When the doc checked my Chol level it was 5.0. Because I lived in Wales he prescribed statins (simvostatin). If I had lived 20 miles further east in England, I would NOt have reached the level for statin prescription (5.2).
Anyway - i loved the idea that I would be getting FREE statins for life under Welsh rules. I had read up on them and truly believed in what I was told about the wonder drugs.
Simvostatin lasted 3 months, by which time I could barely walk due to chronic hip pain. Told the doc, he said it will wear off, I said no it won't. I stopped. The pain stopped. Doc then swapped me across to Lipitor. Mmm, lipitor didn't cause any joint pain, not that I could remember because .....I couldn't remember!
Actually, I started having this feeling that my thinking process was a little cloudy. I had to work hard at thinking logically and clearly - it was a haze at times. I lived with it for about 6 months and wondered what would happen if I stopped the Lipitor. I didn't bother telling the doc - just stopped. Within weeks, my thought processes resumed normal. I went back to the doc - a different doc. Told them what happened. She looked sideways at me and said, she wasn't sure if the symptoms related to the statin. So she put me on Pravastatin. Everything was fine for months, then i started getting golfers elbow, then tennis elbow at the same time and in both elbows??
Went to docs, she said, you've got tennis elbow and alittle bit of golfers elbow. It's not the statins - less than 2% get those side effects. So I lived with it for a further year, blaming press ups, RSI etc etc. Then one day, after a check up with blood tests wherte my Chol level was 4.4. I decided to stop the statins: 3 months later the elbow pains have gone.
I have since started eating porridge, drinking pomegranate juice and watching my sat fats like a hawk. Latest blood test: 3.9 (no statins).
I wish they had worked, because of their other beneficial side effects but it was not to be. Statins do and can cause side effects which one could easily put down to other things and for that period in your life, the quality of your life drops.
Listen to your body.
Last edited by Thomas coupling; 16th Oct 2012 at 00:07.