Simvastatin side effects

[smee]

My Dad (76) has bad arthritis and also relatively high cholesterol, so was prescribed Simvastatin and has had a bad reaction to it - mobility got a lot worse, terrible muscular aches, breathlessness, dizziness. Mum said it was awful to watch. The GP was sceptical that the Simvastatin caused it, but agreed he should stop taking it for a week to see. He stopped 2 days ago and is leaping around (sort of!), feeling like his old self again.

They're going back to see the GP in a few days to reassess, but are a bit nervous as she was so insistent he needed to be on the drug. Dad swears he won't take them again and I can't say I blame him, as he could barely move when he was taking them. Does anyone know what alternatives there are?

My Mum experienced terrible muscle cramps on Simvastatin so stopped it and has managed to reduce her cholesterol to normal limits with changes to her diet.

I think there should be alternative drugs your Dad could try if necessary (sorry don't know what they are though).Surely the GP wouldn't advocate use of a drug with such awful side effects.

Perhaps you or your Dad could seek advice from a pharmacist before seeing Dr again.

There are a number of different statin drugs out there - I don't know the differences in side-effects, but your dad could try the others to see if they are more suited to him. Have a look at the fact-sheet here - it might help (don't have time to read it properly myself, at work).

Thanks LakeFlyPie. Strangely enough my mum was a pharmacist, but she retired way back so is as clueless as me!

Dad very much doesn't want to take anything, as he takes lots of things for his arthritis already. His bp is low which is good and his cholesterol levels aren't absurdly high which is also good. I have heard though that if you have arthritis it's a good idea to take statins, so am not sure what to think.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

xposted with you Poledrathe, have had a quick look at your link, so thanks for that. The thing with my dad is really his arthritis seems to complicate everything. On the one hand statins are a good idea, on the other what they've given him makes his mobility far worse.

Does anyone know if it's necessary to take Statins if you have arthritis? Bit specialist I know. He has both Osteo and Rhematoid.

I don?t know anything about arthritis I?m afraid smee, but I do know of people who switched to a different statin and didn?t experience the same side effects as they did on simvastatin.

Simvastatin is usually prescribed first as ? surprise, surprise ? it?s the cheapest (it?s out of patent), but there are several others out there so it might be worth your dad trying another.

I was prescribed simvastatin some years ago, after a cholesterol test showed mine to be a bit high. Within a week, I had terrible muscle pain, went straight back to GP and said I was not taking it any more. He did suggest trying an alternative, but I wasn't keen to try.

As mattellie says, simvastatin is the drug of choice as it's the cheapest - there are other statins available.

He could try Benecol products - spreads, and yogurt drinks, I have a Benecol Light yog drink every day, they are claimed to help lower cholesterol, no idea whether it helps me as I haven't had another test!

Thanks to all - sadly amd not at all surprised to hear they're the cheapest.

I will do a bit more research, but if anyone out there does happen to know about Statins and arthritis, feel free to tell me.

"Thanks to all - sadly amd not at all surprised to hear they're the cheapest"

Although it's of no relevance to your father, all the statins can cause muscle pain and none of them seem to be better or worse at it to date.

What is of more relevance is that there are a handful of other drugs that could be used, if he is happy to take another.
It's just the statins are the best first choice.

But if they cause problems, forget them and move on.

If he is unhappy about more medications, oats and soy (I think it's soy isoflavins in benocl type products) have been demonstrated to lower cholesterol (not as much as medication but it might be enough) as has guar gum.

All of these things can cause flatulence diarrhea etc

Thanks DBennet - all very interesting this. I will make a note of the soy, oats and guar gum. He's already quite windy though.

statins can cause rhabdomyolosis which causes awul fatigue,muscle wasting and is sudden in onsetwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001505/

Thanks alypaly. I was reading about that last night. Scary stuff. I have told Dad to mention it to his GP. It's amazing how quickly he felt better after stopping taking the statin, so it was obviously affecting him quite badly.