Goodbye Lipitor, Hello Zocor

[Imacarbuff]

While it was my insurance company that made the "bean counter" decision to change statins, I am very glad to get off of Lipitor. The muscle aches are the main problem. At first in the legs,now arms, back and even chest. It seems the cold weather even makes it more noticable.
I will say this for Lipitor, my numbers are down:
Total-154
HDL-46
LDL-82
Trigly.-130

Is this pretty good? I had asked for homocystine levels to be checked-but was only told all was well. I'm hoping that Zocor will not continue the muscle pain problem. I'm on 20mg now. I wantedto just get off of them but my Dr. said he didn't think the statins caused my muscle pain....getting older. I'm 53, 6' 2" and about 198 pounds, do not smoke.

Does anyone know of any group of vitamins or supplements that would work as well as statins BUT without the side effects? I did start takin the COQ10. My Dr. said that it was not necessary, but that it wouudn'y hurt either.
Who knows.

[darock_sayz]

I switched from Liptor 5mg to Zocor 10mg earlier this year. I'm only 30 - but liptor was making my bones ache too! So far (knock on wood) Zocor hasn't carried over the muscle pains (knock on wood again

[Lenin]

Buffy,

Your numbers are great; I hope you get the same with the slightly weaker statin. Insurance Company decision was probably based on the fact that the Zocor (simvastatin) goes OFF PATENT (two nicest words in the English language ) this year . I'll bet MANY insurance plans will make the swich.
Are you taking double the milligram dose that youu took with the Lipitor? That would be about right for the same level of control.

Unless you have heart disease you might even get good enough numbers by taking the SAME milligrams of simvastatin as atorvastatin and settling for slightly higher LDL's. But if you DO have any proven heart disease, then aiming for the same, or better, blood lipid numbers is the better idea.

I've taken Lipitor for a zillion years but I might be forced into switching to a generic sometime in the future. My partner uses Zocor and neither of us has ever had a problem with side effects. I've doubled my Lipitor to 20 mg. for the last two weeks to see if I can pull off an <70 LDL in the hopes of some plaque reversal.

(Watch the articles start coming out that say simvastatin isn't as good as once thought! )

[vipergg22]

I wantedto just get off of them but my Dr. said he didn't think the statins caused my muscle pain....getting older. I'm 53, 6' 2" and about 198 pounds, do not smoke.

Ah those doctors they crack me up with stupid statements like that . They know darn well statins can cause all kinds of muscle aches , pains and other problems . Hope you are getting quarterly CPK tests to test for problems specially if you have a lot of sore muscles.

[lane413]

I think that's why Pres. Clinton stopped taking cholesterol meds. He probably couldn't take the pain. My mom took lipitor for three or four yrs. For her muscle pain they referred her to rehab. The pain continued until she stopped the lipitor, but by that time she had elevated liver enzymes.

Now they want her to take another statin. Go figure1