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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Amen! When my mother was 70 years old her total cholesterol was over 300. Her doctor said he could prescribe a statin. She, being skeptical of prescription drugs, asked him if he would take them if he were her. He said he would not. She lived to be 94 years old and did not die of heart disease. My total cholesterol is about 220. My doctor prescribed Atorvastatin. I threw it out.

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@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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0 was on low dose statin my new doctor took me off. He said stations were bad. He had me get Niacin ( vitamin B3) he said it would do same thing as a statin. One can get 500mg over the counter. It may cause feeling of face flushing

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Natural alternatives… Arterosil or Citrus Bergamot. Check out the reviews on Amazon.

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@pogo

0 was on low dose statin my new doctor took me off. He said stations were bad. He had me get Niacin ( vitamin B3) he said it would do same thing as a statin. One can get 500mg over the counter. It may cause feeling of face flushing

Jump to this post

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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@joslyn

Natural alternatives… Arterosil or Citrus Bergamot. Check out the reviews on Amazon.

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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 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.

REPLY
@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.

Jump to this post

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

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

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