Statins and side effects

Nurses General Nursing

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I am wondering if any one has experienced the side effects from zocor. My husband started zocor about 3 weeks ago. Last week he started having dyspnea nd chest pain, and horrible muscle spasms in his abd, looked like contractions during labor... He was admited and heart cath clean. labs showed elevated ck and anemia, serum ferritin was 5, rock bottom. He eats healthy and no active bleeding. I mentioned these side effects being from the zocor and Dr said that syndrom from a statin are so rare and about 1 in a million. Well all my nursing sense tells me these are signs of a reaction to the zocor... and my husband is one in a million........ any one have any adverse effects from the statins.. and today on the news I heard that statins are being recomended for more patients... thanx..

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Telemetry.

My mom is unable to take them as well. She had severe muscle cramping particularly in her legs while on these medications. MD told her to discontinue the lipitor.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Did they do an endoscopy?

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Specializes in L&D, PACU.

Look up rhabdomyolysis. It is NOT a one in a million reaction. It IS a reaction caused by statins that can be life threatening.

http://www.spacedoc.net/statin_associated_rhabdomyolysis.html

"Further review of the FDA results reveal that of the total number of rhabdomyolysis cases reported in their database, 42.7% were found to be statin associated cases"

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rhabdomyolysis/AN01413

"The higher the dose of statins, the higher the risk of rhabdomyolysis"

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Specializes in Med Surg, LTC, Home Health.
Last week he started having horrible muscle spasms in his abd, looked like contractions during labor... labs showed elevated ck... and today on the news I heard that statins are being recomended for more patients...

According to the FDA, "simvastatin occasionally causes myopathy manifested as muscle pain, tenderness or weakness with creatine kinase (CK) above 10X the upper limit of normal. Myopathy sometimes takes the form of rhabdomyolysis..."

Spasms are a symptom of myopathy as well. Cerivastatin was discontinued due to the high death rate from rhabdomyolysis, and all statins carry similar risks. When signs of myopathy occur with an elevated CK, the statin should be dc'd. Though i cannot give medical advice, i encourage you to squirt some KY on that bottle of Zocor, and administer it rectally to your doctor, right before you fire him!

The news reported that those with an elevated CRP should start taking a statin, yet the study was funded by the maker of Crestor, and the lead author holds patents related to the CRP test. What a coincidence.:)

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Thanx for the info... I have been doing some serious reading about the side effects of statins.. I am wondering about the anemia being a part of this syndrom.. I am sure I read that somewhere. As for the scopes, well as always the Dr wants to do top and bottom. I am so convienced his symptoms are statin related that I told our PCP we wanted to see the lab work before seeing a GI guy. I thought our Dr would be impressed with my putting this all together. We like him and up till now I have had such a great relationship with him and the nurses. I am so disappointed in him.

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Agree w/all above posts. Also, other medications (amiodarone, for example) can drastically increase the risk of statin-assoc. rhabdo.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.

Bigggest risk with statins is liver problems, that's the reason for frequent LFTs. I am assuming his PCP did a LFT before prescribing Zocor. Big warning sign of liver involvement is leg cramps or pain. Have never had a patient who complained of abdominal pain, but warrants investigation. We are all going to need more tutoring in Statins now that the study has been released that indicates they reduce chance of heart attack and stroke in folks with C-Reacive Protein disparities. Everyone is going to want to be on a statin.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.

The news reported that those with an elevated CRP should start taking a statin, yet the study was funded by the maker of Crestor, and the lead author holds patents related to the CRP test. What a coincidence.:)

I knew the study, which seems to be accepted as sound info, was conducted by Crestor, but statins are statins and most insurers encourage a generic substitution and penalize for Crestor. But I did not realize that the author holds the patent for the CRP screen. Explains why the patent holder for a drug which could be easily substituted for generic would spend big bucks for such a study.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Same horrible side effects X3 people in my family...wouldn't touch those meds with a ten foot pole! There are fabulous "alternatives" out there is you are interested in hearing about them, email me.

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It's a bit suspicious that Crestor funded the study.....wouldn't use statins unless it was absolutely necessary.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

You can't lump all the statins together. Just because you get side effects from one statin doesn't mean you will get side effects from another. My siblings and I have all had some side effects from the first statin we tried -- but we have all done well with NO side effects from the 2nd one we tried.

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