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Medical Forum / General / General / June 2005Question about Chol. medications
I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to control cholesterol. I have some muscle pain and joint pain. I recently found out that statin medications cause some people to develop Rhabdomyolysis. Are there any medications other than statin medications that can be used to control cholesterol?  SignatureNEWSGROUP SUBSCRIBERS MOTTO We respect those subscribers that ask for advice or provide advice. We do NOT respect the subscribers that enjoy criticizing people. >>I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to control cholesterol. I have some muscle pain and joint pain. I recently found out that statin medications cause some people to develop Rhabdomyolysis. Are there any medications other than statin medications that can be used to control cholesterol? << COMMENT: You can get muscle and joint pain from these drugs whether you have rhabdomyolysis or not. The only way to see is stop them. Talk to your doc and be firm. But don't worry. Once people start on these things, they think it's like they're being kept alive by them. Wrong. It's not likely you're going to fall over on your face and die if you take a drug holiday from a statin. People treat these things like beta blockers that you dare not stop all at once. Well, they're not like that at all. And they aren't worth having ANY side effects from. SBH > >>I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to control > cholesterol. I have some muscle pain and joint pain. I recently found [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > SBH Now this is a message you should take to sci.med.cardiology where there are posters who not only take them in spite of side effects but advocate others do so too. Jason: I would add this to what Dr. Harris has said: Statin side effects do not always "go away" when one stops taking them; and statin induced myopathy does not always prove on testing liver enzymes. Statin myotoxicity is associated with changes in the cardio-pulmonary function: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra ct&list_uids=15488882&query_hl=8 PMID: 15488882 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Statin associated myopathy with normal creatine kinase levels: http://www.annals.org/cgi/reprint/137/7/581.pdf Molecular clues into the pathogenesis of statin-mediated muscle toxicity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra ct&list_uids=15712281&query_hl=11 PMID: 15712281 [PubMed - in process] Do statins have a role in primary prevention? http://www.ti.ubc.ca/pages/letter48.htm Dr. Beatrice Golomb Principal Investigator UCSD Statin Study http://medicine.ucsd.edu/SES/index.htm Dr. Paul Phillips Head, Interventional Cardiology Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, CA http://www.impostertrial.com (Is Myopathy Part of Statin Therapy?) And this: http://www.freewebs.com/stopped_our_statins/StatinFAQ_031305wTOCv4.pdf Zee > > >>I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to control > > cholesterol. I have some muscle pain and joint pain. I recently found [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > Statin myotoxicity is associated with changes in the cardio-pulmonary > function: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra ct&list_uids=15488882&query_hl=8 > PMID: 15488882 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Molecular clues into the pathogenesis of statin-mediated muscle > toxicity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra ct&list_uids=15712281&query_hl=11 > PMID: 15712281 [PubMed - in process] > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Zee Zee, Thanks for the excellent information. I am still looking for an answer to my original question: Are there any other medications (other than statins) that are used to lower the chol. of people that suffer from higher than normal chol. levels? Jason SignatureNEWSGROUP SUBSCRIBERS MOTTO We respect those subscribers that ask for advice or provide advice. We do NOT respect the subscribers that enjoy criticizing people. > >>I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to control > cholesterol. I have some muscle pain and joint pain. I recently found [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > SBH SBH, You made have misunderstood or prohaps I did not explain myself very well. I am not sure that I have rhabdomyolysis--just slight muscle and joint pain. However, after I found out that statin medications can in some cases cause rhabodomyolysis--it caused me to wonder. Do you know whether or not there are any other medications (other than statins) that are used to lower tchol. levels? If so, what is the name of the medication. I would like to stop taking statin medications. Thanks, Jason SignatureNEWSGROUP SUBSCRIBERS MOTTO We respect those subscribers that ask for advice or provide advice. We do NOT respect the subscribers that enjoy criticizing people. Hello Everyone, Pharmaceutical grade Omega 3 oil of the proper strength (50 per cent extraction) taken in proper dose