When I was in the hospital, I had 8 different doctors and not only that, but I also had other doctors that would fill in for them. Since most doctors can't do much any more other than push pills, the drugs were coming fast and furious in there. Don't get me wrong. A lot of them I needed, and they saved my life. At the time, I was in no shape to be asking questions, which is one of the reasons I had a stroke. Had I known better and asked the right question to the right doctor, I would have never had the stroke. Anyway, one of the doctors started me on a statin drug. Statin drugs are a family of drugs used for high cholesterol. I didn't think much about it at the time and put it into the hand full of pills I had to take daily. One of the major drugs I had to take was a steroid. I was taking large amounts to fight my disease. I had to be weaned off of them slowly. As I was weaning off of them, I started having joint pain. The less amount of steroid I took, the worse the pain became. I finished up my last steroid dose a week ago, and by that time my joint pain has been so bad that some days I could not do anything other than lay on the couch. My wife started looking at some of the side effects of the drugs I am still taking (down to just 3 now) and found out that statin drugs has joint pain as a side effect for some. I decide to stopping taking it, but had to wait to talk to my doctor so I could do that safely. I've been off of it less than 3 days now, and although I still have some joint pain, it is quickly going away, and I feel like a new man. This is just a long way of telling you guys that if you have joint pain and take a statin, that may be the problem. If your doctor gives you a statin, be careful of that side effect.

I think my doc said it strengthens the walls of the veins I’ve been trying to get off of mine but he’s been resistant to it. I said my cholesterol numbers are fine he said maybe because the pills are working. My diet then and now are not the same I want off one way or another.

There are different ones and varying doses. I switched to a different one, and that helped with the joint pain.

I was,initially, prescribed a 40 mg dose and that proved to be too much. Lots of muscle cramps,so I started halving them and my cholesterol numbers are very good. I also take a CoQ10 supplement and that seems to work really well in conjunction with statins.

Do you remember what statin you were taking? A friend of mine was taking simvastatin and was experiencing joint pain. He got switched to another statin and hasn't any problems since. I take simvastatin and haven't had any joint problems.

I have taken Lipatore ( statin drug) for 40 years. My cholesterol last month was 179. It was once in the mid 300s. During that 40 years the only persistant pain I have had is from gout.

Cardiologist has been pushing statins for years and I was resisting, finally he wore me down, began taking pravastatin...first time I was getting leg cramps so quit, at the next visit, after being talked to, lol, he said well break them in half and take every other day if you remember....so that's about what I do, he has no idea what dose I'm on , but my numbers are good. Frankly wonder if they help much, your body makes cholesterol no matter what you eat, I guess if the numbers are high you should?... my good numbers are almost off the chart and the bad numbers are very low, which is what you want.

Doctors seem to want to put every guy over 50 on statins. I had a dr. a few years ago who wanted to put me on statins; my blood presure was great, and I didn't have bad cholesterol.

Yeah, their BS argument is, "but you never will"....

Haven't heard anything good about statin drugs. And you know we need cholesterol, right? Just stick with the good fats and no seed oils, no deep fried food.
And steroids suck. I know some drugs are necessary, but I've gotten very cautious about ones that do more harm than good.

Aaron,

Smart move on your part to include CoQ10. Statins deplete your heart muscle of CoQ10. Supplementing is something anyone on a statin should be doing.

statins are one of the biggest scams the western medical industry has ever pushed

In 2022 I wound up with a subdural hematoma (brain bleed). Rushed me to the ER where I was misdiagnosed. They said I had a 3mm spot on top of my brain and that it was only a TIA mini stroke. Sent me home and after starting me on Statins told my wife there's no reason to bring me back. 2 days later my speech was slurred again so she rushed me in again. A visiting nurse in the ER made an appointment at Mayo Rochester Neurosurgery for me the following week where i was told it was NOT a 3mm spot on top of my brain but a 3mm thick subdural hematoma that was flattening the entire right hemisphere of my brain, causing seizures. They went in, found the bleeder, and fixed me up. Lived through it despite their efforts.

In the beginning of all that they had put me on Statins despite the fact my cholesterol levels had always been perfect. I started having short-term memory loss and so questioned the use of Statins. Everyone told me is was to reduce cholesterol and thus reduce the risk of stroke, etc., and it seemed like part of the whole routine by them as I was over 50, overweight, and male. After a couple weeks my memory loss got serious and I told my Doc I wanted off of Statins. Everyone was quite reluctant but complied, and my memory came back.

Opening Day of Deer in 2024 I felt "funny" and was diagnosed with TIA strokes. Of course they all recommended Statins and when I refused it was hard to convince them of my memory issues. Since then I have found research that shows that memory loss is sometimes a documented side effect of Statins. I stand by my decision that given my excellent record of low cholesterol, there is not empirical need for the use of Statins on me.

Moosetrot

I agree

Statins increase the risk of type II diabetes also. By a bunch.

FWIW your brain almost entirely chloresterol. Statins increase the chance of dementia also.

Inspite of so many people taking it the number one cause of death is still heart disease

I am more afraid statins than I am of cholesterol

They had me on Atorvasatin. 40mg I'm glad to be off of it. I feel better than I have in a long time in just a couple of days.

Had blood work done at my last appointment. Came back with high cholesterol wanted to put me on meds. Dr called and told this to the wife. We have them call hare becuse of my nontraditional work sceduald. Wife looked the meds up meds pros and cons and by the time she told me about the call it was already decided nope your not taking that and your not a meds taking guy and would have to be talked into it anyway. But no you're not taking it.

Kicker is i didn't know they were going to take blood and didn't fast. On the way to the Dr I had a22oz coffee with about 3 oz of heavy cream. I have wondered if that had an effect on the numbers. I had been going through about 1/2 to 3/4 gal of heavy cream a week and eating bacon and eggs daily some times 2x a day when working.

stoped the coffee switched to green tea stoped bacon and eggs, and all the cheese. A lot of things I increase eating when going low carb. I dont know how long it takes for number to go down but like with my wife and her bad numbers I expect it will be corrected with simple diet changes. Im running out of things to eat Low carb and cholesterol both.

Glad you're feeling better Finster. Hopefully you'll be back scaling mountains and running marathons soon!

Doc put me on Lipitor , then atorvastatin. My cholesterol was normal. He said you have a 10% chance of a heart attack in the next 10 years , if you take the statin , it goes down to 7%. I had gas , heartburn , and headaches . I stopped taking it . He said why did you stop ? I said well, we ain't going down this rabbit hole where you give me something for headache , gas , and heartburn ,then something else after that for more side effects . He never said a word .

4 years ago I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage (stroke) which was caused by the pfizer covid shot. 10 days in the icu. One of the MANY drugs I was put on was a statin. My cholesterol numbers were perfect. My wife asked why and their response was that they put everyone on them. After 3 months my A1C was climbing for no reason and my cholesterol numbers were fine. I told the Dr I was quitting the drug. He didn't like it one bit. Last time I ever seen that Dr.