Hi.
I was reading somewhere on this thread, about some people experiencing hair loss. I have been on Zocor for 6 months now and the only side effect I notice is the hair thinning. I always had thick hair, and it's thinning doesn't bother me much, but I'm wondering when is it going to stop. I also read, that once you stop the statins, the hair grows back. I read here also, that thinning hair is not supposed to be a side effect, but I am wondering if all you out there on statins, are you experiencing this? Does your hair keep thinning till you have very little......??? Anyone know?

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JeanneMarie

Nope, No hair thinning after 4 years of Lipitor.

I'm on Zocor but I haven't had a problem with hair thinning. Try to get more calcium in your diet. It made my hair and nails stronger

I have been on Lipitor for over 4 years and while my hair has alot more gray in it, I have not noticed any thinning.

Zocor 2 years no thinning hair but it definitely has caused breast enlargement.

JeanneMarie
I've done some surfing about hairloss and statins and have seen your post from June 2003. I've had high cholesterol for the last 18 years (am now 37) and been on various drugs. I abandoned using them for a few years while I had my family but over the last year my doctor has tried me on the various statins available and I have suffered noticeably visible hairloss - so much so that I am aware of where and how I am standing in a room with fluorescent lights, ie shiny scalp if stood directly underneath a fluorescent light. I can see from the replies posted to your thread that no one else seemed to experience hairloss but I have heard third hand from a work colleague of a work colleague that she suffered the same fate as myself - how are you now? Did you ever get to the bottom of your hairloss or have you changed drugs? In England, there is a lack of feedback from doctors to the pharmaceutical companies so I've drawn a blank with my doctor at the moment. I have refused to go back on statins at the moment and they are doing blood tests to rule out any other problems, ie hormonal, etc. Have you heard of any other females with the same problem? I hope you are still visiting this site - I'm probably clutching at straws as your original post is 1.5 years old. I'd be grateful for any info you've got. Thanks.

JeanneMarie
I've done some surfing about hairloss and statins and have seen your post from June 2003. I've had high cholesterol for the last 18 years (am now 37) and been on various drugs. I abandoned using them for a few years while I had my family but over the last year my doctor has tried me on the various statins available and I have suffered noticeably visible hairloss - so much so that I am aware of where and how I am standing in a room with fluorescent lights, ie shiny scalp if stood directly underneath a fluorescent light. I can see from the replies posted to your thread that no one else seemed to experience hairloss but I have heard third hand from a work colleague of a work colleague that she suffered the same fate as myself - how are you now? Did you ever get to the bottom of your hairloss or have you changed drugs? In England, there is a lack of feedback from doctors to the pharmaceutical companies so I've drawn a blank with my doctor at the moment. I have refused to go back on statins at the moment and they are doing blood tests to rule out any other problems, ie hormonal, etc. Have you heard of any other females with the same problem? I hope you are still visiting this site - I'm probably clutching at straws as your original post is 1.5 years old. I'd be grateful for any info you've got. Thanks.

Hi Deb.

I didn't bring it up to my doctor till last fall again, about my hair loss. She went over my vitamins and supplements that I was taking and she noticed my multi-vitamin had 10,000ui of Vit. A. She said this was way too much. Then I noticed on the bottom of the bottle, Vit.A. could result in hair loss. My doctor looked up the side effects of my statin, and it also said, possible hair loss. So I quit both, the statin and the Vit A. and in 10 days I noticed my hair had stopped falling out. I decided then to cut my multi-vitamin in half and then took the 5000IU of Vit. A. Within 10 days my hair started falling again. I stopped the Vit. A. again and the loss stopped. Only a natural loss is what I see now. I have been off the statin all this time so I don't positively know if it's the statin or Vit.A. or both. Next week my annual checkup is scheduled and we will discuss it futher then. This is what's been happening to me. It's very interesting that you also had severe hair loss. Too me, it looks like the statin did it to both of us. Only the Vit. A. also helped in my case. At least now, I can wash my hair and not have tons of hair to clean up. Thanks for posting to me. I will keep ypu posted, and you do the same. :wave:

Now I will have to see where my cholestrol count is now.
Too high, I suppose. That will be the next thing to deal with.

