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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Profile picture for Sue, Volunteer Mentor @sueinmn

Can you provide any medical or research studies about either of these products? All I see are promos by the sellers. My doc is pushing statins and I'm resisting.

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I googled 'citrus bergamot research' and came up with a long list of studies done on the citrus bergamot essential oil. One of them was a study of adding the oil to chicken feed, and the yolk of those chickens' eggs had a markedly reduced amount of cholesterol and the shell was stronger. I was surprised that no human studies showed up and no studies on the supplement in pill form. My son in Australia has been using the citrus bergamot for years on the advice of his physician, who was involved in some sort of research. My own experience has been a marked reduction in triglycerides and increase in "good" cholesterol. The reduction in "bad" cholesterol was not as significant.

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I stopped taking rosuvaststin . I was told by my cardiologist that it caused my neuropathy.

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Profile picture for Sue, Volunteer Mentor @sueinmn

Can you provide any medical or research studies about either of these products? All I see are promos by the sellers. My doc is pushing statins and I'm resisting.

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I’m sorry…no. I judged the products based on my own research and Amazon reviews. I’ll have my cholesterol rechecked in a few months. Im using Citrus Bergamot, which lowers cholesterol and so far my blood pressure has dropped significantly.

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Profile picture for Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung

@lvnv89131, You will be able to add URLs to your posts in a few days. There is a brief period where new members can't post links. We do this to deter spammers and keep the community safe. Clearly the links you wanted to post are not spam. Please allow me to post them for you.

Research related to plant sterols and stanols and policosanol for reducing cholesterol and LDL:
- LDL-Cholesterol Lowering of Plant Sterols and Stanols—Which Factors Influence Their Efficacy? (2018) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6163911/
- Efficacy and safety of plant stanols and sterols in the management of blood cholesterol levels (2003) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12911045/
- Plant sterols/stanols as cholesterol lowering agents: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (2008) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596710/
- Effects of policosanol 20 versus 40 mg/day in the treatment of patients with type II hypercholesterolemia: a 6-month double-blind study (2001) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11708574/
- Effects of policosanol on older patients with hypertension and type II hypercholesterolaemia (2002) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12099160/

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Thank you so much for your explanation regarding links as well as for posting them. Although I was using the sterols/stanols and almost ready to begin with the policosanol, I'm now focusing my attention more on Sytrinol which seems to have more unanimous support and reproducible results with less side effects although the previously mentioned had few. Sytrinol is also very similar to the Citrus Bergamot many have mentioned but appears to be more specific acting with less dosage and potential side effects, at least from my research. I later found that there was some debate but not completely dismissive of the policosanol as it seemed to mostly if not solely be based on Cuban Trials which seemed not being able to be reproduced by others and also there's some debate as to the whether policosanol has to be solely sourced from sugar cane wax or can be obtained from insects or rice sources? I've also found substantial information regarding the effectiveness of pantethine, the more refined version of Vitamin B5 pantothenic acid and it's broad spectrum reduction of cholesterol as well as it's role in the balance and regulation of cortisol and adrenaline which I also believe is significant in my issues with palpitations and adrenaline type rushes. I may add the policosanol into the Sytrinol regimen after giving it some time to verify the results of cholesterol values for possible synergistic/additive reduction.

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Profile picture for lvnv89131 @lvnv89131

I Had some links with data containing Medical/Scientific research on plant sterols and stanols and Policosanol for reducing cholesterol and LDL as an alternative to statins but as a new member I couldn't post them or send them to anyone who can, already tried. What I'll briefly share should you do your own research on those topics and see controversial findings is that it should be known that in this instance the supplemental forms are better than whole food or enriched food forms on which there is some debate and there is information as well as to the possible best times to take them to coincide with when the body's internal clock processes cholesterol. All three of those supplements are also useful in making statins that much more effective when combined with them or possibly using a lower dose of statins with these supplements taking up the slack.

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@lvnv89131, You will be able to add URLs to your posts in a few days. There is a brief period where new members can't post links. We do this to deter spammers and keep the community safe. Clearly the links you wanted to post are not spam. Please allow me to post them for you.

