Zocor and dizziness

I've been on Zocor 40 mg. for 9 months. After being on it 4 months I began to have symptoms. Dizziness, vertigo, tingling in hands and on scalp, stabbing pains in head and chest, eyelid and finger twitching, throbbing of arteries above each ear and head tremors. Went to ER when vertigo and tremor got unbearable, they found nothing. Been to several doctors and not one of mentioned that these symptoms could be from Zocor.
Internet research enlightened me and I stopped taking it yesterday. Will advise if symptoms decrease.

I am a 54 year old healthy woman, and thought I was going nuts! I have been on Simvastatin for about 14 months and on a gradual overall decline...big black pms-like cloud over my head and unable to find anything to feel happy about (I have a GREAT life). Couldn't sleep, gained weight, heart racing (went on 24 hr monitor-nothing!), dizzy and feeling like I could pass out ON A REGULAR BASIS! Tingle down my left arm, heartburn constantly, stiffness in my neck, tingly hot feet at night, zero interest in sex, miserable. I had been taking myself off all the over the counter stuff and estrogen trying to figure out what was going on...then I started the online research on statins. My doctor told me there was no way that a statin could be the cause of my dizziness and problems. WRONG!!! I was having the same side effects as all of you and went off the simvastatin two weeks ago. Bottom line is that I already feel so much better, walked 2 miles with ENERGY today and am happy. Hoping that I will get back to my old self again. I will be taking the herbal approach to lower my cholesterol...never again this crap!

Hello: Posting about simvastatin. I have been off of the medication for about six weeks. Initially the symptoms led me to hop on an ambulance gurney and visit my local ER due to dizziness, lots of palpitations, and the feeling that I was going to drop on the sidewalk. I followed the ER with two days on the heart unit, and have pretty much have had just about every test but a brain scan (or at least it has seemed that way). My symptoms progressed to intense burning in my torso, pronounced in the shoulder blade areas, upper chest, and into my forearms. A week after stopping the statin much of the intense burning was gone. I still have pain and discomfort, but I have not been "white knuckling" to get through the nights like I had been, which is a relief. I read somewhere that someone described the muscle pain as feeling like he had been repeatedly punched with a bag of oranges. I can relate to that feeling, and recently I have felt the symptoms in my thighs as well.

Pain management takes up my days (although I have continued to work). I have begun massage therapy, and I am going to attempt acupuncture next week. I am trying to sort out what supplements may be the best and which ones won't interact with each other or other medications that I take. I am taking CoQ10, Omega 3 capsules, a multivitamin, and a B complex.

Anyone with similar symptoms or comments, please jump in. We are in similar boats, as they say. I have gotten the impression that some people out there (not on this site) don't see this as real. For those people, unless someone is bleeding profusely from an artery, they remain non-supportive or non-believers....

I had been taking Zocor for 4 1/2 months, Soon after I became sick, muscle pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, stomach problems etc. Now they have been getting worse dizziness, hard for me to work. The only way I can explain is that I feel like I am dying everyday. Does anyone know about a lawsuit?

Sounds like everyone is having the same symptoms...I was taking lipitor and my doc changed mine to ZOCOR ..he started me off on 40 mg..and just recently upped it to 80 mg..my legs are so sore when I stand up , I can hardly walk up the stairs...I have unexplained pain in my legs , shoulders, arms...and recently have been having anxiety attacks...I have felt horrible since being on this medication. I thought it was supposed to help , not make me feel worse..I am fatigued all the time, dizziness, heel and leg pain..I am 43 years old and feel as though I am nearing 70....I think I am going to stop taking this medication and see if there is a difference in the way I feel, especially after reading everyone else's side affects. it's very scary after reading all this, but I am glad I found this site ...

I was reading the various side effects and I have one more to add. Has anyone experienced vertigo--not dizziness but spinning. It lasts for about 15 seconds and it's enough to scare you to death! I've also noticed that the whites of my eyes turn red.
I've also experienced pain in my legs, heels and knees. It's so difficult to walk that I had cortisone shots in my knees and three series of epidural in my lower back. No doctor ever thinks it could be from medication. I've been on Zocor 10mg for two years
I've gone to more doctors now than I have in all my years. Everyone is a specialist. No one treats you as a whole. Now I have to go to a neurologist for the vertigo.
I'm thinking all this is related to Zocor. The only other medicine I take is Protonix.