Hi JeanneMarie
Hope you are well. How did your last visit to the doctor go? Has your hairloss subsided? I've had 2 further visits since I last posted - they did cholesterol tests plus "total" blood tests, ie looked at everything they could look at when they test your blood!! At my last visit my cholesterol count was 10.8 (normal is 5) - sorry but I don't understand the results that you are given in the USA but obviously mine is twice what it should be which concerns my doctor. As part of the "test everything" part of my blood tests, they tested my plasma testosterone level (which was within the normal range - although towards the top half) and the "sex hormone binding globulin level" - from what I can remember this has something to do with the testosterone hanging around in my blood rather than being discharged (I think......blinded with science!!). Anyway, I received a letter on 1st June saying that "....the sex hormone binding globulin level was a little low whichwould tend to give more of the free hormone. This might explain why my hairloss can become more noticeable at times and they suggest that they look at the possibilities of addressing this so that they can also start addressing the cholesterol level, which remains very significantly raised at 10.8 mmol/L.......". Unfortunately, I'm not convinced!! Its too much of a coincidence that within a month or two of starting statins, my hair fell out considerably and hasn't come back. At the moment (and since stopping the statins), it hasn't got any worse but it also hasn't got any better. I can't afford to lose any more hair either because I'm already paranoid about where I stand in a room that has overhead (especially fluorescent) lighting. I also count how many hairs I lose when I wash my hair with the shower head every morning! We went out to Orlando for two weeks on 26th May and can you believe, every time a camera was pointed at me I adjusted myself so that my parting was facing away from the camera and therefore hiding any hairloss!! However, there hasn't been any more postings to this topic (on this forum anyway) so I wonder whether its just me with my binding globulin and you with your vit.A???
Please keep me posted with how you are getting on and I will do the same - I go back to the doctors in two weeks.
Look after yourself.
Bye for now.
Deb

:wave:
Hi Deb.
Good to hear from you. Orlando huh? Beautiful, but expensive.
Well my doctor advised stopping Vit A. and I did. I stopped the statin also. My LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) shot up to 187 from 85. Over 130 is too high. So she put me on 40 mg instead of 20 mg to quickly bring it down. Even though I am on double strength of this statin (Zocor) my hair is not thinning any longer. In my case it was the combination of Vit.A and Zocor. Both have listed as a side effect, loss of hair, but without the Vit. A. I'm doing good. Just when I could lose no more, it stopped. I had to do something, because I could see as time went on, and if I did nothing but do as I was doing, I would be bald. Luckily, seems now that my hair is growing in a little. At least it has stopped its shedding. I hope you get your situation straightened around, for a women, her hair is her shining glory. We just can't lose it. I go back to the doctor next month to get a new chol. test. Being that I am on double strength of Zocor it should bring it down pronto. It's leaving me so tired though and that's another side effect of statins. I can get tired just thinking of doing something. Hopefully I will have better numbers to report to you next month and I will be able to lower my mg. down to 20 daily. Keep me posted.
Keep smiling.

Well, I think that any form of hair loss is equally traumatic for men, no matter what the cause. You would think that in this day and age someone would have finally come up with a cure for it. I'm surprised that it still hasn't happened. Well, I suppose that men can at least walk around with a lollipop pretending that they're Kojak. But even so, that's small consolation.

Look at all the guys that are shaving their heads, must be the new "fad". Like U said, the guys can pretend they are Kojak, and the poor women can make believe they are Sinead Oconnor, but that sure as heck doesn't appeal to me one bit..... :eek:

I went off of Lipitor due to muscle ach about a month ago. Still have sore muscles and I have noticed my hair is coming out when I comb it.

For some reason, being on Zocor alone does not bother my hair thinning. Since I have gotten off Vit. A., being still on double dosage of Zocor temporarily of 40Mg, my hair is no longer falling out. In fact it's growing back in.
As far as muscle aches, I have a little, but not bad at all. The extreme hair thinning always has been my problem and not the aches. TG. I am assuming the aches I do have probably is from the statin drug. But at least it's not as bad as I have heard others say that they had. I had a friend that got off Lipitor and started on Zocor instead, I don't know yet if the aches left after the switch. I assume people are all different. Hope you find a solution.

i have been off of Lipitor for about a month now, all of a sudden I am having a lot of hair loss. Is this normal?

Hello All
Just an update to keep you all posted. My doctor put me on the newer statin - Rosuvastatin - before Christmas (2006). He put me a low dose (5mg) to see how I'd react to it and after a couple of weeks I started getting this really weird sensation in my scalp. The only way I can describe it is - do you know when you've been kneeling down (and sitting on your ankles/feet) for a while then when you get up your lower legs are dead and you get that kinda cold feeling just before the blood rushes back to your dead legs - well it's kinda like that, like there's not enough blood getting to my scalp. It would start around 11.00am and last until evening. I continued taking the tablets to see if it would subside but again, after another week I noticed I was losing slightly more hair when I was washing it. Anyway, I've stopped taking them now and I think I've given my doctor a headache because he sent me away and told me he would have a think and write to make another appointment.
I'll let you know what happens next!
Deb

Hi Deb. Since I have posted, my Zocor has gone generic and I'm now taking Simvastatin 40 mgs. I have noticed a little more hair falling out. I'm not sure yet if it's going to get worse or it's just being that I am getting older. I suppose 70 yr old women lose more hair than younger, I assume so. So I'm watching and waiting also. I have my annual Physical this month and I'll see how my blood tests come out. Anyway, I don't like the hair showing all over my back on the sweatshirts I wear. I hope it doesn't get any worse. Will keep you posted as well.

My mother had hairloss on both zocor and zetia. I know that these were the problems because after she stopped them her hair started to thicken up. She had also loss the outer 1/3 of her eyebrows. This was because of her thyroid. She had numbers that were within range...but the new doctor we took her to, who is a homeopath, and also an M.D. said thyroid numbers should only be a guide, and that her symptoms were clinical hypothyroidism.