If you have read about the potential side effects of statins, you may weed and mdma be more likely to blame your symptoms on the medicine, whether or not they’re truly caused by the drug. Grapefruit juice has a chemical that can interfere with the enzymes that break down the statins in your digestive system. While you won’t need to cut grapefruit entirely from your diet, ask your health care expert about how much grapefruit you can have. Occasionally, statin use could cause an increase in the level of enzymes in the liver.
List of statin medications
At the end of that study the drug improved survival over placebo by the grand total of 27 days. Atorvastatin and simvastatin are the most effective at reducing LDL cholesterol levels. Atorvastatin and fluvastatin are preferred in people with kidney disease. Pravastatin and fluvastatin have a lower risk of drug interactions because they are not metabolized by cytochrome p450 3A4.
- The real risk of developing muscle pain as a result of taking statins is about 5% or less compared with taking a pill that doesn’t contain medicine, called a placebo.
- If your risk is very high — for example, you’ve had a heart attack in the past — a statin may be helpful even if you don’t have high cholesterol.
- I was tested by my neurologist and he diagnosed me as having neuropathy.
- These foods can make it hard for your body to break some statins down, allowing too much of the drug to build up in your body.
Remember that statins can lower your risk of a heart attack or stroke, and the risk of life-threatening side effects from statins is very low. The increase generally occurs when blood sugar levels are already higher than normal. People with prediabetes or diabetes may see their blood sugar levels rise when they start taking a statin. Cholesterol ratio may be used as a monitoring tool by some health care specialists. However, the AHA suggests that doctors use LDLcholesterol with patients rather than cholesterol ratio. That’s because the total cholesterol number is considered a better tool for guiding the doctor in planning the best patient care and helping patients understand their health risks.
Talk with your doctor
But even if you start taking a statin, remember that you’ll get the best results if you keep staying active and eating healthy while taking the medicine. Ask your provider if you have questions about ways to keep your heart healthy. Very rarely, statins can cause life-threatening muscle damage called rhabdomyolysis (rab-doe-my-OL-ih-sis). Rhabdomyolysis can cause extreme muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. Only a few cases of rhabdomyolysis occur per million people taking statins. Rhabdomyolysis can occur when you take statins in combination with certain drugs or if you take a high dose of statins.
The pain can be a mild discomfort, or it can be serious enough to make it hard to do your daily activities. The new research cited at the top of this article suggests that statins prolong life a few days (if you how to quid salvia are otherwise healthy). This was based on the length of the primary prevention studies.
Some statins may not be suitable for some people including those with a recent history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). People with active liver disease or who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not take statins. If one type of statin gives you side effects, ask your provider if they can switch you to a different one. You may also want to ask your provider if you need to avoid grapefruit or pomegranate or their juices, how to store pee or if it’s OK to have a small amount.
A strong predictor of if you’ll experience muscle aches when taking statins could be whether or not you read about the potential side effect. We’re empowering you to make wise decisions about your own health, by providing you with essential health information about both medical and alternative treatment options. So, when people with pretty serious heart problems took simvastatin for nearly six years they lived almost one month longer than those on placebo.
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But tell your healthcare professional about any unusual symptoms you might have after starting statin therapy. They may want to decrease your dose or try a different statin. Never stop taking a statin without talking to your healthcare team first. Some people have an interaction with another medicine while taking statins.
Serious muscle effects have been reported with statins, including rhabdomyolysis – this is the destruction of muscle cells. Initial reports of muscle pain should be investigated by a doctor. The real risk of developing muscle pain as a result of taking statins is about 5% or less compared with taking a pill that doesn’t contain medicine, called a placebo. However, studies have found that nearly 30% of people stopped taking the pills because of muscle aches even when they were taking a placebo.
If the increase is only mild, you can continue to take the drug. Rarely, if the increase is severe, you may need to try a different statin. The benefit of HDL lies in the fact that it carries bad cholesterol back to the liver. Cholesterol is a fatty substance that naturally occurs in human blood. In fact, cholesterol helps form the structure of every cell in your body. Also, ask your healthcare professional if the statin you use will interact with any other medicines or supplements you take.
