One Jan. 2 of 2008 I had a stroke where the whole left side of my...

One Jan. 2 of 2008 I had a stroke where the whole left side of my body was completely paralized. My speech was slurred and my son called the ambulance to take me to the hospital. I am 52 years old and am a Pastor. When the ambulance arrived and the paramedics began working on me to take me to the hospital I began to pray. I asked the Lord to heal my body. I asked him to take all my symptoms away and clear out my arteries if there was any blockage. By the time I arrived at the hospital I was completely back to normal. I give God all the glory. After the MRI the doctor acknowledged that I indeed did have a stroke and there shows damage on the right side of my brain but they just couldn't get over the fact that I had no residual disability. Now to the statin. Even though after all the tests they found out all my arteries were indeed clear with no blockages anywhere and all the tests on my heart were good I do have high cholesterol of about 260 of the bad stuff (this runs in my family). Before I left the hospital the doctor prescribed me to take 1 baby asprin a day and the generic version of Lipitor. I know this sounds weird but that night I took only one capsule of that statin drug and by the next afternoon I began having pain in my legs and they got all wobbly and hard to walk. I had asked the doctor if there were any side effects of these statins and she told me that they were safer than asprin and that they should be sold over the counter without having to even obtain a prescription. She did mention that there were some very rare side effects (that only happen to 1 in 10,000 people) of it attacking peoples muscles but told me that if that happened I could just stop taking the medicine and the muscle pain would go away. I never took another one of those pills but for about 3 or 4 weeks having muscle pains and cramps in different parts of my body. It was like something was moving around and attacking different muscle groups. I noticed one day that the muscle in my left arm was sore and very weak and it was like I didn't have as much muscle as before. Then the next day it was doing the same thing in my other arm. Fortunately after those weeks all the symptoms have went away and I feel fine. The funny thing is I had felt great before taking that statin pill and only took that one. It was like poison. Now since that happened to me I have been talking to many family and friends that are either currently taking or were taking statin drugs and every single one of them have had terrible muscle, memory, emotional problems since beginning the drug. My uncle had surgery (not heart or artery related) about 8 months ago. I noticed that he was in very bad shape not being able to get around because of severe muscle pain and weakness. He was crippled. I was driving him one day and he was talking about all his pain and weakness in back and legs and shortness of breath then it hit me, statins? So I asked him if he was taking statins. He set and thought for a few seconds and said he had started taking them right after his surgery 8 months before and his muscle pains and weakness started right about that time. I encouraged him to stop taking them for a few weeks and see what happens. Within 2 weeks he was much better and not about 8 weeks he is pretty much totally back to normal. He thanks me all the time. He said it must have been the Lord that prompted me to warn him about the statins. I still have a cousin my age that has severe back pain and muscle spasms in his back that started about the same time he started taking statin drugs. He is no longer able to golf like he used to. I'm trying to get him to stop but the doctor has him convinced that the statins aren't causing the problems and that he must keep taking them. I'm on a quest now to warn as many people as I can about these dangerous drugs. The truth is we are ultimately responsible for what we put in our mouth and if it hurts us we need to not swollow it whether it is the wrong kinds of food or bad drugs.