I cannot believe I am reading all of this. Almost every sympton I have had. I am only 50 (Ha!) but had a heart-by-pass 5 years ago. I was put on 20 mg of Zocor since. In the last year I have had dizziness, memory loss and of course the muscle aches I have had since taking the Zocor five years ago. I could put up with the muscle aches as I thought "well the Zocor is saving me in other areas". Not anymmore- I can't take the dizzines, lapse of memory and fatigue all day long- I have been to several Neurologists, Blood Samples, Brain MRI's etc-etc- all with the same results- "there is nothing wrong with you"! Well there is- and I believe it is the Zocor- no, I'm convinced. This is my first day off the Zocor- I'm staying off it- hope I get better.

I too have been taking Zocor for about two years and have experienced several of the same symptoms. I have pins and needles in my feet and legs, cramping and stiff neck and shoulder, as well as dizziness, and tiredness. I stopped taking it four days ago and have allready felt many of the symptoms fading.

I'm a 64 year-old retired pilot. I've had a form of rheumatoid arthritis for years. Recently I had chest pains & breathlessness when walking the dog & going uphill. Cholesterol was 6.8 so, prior to an Angiogram next month, I was put on 20 mg of Simvastatin about 5 weeks ago. The Cholesterol went down to 4.4 but I gradually began to feel quite ill with dreadful tiredness & lethargy, feeling low & depressed, not wanting to do anything, With chest pains & breathlessness worse than before. Joint & muscle pains were now really bad and I felt tender all over. Yesterday I felt very nauseous, with stomach tightness, dizzyness and a strange feeling of "unreality" and restlessness. I had lost interest in life, couldn't sleep & was quite ill. I could barely walk!

The last time I felt anything similar was 20 years ago when I got Shingles and the doctor (not the same one) prescribed Zovirax tablets. Boy, I was nearly suicidal then and "afraid" to hear the doorbell or the phone go. This was not good in an Airline pilot so I flushed the tablets away, saw my doctor (who only then read me the side-effects) and vowed to be very careful in future.

I saw my (excellent) doctor today; he immediately took me off Simvastatin, agreed that I was quite normal but probably just on one side of the bell-shaped curve of human responses to this drug. He took blood for a liver function test, checked blood pressure (normal) and listened to my heart and chest (all OK). He recommended a "Statin holiday" and said he may try me on another, different form (much fewer side effects) of the drug. I slept a lot all day today, couldn't eat at all except for an orange (still nauseous), felt the lower back pain still and was generally fairly ill. However, I think now (at nearly midnight and without taking my nightly pill) that I am beginning to feel a whole lot better!

I can live with the high Cholesterol (since all other factors in my life are good) but I cannot live with Simvastatin. Simple as that. You are not alone!

Lipitor, pravacol and zocor have the same effect on me. They are, swollen ankles, palpitations, dizziness, chest and stomach pain and nausea. Once I was hospitalized for a few days while tests were taken. The stress test had me running uphill on the treadmill. When my legs were about to give out, they decided it was not my heart. I have not been watching my diet, and my total cholesterol went up from 165, to 185. Doc wants me to increase zocor to double the dose. I don't want to do that. I'm 70 years old, work out and swim on a regular basis with no chest pain. Any suggestions??

I am 36 years old and started taking lipitor about 2 years ago when it was discovered in a physical that my cholesterol was at 315. It came down to 135 within six months along with regular exercise and losing 25 pounds but in the fall of 2002 I started developing sudden attacks of pain in my chest along with dizziness and overall feelings that something bad was getting ready to occur (thought I was having a heart attack, but all extensive cardiac tests came back negative). It was discovered to be gall bladder attacks from cholesterol crystals forming in my gall bladder as my levels came down. The gall bladder was removed in Nov. 2002 and I felt fine for a few months. My doctor also switched me to zocor. Similar symptoms came back, the sudden pain and tightness in my chest along with a pain just inside my right shoulder blade although some of this discomfort tends to stay around for days at a time. I never had a medical problem in my life until I started taking lipitor and zocor and I stopped taking it about three weeks ago. Still not feeling good but hopfully things will improve. I think I will look into something natural.