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Anyone have physical reactions to Atorvastatin?
Anyone have physical reactions to Atorvastatin or is it just me? Anything that can happen - did. Not all at once but in a progression. I took it for 7 months. I'll list the problems as they happened over the 7 months.
• couldn't sleep
• nightmares - regularly
• stuffed sinuses
• post nasal drip
• prolonged gut-wrenching cough
• gurgling with each breath
• stomach discomfort spiked
• breathing difficult - couldn't get a deep enough breath
• right wrist began to hurt - use restricted
• depression - crying - not wanting to do anything
• couldn't form sentences - words wouldn’t come
• thought process flawed - hard to think - logic deficient
• chest constricting - couldn't make it up 13 stairs without several stops
• muscles in all 4 extremities - stiffening and painful
• chest constantly tight - a fight to breathe
• finally had to resort to stairlift chair to get upstairs and down
• muscle cramps night and day - legs and arms - sometimes back (lower side muscles)
• finally couldn't lift arms past waist/chest
• walking across the room - difficult - tendency to stumble
• act of sitting down and standing up became a battle
Now going into the 7th week off the statin - all those symptoms have disappeared - except for the wrists. The ligaments still hurt - painful to type - use the cell phone, etc.
I didn't complain sooner because I thought all this was the result of things going on in life, and a fall I took. A friend happened to take a statin and was telling me how she couldn't sleep and was having muscle problems. That revelation was a ringing bell and a bright light. I asked to be taken off Atorvastatin.
Have been told to go on Repatha instead. And I will not.
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Wow, that's a lot of serious side effects. They'd have to speed up the audio a lot to fit all of them into a 30-second ad. Thankfully for you, all but one went away. What dose were you taking? I take 20 mg, and I've never had physical effects. But after I first started, I sensed that my ability to solve problems at work had declined, so I stopped taking it. Several years later I resumed, without noticing that effect.
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3 ReactionsMy husband was on atorvastatin. For 2.5 years he seemed fine. Then he started having trouble with pain in his achilles tendon on both feet. It was affecting his ability to walk. At the time he was on 80mg. Complained to his GP who proceeded to tell him he'd never heard of that as a side affect of atorvastatin, as if my husband had no idea what he was talking about. Statins are notorious for numerous side affects. GP reduced him to 40 mg, still didn't help. So we weened him off atorvastatin, went to a new cardiologist who put him on Repatha. He currently takes Repatha and zetia for his cholesterol which based on his very recent bloodwork is working well. Only complaint so far is stuffy head and clogged ears. The Repatha works through a different mechanism than the statins so not the same side affects are noted. One of the reasons he agreed to take it.
You must advocate for yourself. Medications are not a one size fits all and because your symptoms may not be classified as common doesn't mean the medication isn't causing it.
It may take a while for the tendon issues to resolve. It took a couple of months for it to clear up for my husband but it did finally go away.
Hang in there. Hope you're doing better.
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3 ReactionsHow awful! I can't tolerate statins, or zetia, but I just get itchy rashes. I've given up on them for now. I was just diagnosed with SMM. My cardiac calcium score, which I paid for out-of-pocket, was 322. Even my cardiologist said "Not bad!" My wife is convinced it's all genetic, since her parents and sister were all on statins, and they all had to get stents.