Research related to plant sterols and stanols and policosanol for reducing cholesterol and LDL:
- LDL-Cholesterol Lowering of Plant Sterols and Stanols—Which Factors Influence Their Efficacy? (2018) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6163911/
- Efficacy and safety of plant stanols and sterols in the management of blood cholesterol levels (2003) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12911045/
- Plant sterols/stanols as cholesterol lowering agents: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (2008) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596710/
- Effects of policosanol 20 versus 40 mg/day in the treatment of patients with type II hypercholesterolemia: a 6-month double-blind study (2001) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11708574/
- Effects of policosanol on older patients with hypertension and type II hypercholesterolaemia (2002) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12099160/

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Profile picture for Lorraine @lmill7

Hi. Good choice I think. Statins have bad side effects.
I’m a chronic pain patient, we lost most support and pain meds in 2016 so had to turn to natural and homeopathic choices.
Natural is herbs n vitamins/ minerals/ amino acids, etc. to control the issue. I’ve expanded to include Chinese medical herbs/ plants and other more ethnic items. All these things can be found on herbal or naturopathic sites. You might consider a naturopath Dr or DO who combines the two disciplines to help us stay healthy .
Homeopathic-is one or a combination of actual homeopathic remedies ( similar to using allergy shots to reduce the reaction). Items are plant or mineral based and there’s an actual certification and dilution procedure in place. I’m just learning this system. It’s not too complex to learn on general terms. To be well aquatinted, reading up on a website or book over a couple weeks in small chunks of time is fine. Over the course of various infections and using the internet holistic sites you can figure things out well.
This is also how I educated myself on my neuropathy symptoms. I take lots of supplements but I am finally starting to feel stronger.
Good Luck, sorry about the volumes I wrote but I’m sure it will help you too🙂

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Hello Lorraine, I am at a lose as to what you mean "we lost most support and pain meds in 2016." I have CIPN and am under Palliative Care, but since I am in remission I don't know how long I will receive a prescription for 20mg of Oxycodone. I am already having a hard time if I go 1 day before the 30 are up. Long/Short story the recorded message at pharmacy said my prescription was ready I went following day and pharmacy said I have to wait till following day. I'm sure my CIPN understood that. I am in NC so we don't have medical marijuana but do have tons of CBD clinics even the gas stations sell it. I wake up some mornings 2am,3am, & 5am and just walk in my dark house & pray. So maybe I should try some natural remedies, but the pain meds do work for me where I can enjoy parts of my life that having SCLC took away from me last summer. I might not make another summer so I want to enjoy this one. God Bless you & keep you pain free (or pain minimal) Anne

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Anyone have a summary of do's and don't's? This is confusing!

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Sytrinol a fairly recently Trade Marked supplement readily available in several major supplement brands on amazon and elsewhere and taken in 2 x 150mg doses daily. The 300mg dose consists of this formulation used in research "Subjects were randomized to consume either 270 mg citrus flavonoids plus 30 mg tocotrienols (S) or placebo (P) daily for a period of 4 weeks" per pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17985810/ and also states "Results: Daily treatment with S significantly improved cardiovascular parameters compared to P in all groups. Significant reductions were shown in total cholesterol (20%-30%), LDL (19%-27%), apolipoprotein B (21%), and triglycerides (24%-34%). HDL levels remained unchanged in G1 and G2 but increased 4% (nonsignificant) in G3 and was accompanied by a significant increase in apolipoprotein A1 (5%)."

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When I addressed this situation to my doctor, he said the low dose statins are relatively safe.

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Profile picture for lvnv89131 @lvnv89131

I was prescribed and started Avorstatin recently and quickly had side effects of and exacerbation of muscle pain, fatigue, cognition/vision/dizziness issues which were already present from some cardiac issues/meds. Would be interested in trying a different type (hydrophylic) statin as they are known to have less side effects, preferably rosuvastatin or pravastatin which I came upon partially from this article entitled...
"Take a lower dose""
- "A little statin is better than none, so try taking the lowest dose of a hydrophilic statin once a week. For example, start with rosuvastatin 2.5 mg on Mondays. If you can tolerate it, add 2.5 mg on Thursdays. If that doesn't bother you, add a third day. Another option is to stay on the twice-weekly schedule and raise the dose to 5 mg. By introducing statins slowly, 70% of statin intolerant patients end up being able to take a statin, 60% of them can take it every day, and 10% can take it three times a week, Dr. Cho says."

I haven't been able to get my cardiologist to start this yet but after quitting the statin on my own, I began taking 3000mg (2000mg is the minimum suggested dosage) of plant sterols/stanols which are fairly effective at reducing the bad cholesterol. It's my understanding that the stanols are better at this but it's hard to find stanols by themselves. Benecol is a stanol product that is put into buttery spreads and is also available in chews and a drink, which is the one I would prefer, but the drink is only available in Europe I believe, the chews are very expensive and a little hard to find and even the buttery spread is not available in stores in my area and I really don't use butters or margarines at all, so it's not a choice for me. What I'm using right now is a product called Cholest off which I got from my Costco and is made by Naturemade and widely available. Niacin in fairly large doses is proven to be effective but the niacin flush is too much for me. Likewise there are other supplements that are supposed to help such are garlic, etc.

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I am suffering from CIPN I swear a lot of the pain is also caused by the 40 mg ( I cut the 80mg in half. ) I am so tired of doctors making me feel worse.

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