A friend of mine was on Lipitor for 3 years, all the way to 80mgs. Her TC was about 300 but even the strong dose of Lipitor only got it down to 268. A year ago she went on Vytorin, doseage I don't know, but since then, she has gained alot of weight, although active, and is constantly exhausted. Now the dr. thinks she is developing IBS, as her stomach is always bothering her, so she is on some stomach meds. I told her to try stopping it for awhile, but she is scared to, as she knows her numbers will go up higher.

Two years ago she had a heart cath., it came back totally clean, but the last 2 months she is getting chest pains alot, so they want to do another cath. She has no other risk factors, doesn't smoke, no high BP, and heart problems do not run in her family, parents lived well into their 80's. Even with the Vytorin, her numbers are still up, and now her glucose is rising. She was checked out at her local ER, and they said things looked good, and she may have had an anxiety attack, that caused the chest pains. She was under alot of stress due to planning a wedding for her daughter.

Any input gladly appreciated, as I am out of ideas for her......:confused:

JJ.. unfortunately this happened to my mother. Her arteries were clean as a while when an angiogram was done. Her cholesterol always ran 265ish. Her doctor in all her glory insisted that she had to go on a cholesterol medication. She ended up in a wheel chair. Her doctor had her cholesterol down to 180 at times. Every time it got lower her muscle problems were worse, of course liver test never showed anything (which I now know, is the case in numerous instances). The doctor finally insisted she go back on zetia (which is one part of vytorin). She did but got to the point she couldn't even stand up out of the wheelchair without assistance. She stopped and was getting better, but began having chest pains. She went to the emergency, and they did all test and said there was nothing wrong, in fact her enlarged heart from, 5 years ago, was now normal...(i am sure this was to the acetyl-l-carnitine she takes). The doctor on call, who happened to be my doctor (a D.O.) decided she should wait until the next day (staying in the hospital) and see a cardiologist. He decided to do an angiogram...came back and said, her plaque had become unstable, and she needed bypass surgery. I now know that zetia has been known to cause plaque to become unstable... I blame it on the zetia...and her idiot doctors that have no idea what cholesterol is or what it does in the body. I'm not sure what your friend should do...but thought i'd let you know about my mother. (i would stop any cholesterol medicine)...but that just my opinion. No trial, study or test at anytime anywhere has show that lowering cholesterol in women of any condition has increased longvity. In fact for women ver 70 higher cholesterol was associated with increased longevity...including LDL.... JJ you might be interested in the new trial that was anounced on Jan. 17th.. It involves 16,000 people....it seems that statins can cause or unmask parkinsons. Of course some people don't agree with this..but it was thought to be imparitive to have this study because of the incidence so far. take care...

Sorry to hear of your mother's lousy experience. I talked to my friend today, and told her, maybe she should ask to go back on the Lipitor, as at least it didn't bother her. She tried Crestor, she said that was horrid, but is just not thrilled with the way she is feeling on Vytorin. I have even noticed the difference in her since going on it, not only is she always tired, but she really is getting VERY forgetful. We laugh about it at times, as I certainly have my fair share of it too, so we blame it on our "old age", but she really is getting bad with her memory, and this terrible fatique and stomach problem.

Oh well, she has an appt. in a few weeks and is going to ask her dr. about a possible switch back, and of course she is not thrilled about having another cath done, but says if her dr. feels it is worth it, she will do it. Hopefully it will be as clean as the last one, and maybe if she switches to Lipitor again, she will feel better. She also said her legs kill her at nite when she is trying to sleep, like I said, alot more problems then when on Lipitor. Oh well, just have to hope for the best for her. She will not stop the meds., as she is terrified of high numbers, so that is not an option.

I did read about the Parkinson study on here, quite interesting. I'm still wondering down the road a few years if some of these drs. might actually change their minds about people needing very low numbers.

Thanx for your info., and best wishes to you and your mom......:wave: