Have you gone off of statins? If so, please come on in, I've some questions

I just found out today that one of the side effects of taking statins is muscle mass loss....heh, and I have been wondering for over a half a year why my muscle mass has significantly reduced.

Now, my cardio PA - a lovely lady - has told me I'll be on statins the rest of my life, that I could possibly get off of the BP med, but not the statin.

Now that I have a good idea of why I've had this muscle loss, I'm going off of it....fuck me, it's making me physically weak, and I can't have that.

And I don't doubt it's due to the statins, because looking back I can certainly see the correlational between beginning the statin, and the onset of the muscle loss.

Lawdy, and my simvastatin dose was recently increased, too....

I made an appt today to see my cardio PA about going off of it, but I know a bit of a fight is going to happen. She and I have already discussed it. She's insistent I'm going to be on it the rest of my life. I'm hoping youse guyses can give me some answers, and I can avoid a confrontation with her.


So, my questions are--


Is this a drug I should cut back on slowly, over time? Or can I just stop it cold turkey?

I don't want to throw my body into any kind of a crisis.

If you've taken statins, has it reduced your muscle mass?

If you went off the statins, were you able to rebuild the muscles?.....it's not a permanent thing, right?


And please don't rip me a new asshole for even starting to take it. I was told to take them for a long time, but refused, until I had a massive heart attack, and then I coalesced. The heart attack scared the pee welling hell right outta me.

Also so you know, I did recently have a full and complete cardio workup done, including being in the cath lab. My heart is good to go. I have only one tiny artery that is 50% occluded, the stent that was put in with the heart attack is in perfect condition, and all the rest of my arteries are open and running freely.

BECAUSE my last blood test showed my cholesterol had risen, I'm questioning exactly what roll cholesterol has in clogging arteries....heh, it sure seems to me that they'd be in a lot worse shape than they are, given my cholesterol increase was shocking enough to raise the dose, eh?

Thank you for any responses....and yes, I know when a post is genuine or not, so don't no one have a concern about that, okay?

The thing about Omega 3's is that one of those omegas cause inflammation. That's just something I've read a number of times on GLP, and I really have to watch my rate of inflammation.

I'm just going to get cod liver oil, and be done with it.

Doc started me on generic simvistatin, I took the first one and an hour later I was throwing up yesterday's breakfast. Should've raised a huge red flag for me.

From then on it was Lipitor until the numbers were almost zero, doc insisted I keep taking it.

At the time I started the pill, I was in a job where I had to process numbers and math equations. I gradually began to notice I no longer knew how to do my job. I made stupid mistakes that were caught farther up the line. After a few months I couldn't handle simple math in my head.

This is on top of the energy and muscle problems discussed earlier.

Now the docs just want to chalk it all up to aging and connective tissue disease.

@cosmicgypsy ... Curious about your respiratory problem, does the name begin with "Alpha.."?

I’ve started L-lysine 600mg and vitamin C 2000mg twice a day. Opened up all the blood vessels nicely just like Linus Pauling said. The first few times I started it strange little memories floated up as areas of the brain where opening. Definitely a keeper.

They're so funny, like....


I only take three pharma drugs, but it's soon going to be two. The simvastatin, losartin (BP med), and a muscle relaxer. I take all of these at night before bed, so I don't know if the statin makes me lethargic....but now that you've mentioned it, I think that was why I was taken off that other statin, because something was sucking the life outta me. The beta blocker was having me feeling like I was HAVING a heart attack....

I have noticed a change in my brain, though, but I don't know how to explain that, except I don't like it. It's just different from before. I thought it was just because I was getting older, but perhaps it's because the cholesterol is being stripped away, and it'll get better after I go off of it. I hope so.


Thank you for your reply, lovey....

Just the other day I was on the phone with a friend, I was trying to figure some math thing out in my head, but just couldn't. I had to get my f'n calculator. I told my friend that I didn't know what was going on that I couldn't visualize mathematics in my head like I used to be able to do. I could do whole math equations in my head before this....ya know, see them like written out on a chalk board in my mind's eye. My chalk board is gone.

I'm not sure what type of interstial lung disease it is. My insurance denied the CT scan the pulmonologist ordered that would've revealed the type....nice, huh?

I've got something incurable going on, so let's cut her off....

I was given a long list of lab work to get done, but I know all of that has been done before, and I have no autoimmune disease. I might go ahead and get the blood work done sometime soon, but osteoarthritis is the only thing I have going on. The only other reason aside an autoimmune disease causing the lung disease is genetics.

I mean, the only autoimmune disease I might have is chronic fatigue syndrom, but the test for that is expensive. I treat that with supplements quite effectively....or so I've been thinking.

You are welcome.

BTW I take Losartan as well. Just 25mg/day, but if I could ever get my act together, I'd dump it. So many painful memories of what my Mom went through... good doctors and bad, but you never know which ones you are going to get. Long story, perhaps I'll continue later.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this thread regarding statins, the following is not medical advice, and I am not a physician; these are simply personal anecdotes - just covering six, as they say. Anyway:

On a radio program almost twenty years ago, I heard the late Prof. Donald Scott (author of two books on the subject of biowarfare and how it relates to modern diseases, The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident and The Brucellosis Triangle), mention that the supplement MSM will cure CFS. Having suffered from it for several years, I gave it a try. After the initial herx from hell due to critter die-off, I got steadily better over the next 6 months until had no symptoms whatsoever. Since then, I’ve found that extreme stress will bring on symptoms again, but my taking a course of MSM stops it cold (the little buggers never really leave you, apparently).

On another subject, the Linus Pauling protocol for removing arterial deposits has seemed to work for me, as well. Given Pauling’s discoveries, it of course uses vitamin C, along with lysine and proline. This site has info in it:

[link to www.paulingtherapy.com]
Best of health to you, Cosmic Gypsy!

Clogged arteries are due to arterial scarring which mostly comes from aluminum found in table salt or other spices which are kept from caking by aluminum particles.

It is why salt was thought to cause heart attacks and raise blood pressure when the culprit was not the salt, but what came with trojan-horsed with it.

Check into what else causes scarring like smoking, sulfites, processed sugar, etc.

Cholesterol has nothing to do with anything at all.

Cod Liver oil? I was thinking the same and this was recommended to me. The taste is a little funny at first but now its AOK. Just a suggestion for you.

[link to nutridyn.com (secure)]

the oil supplements you can buy in stores is not of this quality. Hope you figure it out.

I left statins very early, barely used them. Body did not like. I drink goats milk, eat red meat. I eat more veggies, herbs, nuts, smoothies. I supplement. Trying to make improvements, a definite work with a lot of progress to make.

I agree.

my mom went off statins, no cardiac issues ensued. Except her doctor got upset.


my husband went off statins (he had been put them before we met.)

no cardiac problems ensued.

Rhabdomyelosis or muscle deterioration - often due to prescription drugs - is a bad thing.

Statins interfere with fats needed by the brain and nerve sheaths. I wish they had not been on these drugs for years.
My mother developed Alzheimer's.
He developed Parkinson's.

I would refuse any statin.

Seriously, I've been eating better than I have my entire life. A massive heart attack and 11 bowel obstructions will do that for a soul....heh, it'll whip ya right up into shape (or so I thought).

I take all kinds of awesome supplements.

But I didn't and don't understand this sugar level raise, unless it's the statin....I mean, I've really been beside myself about it. It was so not understandable until just now.

I've even cut back quite a bit on my smoking cigs....thank gawd for the patches.

Ahhh, that must be why I got a big ole nudge from my guidance to get MSM. I've been taking that for about two years now.

Before that the COQ10 and a high dose sublingual B12 tab (methylcobalamin) whipped me right back into shape. Before that I was getting B12 shots, which is painful. I was so glad to find the high dose B12, and the person who told me it was just as effective as the shot, and it was. No more bruised up hips for me.

And ya know, I'm really happy you said that about MSM, because I'm having to juggle my monies in order to get everything that keeps me moving, and I was thinking about dropping the MSM. Heh, I'm not going to drop it now. I was regretting that choice anyway, and wasn't sure.

The supplements are very important to and for me. They're a big part of what makes it so I can be happy.

It's not that expensive anyway, so I'm going to reorder it next week when I place my order.

I am very excited to get the niacin and Vit C w/lysine, and to put them to work for my body....

And I did go ahead and just went off the statin. It's been two days without it, so I'm not sure if what I felt this morning can be attributed to it, but I did feel kinda like I was walking out of a fog, or just starting to.

I want to get my brain back to its "steel trap" nature, and I really want more of my muscle structure back.

Happy day to you, lovey....

Thank you so much! Glad to hear that you have a second witness to the MSM - it worked wonders for me.

You know, in all my time here, I’ve never had anyone respond to the information I provided as kindly and nicely as you have... I’ve always tried to be of help where I could, but it usually seems to fall on deaf ears, judging from the responses I get - or more properly, don’t get. You made me very happy by both your responses, and I greatly appreciate it! Will keep you in my prayers.

Best of health to you!