Cholesterol readings symptoms and conditions

In response to dtrzaski post Im am sending out this question to everyone. We know there have been stool/stomach/weight issues. Are there any other children that it has been discovered to have high cholesterol. My son was discovered to have high cholesterol at around 3yrs old, apprx 6 months after starting Singulair (regardless of a very healthy diet lots of fruit and veggies!) Any thoughts out there?

Just checking in after nearly a year or so, during which I cut my 10 mg Lipitor dose in HALF! I knife the little white pills down the middle and take 5 mg per day. My doctor did not notice any difference and HDL/LDL etc, are still in the range he likes. So, let's see about symptoms. The Plantar's Fasciitis is still there, but much improved, probably because I gave up full court basketball (at age 55). I have a few other symptoms that I recognize from others posting about them, such as occasional muscle ticks, general malaise, and sleep disorders, but, in general, I seem to be tolerating the 5 mg dose better than the 10 mg dose, AND, most importantly, it IS at a therapeutic level. I have not mentioned this to my Dr., and will keep it that way. If he can't tell, then my plan is working, sort of.

I really think Lipitor is poison and will eventually kill anyone who uses it, but am hoping I can cheat the hangman with the 5mg doses. I don't want to go back to cholesterol readings in the 250-plus range, because heart disease is the big killer in my family.

We'll see how 5 mg goes. I'm not suggesting anyone else necessarily should try this, but I was amazed that the numbers on my labs were almost identical as the 10mg.

I began taking statins about 10 years ago because of a high cholesterol blood test, beginning with Lipex and then Lipitor about two years later. Until recently, I was taking 40 mg daily. I developed multiple migraines with auras after about two years of statins, then I had a 13 hour episode of transient global amnesia. For the next two years I had constant nausea and tinnitus, foot and leg cramps, with the migraines occurring frequently. At the beginning of this year, I had my first episode of paroxysmal hypertension. In June, July and August this year, my blood pressure was labile and it was accompanied by nausea, tinnitus, feelings of great weakness, painful tightening in left arm, shakiness, enervation. The general physician I saw in hospital thought my migraines could be triggering the paroxysmal blood pressure. (Later when I read the weight of anecdotal evidence on the internet, I asked myself whether both were triggered by Lipitor.) It was then discovered that I had acute gastritis. When I was told that the cause might be one of the drugs I was taking, I looked up Lipitor on the internet. I could see so many of my own symptoms but the standout side effect for me was transient global amnesia. After reading the many websites on Lipitor side effects, I asked myself whether both were triggered by the Lipitor. I stopped the Lipitor immediately and the doctor I was seeing at that time agreed that my decision was the right one. However, my general practitioner only accepts the peripheral neuropathies and tinnitus as Lipitor side effects because TGA is not listed in Pfizer's patient notes. When I contacted Pfizer, they said TGAs were not listed in their research material, but when I pressed the point, admitted that TGAs are a form of amnesia, which is listed but only in the material given out to doctors on request.

My husband is also on Lipitor for CAD. Although his cholesterol readings were low, his doctor doubled his dose of Lipitor. Since that time he developed appalling short term memory problems and could not think through relatively simple problems without a great effort. He cut the dose by half without reference to his doctor, and his short term memory had definitely improved. He is considering his next step.

