1. < Neuropathy

Statin discontinued due to neuropathy. What are some alternatives?

Posted by Nazir Khan @nukhan, Jan 19, 2020

I have been using Lipitor since 2007 for lowering my cholesterol which is on the list of those medicines that are suspected to cause neuropathy. I am thinking of discontinuing this menace but before doing so want to check with those members who have discontinued using statin and what is their experience. What alternative methods have they since adopted for lowering their cholesterol .. diet, alternative medication, exercise or anything else ?

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celia16 | @celia16 | Jan 12 8:53am
In reply to @walkthedog "My husband was put on Lipitor for a while. He developed severe foot pain - like..." + (show)
@walkthedog

My husband was put on Lipitor for a while. He developed severe foot pain - like heel spurs. He went off it and onto Simvastatin. Coincidentally, we moved and when he went to the dentist, the dentist told him he was retiring because his feet hurt. The husband asked if he was taking Lipitor. The dentist stopped Lipitor and did not retire.

I cannot take statins. I take plant sterols and my cholesterol returned to 'good' numbers.

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That’s amazing! Lucky the dentist had your husband as a patient!

REPLY
dlmdinia | @dlmdinia | Jan 12 2:20pm
In reply to @suzva "followup- After taking policosanol 40mg for 6 months I'm back to red yeast rice. Despite all..." + (show)
@suzva

followup- After taking policosanol 40mg for 6 months I'm back to red yeast rice. Despite all the good reviews I've read and the positive results I read about on the NIH study, it didn't work for me. With RYR, my numbers were only slightly high , around 200, on the policosanol, total cholesterol was 263! All the other numbers were up too....Trig, LDL etc. Only number that was good was HDL. But that's always been good. back to the drawing board!

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Red Yeast Rice has the same active ingredient as most statins, so if you're avoiding statins because of neuropathy RYR may not be for you. I discussed this with my doctor who was going to put me on statins and then suggested RYR as a substitute. When I discovered the common active ingredient I then switched to Citrus bergamot with my doctor's knowledge. Citrus bergamot did not significantly reduce my bad cholesterol, but it significantly increased the good. As I'm not diabetic or hypertensive, my doctor was pleased. Link below RYR info.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/red-yeast-rice

REPLY
dlmdinia | @dlmdinia | Jan 13 9:41am

I've taken citrus bergamot for a few years. It lowered my bad cholesterol a bit, but significantly raised my good cholesterol. My doctor was satisfied so I'll continue on it.

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