Lipitor and Hair Loss

Questions About Statins

For anyone who’s taking a cholesterol-lowering statin drug (or for anyone you know who might be taking one), here’s a warning sent to us by an HSI member named Mary:

“I have a question/comment on Lipitor. I had been on Lipitor for almost 2 years and was getting more and more exhausted and my hair was falling out at an alarming rate.

“My hair dresser told me that several other of her patrons had similar problems and when they quit Lipitor, their hair began growing back. I talked with other people on Lipitor and asked them if they noticed the same hair thinning. Curiously about 1 in 3 noticed the same problem.

“I wrote the FDA and filed a complaint/comment. Were you aware of this side effect?”

I wasn’t aware of this Lipitor side effect, so when I Googled “Lipitor” and “hair loss” I was surprised when it came back with more than 900,000 hits.

One article I found – in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants – indicates that Lipitor isn’t the only statin that may prompt hair loss: Zocor and Mevacor are also linked to this same problem.