I began taking 10mg per day of Crestor on 19th May this year. I received the documentation regarding side effects and read it. After two days I had tingling pains in my legs and I was checked for further cardiovascular problems, and cleared. I enquired if Crestor may be the problem but I was assured it was not.
I had a CT scan and then subsequently an MRI of my lower back looking for restricted blood flow but after seeing a neurosurgeon this was ruled out as the cause of the tingling. There was some degeneration of the back but not serious blood flow restriction. At about this time the Crestor dosage was increased to 20mg. At this stage I had back pain but it was not thought to be related. I enquired again if it might be Crestor but was assured it most unlikely.
Pain in my back increased dramatically one night shortly after and was so intense not only could I not sleep, I simply could not get myself to think of anything else despite intense mental energy to try to do so. I was on the verge of calling an ambulance, but walking around and applying heat seemed to relieve it slightly and I lasted until morning. Doctor thought it was a locked facet joint and sent me to a physio. She helped considerably and I assumed this was the problem. However, the next day it returned. Upper body strength was fine but from the middle down was just plain sore. The physio worked on my back again, and suggested I get a back brace which I did and I struggled on with that as a help.
The pain shifted from my back to the top of my hip and I went back to the doctor to check my hip. He assured me the pain was on the top of the hip, not the groin area and was unlikely to be my hip. I began taking over the counter pain killers for the pain which was hitting about 8 out of 10 spasmodically. The physio was mystified and suggested it may be kidney stones, and so I went back to the doctor to check that out. He had already taken a urine sample which had no blood at all. The pain shifted to the hip and upper right leg. By the time I was able to see him, the pain was quite severe and I was sure it was my hip. He was not sure, but prescribed Panadine Forte for the pain and sent me for an Xray of the hips.
I was very distressed about this, as it appeared I would not be able to continue working. The hip Xray showed perfectly normal hips but the pain was even worse, by this stage in the right thigh. In desparation I saw the doctor again and agreed to try and “tough it out for a few days” using pain killers, another round with the physio, and as much rest as possible. The physio was so convinced it was not muscular but rather a possible kidney stone she sent me back to the doctor. While waiting to get to see him I began looking at the side effects of Crestor on the internet and after checking with the doctor I stopped taking it on Aug 1st to see what happened. Within a day I began to improve but I still thought it might be kidney stones (possibly a big one blocking a tube completely and therefore no blood) and my doctor ordered a CT scan of the bladder area which confirmed that both kidneys were working just fine.
Slowly over a week and a half the pain is completely gone, the back is fine, the hips are fine, the groin is fine and I feel so much more like living. I am now absolutely certain it is Crestor that has caused the whole problem. The docotrs have now prescribed Lipitor in it’s place, and I have the tablets but as yet I have not begun taking them. I am a bit fearful of doing so, but I will begin in a few days time. However, if I get any repeat of the muscular problems I have had I will stop immediately.
I decided to document this as I realise this is important feedback concerning a relatively new drug. I don’t know how this is conveyed to a national data base, but it seems to me this is a serious side effect that has very nasty consequences. Was it that my kidneys were objecting violently to the drug? I don’t know. But it caused me great distress and this is surely a concern.

My mother, in her late 70s, was on Lipitor for some years. She has been taken off the Lipitor when blood tests showed gross abnormalities. She is on a Vitamin B12 therapy for severe anemia and other medications for the complications that has caused. One of the most obvious signs that things were NOT right with her was her rapidly degenerating MEMORY. It was scary. I told her she HAD to address this to her doctor. It was part and parcel of the effects of Lipitor.
Now, I was on Lipitor for 2/3 months...I immediately got what my doctor NOW has called Restless Leg Syndrome. It never went away after stopping the drug (6 mos ago). I am BACK on Lipitor and immediately upon taking it again, I started getting a worsening of Restless Leg, which inclucded severe and many nocturnal charlie horses which would awaken me throughout the night. I have only been on Lipitor for 2 months now and I am noticing muscle "tightening" in my arms (from the elbow down), too. I was given Quinine Sulfate for the Restless Legs...which I don't believe is in itself a separate disease, but a side effect of the Lipitor. I also have hand tremors. (Nerves or Lipitor?) Now, I became a vegetarian, who eats NO red meat (ok, a bite of a burger a few times a year...lol), uses soy products, veggies and beans as the mainstay of my diet. I have excluded, over the past 10 months, all saturated/trans fats and cholesterol from my diet. My cholesterol readings are like a ping-pong ball. Good, too high, too low, good, too high. I'm between a rock and a hard place re taking the Lipitor. My family is genetically predispositioned to higher than normal cholesterol levels. Yet, the doctor feels the enormous stress in my life during these past 10 months (which hopefully will start to disipate within the next month) has caused the cholesterol to be high....the higher readings began with the increase of stress.
What does one do? Is the muscle cramping and the inability to sit down for more than 15 mins a serious issue? Does it get worse? I assume it's time for a second opinion. It's a Catch 22: each side-effect can be attributed to yet another "disease" in itself. I, like most of the people on this site, have attributed most of my symptoms to "getting old".