction: “Enough! Apart from the skin rash, the insomnia and twitching in bed, I had brand new muscle pains. It took about 5 or 6 weeks for those pains to fade. And about the same time for the rash to fade, too. Sleep normalized within a few days. Statins? Pure poison.”

“I had muscle pain while taking statins,” writes Verdie. “After I stopped, the pain SLOWLY went away. Also my liver enzymes got elevated from taking them.”

A member named Omie notes that most people don’t realize that any muscle pain associated with statins is your body’s way of saying, “Toxic!” He adds, “I let my doc talk me into statins a few years ago, tried 3 different ones and got slight muscle pains with each one.”

“Wow! So many people with side effects!” is Amy’s reaction to the postings in this thread. She says her father took a statin drug for quite a while until his legs started buckling out from under him while standing. “Well guess you all know the culprit! We now know why it has been so hard for him to climb stairs.”

Members Natasha, Larry and Cher also say they’ve experienced muscle pains while taking statins. Jack’s wife developed soreness in her muscles, along with liver problems. Dianne had pain in her joints, but most of the pain is gone, now that she stopped taking a statin drug.

So given all these testimonials, if you want to lower cholesterol, where do you turn? A member named Debbie offers this suggestion: “Look for a natural product called policosanol.”

Here’s how Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., describes policosanol in his Nutrition & Healing Newsletter (1/1/02): “Policosanol is a group of eight to nine ‘long-chain alcohols’ (solid, waxy compounds). Research is accumulating to show that policosanol is more effective than the most ‘popular’ (among mainstream doctors) patent medicines for lowering total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.”

Dr. Wright also notes that policosanol may help prevent strokes by inhibiting platelet aggregation and abnormal blood clotting, and may even lower blood pressure as well.

Unlike statin drugs, policosanol has not been shown to have a harmful effect on the liver – the organ that manages the production of cholesterol. But some of the subjects in policosanol studies have experienced mild side effects, including insomnia, headache, diarrhea, nervousness, and weight loss. Even though these short-term side effects have been reported in less than one percent of the subjects tested, a doctor or healthcare professional should be consulted before beginning a regimen of policosanol or any other dietary supplement.

Other topics on the HSI Forum this week include:

• Grape seed extract
• Rosacea
• GERD
• Air ionizers
• Painful joints
• Omega 3

To reach the HSI Forum, just go to our web site at www.hsionline.com, click on “Forum,” and add your voice to the wide range of topics concerning health care and nutrition.