Trig symptoms and conditions

Hope this helps someone:

Male 53, 5' 10", 180 lbs, slim
Occupation: Engineer/small biz owner and operator
Total cholesterol now is 4.53 (175), LDL 2.30 (89), HDL 1.43 (55), TriG 1.73 (66)

Presently on 20 mG Lipitor for last 2 months.
40 mG Lipitor for previous 8 months because lipid levels deemed too high.
20 mG Lipitor for 3 years before that.
20 mG Pravachol for 2 years before that.

SIDE EFFECTS I BELIEVE ARE DUE TO STATINS:

1) Difficulty learning/performing new tasks. I can read a technical article and forget most content almost immediately. I can read a book and forget what it is mostly about...difficulty forming new memory.
2) Difficulty communicating. I often stop a conversation in mid-sentence because I have completely lost my train of thought. I often cannot form difficult technical words properly.
3) Several times over the last year I have suddenly forgotten where I was going or where the location was...this was in normally familiar territory.
4) For the past year, I have often felt like I have a low grade flu.
5) I have decreased statin dose and improved my diet and recently significantly increased exercise. I am noticing some exercise intolerance and muscle stiffness that cannot be only due to exercise.
6) Extremely vivid dreams a few times a month (embarrassingly, howling in my sleep according to family members). This was the main reason for reducing dose back to 20 mG.

Most side effects were worst at higher doses of 40 mG. There has been some improvement since dropping back to 20 mG Lipitor. Symptoms first noticed to some degree at 20 mG Pravachol...got worse when switched to more potent Lipitor at 20 mG. Initially, I thought it was age. Both my doctor and specialist do not believe statins are related to any problems I've experienced and are convinced that any risks are outweighed by the benefits. I would like to see them competently run their practice under the conditions I've had to try and operate my biz.

I started taking fish body oil two weeks ago and have noticed a significant cognitive improvement. This may be partly due to reduced statin dose, however, there is lots of evidence online as to why fish oil will help some statin users. I started 50 mG CoQ10 a couple of days ago. My goal is to absolutely minimize statin dose or to eliminate it all together.

I am educated, intelligent and analytical. I am not a doctor. That said, no one can, and ever will again, tell me that the degradation in mental function I've experienced is not related to the statin drugs I've been prescribed.

If you look online, you can find a growing and disturbing number of statin induced side effects reported. This is especially true considering what was considered acceptable LDL a couple of years ago is now too high...doctors are prescribing statins in higher and higher doses.

THESE ARE DANGEROUS DRUGS.

I hope this helps someone. Recognize the symptoms and make your physician take appropriate action.

I am 54 and began taking Simvastatin 20mg on Jan 11, 2008 my blood panel showed chol 319 ldl 251hdl 44 trig 118 on Jan 26 I experienced chest pain like I had swallowed an ice cube for fifteen minutes and thought it was a side effect of the Statin I went to the surgicenter and was checked in with Troponin at 0.1 after one hour there I had another pain and they gave nitro g and it continued the Troponin level went to 1.6 They sent me to get an angiogram and I ended up getting two stents. just before the procedure after not having eaten for 22 hours my blood panel was done again and my chol was 155 ldl 89 hdl 38 trig 136. my ldl had gone down 162 mg/dl in fifteen days. after two weeks now taking Plavix as well I began having extreme pain in my joints and both knees forearms and calves, so bad I can hardly walk and have been prescribed Darvocet for the pain. I want to stop taking the Simvastatin I am alarmed at the rate of decent and wonder if my symptoms could be a product of too low of cholesterol. I can't get a straight answer from three doctors I've spoken to. I'm being crippled by the cure

I have been on Lexapro for several years to help with migraine auras brought on by anxiety.
6 months ago my doctor put me on Vitorin for my high cholesterol (280 total) which was not being controlled with Lipitor. Lately I have been having the auras again and thought maybe the Lexapro had stopped working.
I also have a problem sleeping straight through the night, have recently started having strong frequent urges to urinate, and some strange mental/visual experiences. e.g. I was recently in route to JFK terminal and I swore that a sign said "Jet Blue-terminal 4". My daughter said that it was 6 but my brain literally SAW 4. She was right.
The other day I was taking a frozen dinner out of the freezer for lunch. The package said "Stouffers" and I was surprised because I didn't think I had bought Stouffers. When I went to open it it was a "Smart One" frozen meal, but I SWEAR I saw "Stouffers." I'm 54 but thought maybe I had a brain tumor or early Altsheimers or something.
I came upon this forum by mistake looking for answers. Maybe Vytorin is my problem, even though I do not experience any of the joint or muscle pain.
I need to go back to my primary physician to have the cholesterol rechecked. This better all end soon because its scaring the daylights out of me!

I am 34 years old, white, male, american. I am 6 foot 2 inches and weigh appx 215 pounds. My blood pressure had been creeping up a few years ago so I was put on a small dose of Benicar. No problems, BP went down. During a regular check-up with blood tests it was discovered that my cholesteral and triglicerides(have no idea if I'm spelling these corectly) were up. Cholesteral was 215 and trig. were through the roof. He put me on 10 mg per day and said we'll do blood tests in six weeks. About three weeks in I started cramping in my abdominal region. It got worse with alocohol intake but didn't seem to change much other than that. I complained to my doc's nurses and they said, "Zocor doesn't usually have ANY side effect." My blood test showed a drop in my numbers and no liver or kidney problems (according to my doctor). I stopped taking Zocor for about four days and felt better. I started again and now my cramping is worse than ever. My doctor hooked me up with another doctor and I have a colonoscopy scheduled for next week. I might stick it out until then to see if anything shows up but this website and these posts really worry me. Doctors I think listen to drug salespersons and not their patients too much. Wish me luck.

MY husband was on the drug for 2.5 years. Within the first month he started haviny muscle pain. He was told by his md. that should go awayin time. then his bones started to hurt as well. All this was ocurring even though he was having his blood drawn every 60 days. the md insisted he stay on the drug. Finally after a little over 2 years his liver count went up. And after having a sister with liver faliure from being on the drug for 4 years we said NO MORE. And stopped the drug. the doctor wasn't happy but whose liver was it. My husband is healthy with the exception he has high trig. and cholsterol . Within a month of being off the drug he noticed his bones didn't hurt anymore. The muscle pain has never gone away though. There is one other thing that to us was a major sideaffect of the drug. When he stopped taking it we noticed a large surge in his sex drive, that after 2.5 years had gone down considerably.

I'm 59, and eat a super-healthy diet, but my cholesterol has never been below 200. My doctor gave me an Rx for Zocor in March. Cholesterol 256, trig 223, HDL 45, LDL 167. I saw the horror stories here and elsewhere, decided to try alternatives first. Saw a post by Larryhor on another website and emailed him for his free protocol. After taking these supplements (plus a few I added myself after some research)for 16 weeks: cholesterol 188, trig 134, HDL 42, LDL 119. So my HDL went down 3 points, big deal! Everything's now in normal range, including HDL. I tore up the doctor's prescription. I don't know if it'll work for others, but it did for me.