I'm being prescribed Rosuvastatin (generic CRESTOR). because, even though my cholesterol is now and has been on every blood draw that I have access to view since 2013, within normal ranges. All the numbers. BUT I had some spinal pain that was radiating into my back muscles and my doctor sent me for a Thoracolumbar Spine XRAY and sadly it found several disc degenerations, some arthritis in my cervical, thoracis and lumbar area, and strangely it found Atherosclerotic Calcificiation in my AORTA. Nobody has been able to tell me why that would occur for someone who's never had high cholesterol.

I'm so happy you wrote this post Jackj because my first concern with statins is the suppression of cholesterol which helps with vitamin D synthesizing. I'm nearly 75 and have osteoporosis. I rejected all the requests for osteoporosis drugs because they too suppress a normal body function of the uptaking of old bone, which over time makes peoples bones SEEM to be bigger on DEXA SCANS but the insides of those bones are filled with old brittle bone that was never removed giving a false (IMO) indication of increased bone. And they end up having spontaneous horizontal femur fractures and dentists have started refusing to do certain dental procedures on people taking bisphosphonates becauses they. can easily suffer a jaw bone fracture. INSTEAD I paid nearly $200 a month for (so far ) 2 years to do the OSTEOSTRONG program. Result of my first DEXA 2 years after starting the program with NO DRUGS: 7.2% increase in my spine and 4.4% increase in my hip..and remember, MY increases aren't from new bone wrapped around left behind OLD bone. My increases are all from new bone.

So now I face this. And I CANNOT FIND an answer to the caclium in my aorta. But I'm being told that it could kill me if some of it dislodges and travels to my brain or gets stuck in my heart blocking a valve or causes a critical stomach bleed.

I also had an echocardiogram a few months ago and because I've read that echocardiogram is one of the procedures that often finds arterial plaques. So why it didn't find it is a mystery to me.

I'm complaining about the statin request. my doc ordered only 5mg of Rosuvastatin but honestly, I'm never comfortable with man made chemicals that suppress a bodily function. My understanding is statins prevent cholesterol production by the liver. And as you've noticed Jack, it seems to be messing with your ability to process and retain your proper levels of some vitamins.

And I believe you said your cholesterol was also normal when you were prescribed the statins.

I recently read a paper by a cardiologist. The title was something like "Why I try to get other cardiologists to stop prescribing statins. His reasons were several. But he said there is great pressure by pharmaceuticals AND he would always get a letter from his medical insurer (malpractice insurance) SCOLDING him when he DIDN'T prescribe statins when certain symptoms were presented or diagnosis were applicable.

So I'm very very leery about starting them. I am going to request a Coronary calcium scan which uses a special type of X-ray called a CT scan. It takes pictures of your arteries, the vessels that carry blood away from your heart, to check for calcium.

The scan gives you a number called an Agatston score. The lower the score the more mild the situation is. Zero means the test didn’t find any calcium. The higher the number, the more your doctor will likely push for the statins AND in doses corresponding to your number. The higher the Agatston score the greater the dose.

I'm still researching and not sure which way I'll go. Right now I have a 30 day supply of Rhosavastatin (free to Kaiser Sr Advantage members) and it's a 5mg/day dose.

Good luck you all on this thread who are concerned with taking statins. I'm mostly concerned about this side effect: Can create an autoimmune condition in someone who does not naturally have one. And once that happens it doesn't reverse when you stop taking them. It requires IMMUNE SUPPRESSION therapy!