I am a 58 year old who was on 10mg for about 10 years with no app...

I am a 58 year old who was on 10mg for about 10 years with no apparent side effects.My GP retired and the new Doctor said my dosage was low and quadrupled it to 40mg. Since I had been on the drug for so long on the low dose, with no problems I did not relate subsequent problems to this med. Initially I had digestive problems, bordering on diarrhea, which I took as age related. I had occasional but severe lower leg pains. I had periodic night sweats and I gained 25 pounds - going to 165 from the 140 I'd been since high school. I had some vision problems as well and began to develop severe memory and reasoning issues to the point where I believed the I was developing Alzheimers. From net reading, I saw that this statin could cause the digestive problems I'd mentioned - so I stopped it. In the interim my GP gave me every test in the book to find out the weight gain and the night sweats. He found nothing and was about to send me to specialists - which I declined. When I finally read that simvastatin could cause the mental issues, the weight gain, the leg pains etc,, I took myself off the med. My weight problem has now resolved no more leg pains, or intestinal issues. From my reading I understand ths some of the memory and mental issues may be permanent - though they no longer progress. When I met with my GP and told hom that I had stopped the med and about these side effects, that I had discovered on the web - he looked at me like I had two heads and gave them no credence.It amazes me that he had no comment. I had brought it up to him in case any of his other patients has similar problems - as information that could help in his practice which has many elderly clients. As an aside, I had mentioned these effects to a trusted friend - who in tern had mentioned them to his practitioner, who is one of the most highly respected doctors in Canada. This doctor's comment was that' you must have read this somewhere as the manufacturer takes pains to conceal these effects". Wonderful, eh?