has lowered cholesterol for many, many folks (inducing many patients of mine and myself). If you take the wrong oil it won't do a thing. Also, if the LDL just won't go down enough, one can add capsules of Red Yeast Rice. Some folks find policosonal helpful too. Niacin works, but you need to have periodic blood work because it effects the liver. much peace. >> >>I am presently taking a Pravachol which is a statin medication to >> >>control [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > Thanks, > Jason >>SBH, You made have misunderstood or prohaps I did not explain myself very well. I am not sure that I have rhabdomyolysis--just slight muscle and joint pain. However, after I found out that statin medications can in some cases cause rhabodomyolysis--it caused me to wonder. Do you know whether or not there are any other medications (other than statins) that are used to lower tchol. levels? If so, what is the name of the medication. I would like to stop taking statin medications. Thanks, << COMMENT: A number of medications lower cholesterol, but some of them don't lower mortality, so what's the point? For some of them, there's still argument about whether or not this is due to underpowered studies, or to other kinds of mortality making up for decreased cardiac mortality. Some statins are newer than others, and they aren't all alike (there's a safety issue with the newer ones, due to less experience with them). Some other classes of drugs lower cholesterol a lot (fibrates) but can't even be shown to lower cardiac mortality, let alone overall mortality. You have to get by on decreasing heart attack rate, but the fibrate studies have not been underpowered, and if that's all they do, it's not enough, because they are strongly suspected of causing cancer. Niacin is in the same boat as regards positive effects (which are modest) but the studies are underpowered and niacin is not as suspect of being a bad actor. It's a reasonable choice. A better one is fish oil, though it won't have quite the dramatic effect on cholesterol. Then again, we're not all that sure an agent MUST have a dramatic effect on cholesterol, in order to decrease cardiac deaths. There is pretty good evidence that fish oil does just that, for example. A lot of what's reasonable to do has to do with your personal risks. If you know already you have heart disease, it's much more reasonable to take a statin than if you merely have high cholesterol levels. And the levels themselves should probably dictate some of what you do. If you're cholesterol is 400 or even 300 mg/dl you'd better do something, even if you haven't had a heart attack yet. For 250 it starts to get dicey. For 220 it starts to depend on whether you're male or female, etc. So you're going to have come up with more info. SBH >>SBH, You made have misunderstood or prohaps I did not explain myself very well. I am not sure that I have rhabdomyolysis--just slight muscle and joint pain. However, after I found out that statin medications can in some cases cause rhabodomyolysis--it caused me to wonder. Do you know whether or not there are any other medications (other than statins) that are used to lower tchol. levels? If so, what is the name of the medication. I would like to stop taking statin medications. Thanks, << COMMENT: A number of medications lower cholesterol, but some of them don't lower mortality, so what's the point? For some of them, there's still argument about whether or not this is due to underpowered studies, or to other kinds of mortality making up for decreased cardiac mortality. Some statins are newer than others, and they aren't all alike (there's a safety issue with the newer ones, due to less experience with them). Some other classes of drugs lower cholesterol a lot (fibrates) but can't even be shown to lower cardiac mortality, let alone overall mortality. You have to get by on decreasing heart attack rate, but the fibrate studies have not been underpowered, and if that's all they do, it's not enough, because they are strongly suspected of causing cancer. Niacin is in the same boat as regards positive effects (which are modest) but the studies are underpowered and niacin is not as suspect of being a bad actor. It's a reasonable choice. A better one is fish oil, though it won't have quite the dramatic effect on cholesterol. Then again, we're not all that sure an agent MUST have a dramatic effect on cholesterol, in order to decrease cardiac deaths. There is pretty good evidence that fish oil does just that, for example. A lot of what's reasonable to do has to do with your personal risks. If you know already you have heart disease, it's much more reasonable to take a statin than if you merely have high cholesterol levels. And the levels themselves should probably dictate some of what you do. If your cholesterol is 400 or even 300 mg/dl you'd better do something, even if you haven't had a heart attack yet. For 250 it starts to get dicey. For 220 it starts to depend on whether you're male or female, etc. So you're going to have come up with more info. SBH |
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