Commit to an exercise routine, lose weight if you need to, and adopt a heart- healthy eating plan such as the Mediterranean diet. But such pain is common, especially in middle-aged and older people, and can have many causes. If rhabdomyolysis is the culprit, statin treatment will be stopped immediately. Symptoms related to a nocebo effect are real (not imagined), can be severe, and should never be dismissed by doctors and other health care providers, according to the AHA. These potentially life-saving medications have some important medical uses, but the downside is that they could also cause muscle pain or muscle cramps—also known as statin-induced muscle pain. The paper also reviewed the research on other reported or rumored side effects and safety concerns—including neurological problems, cognitive impairment, peripheral neuropathy, cataracts, cancer, erectile dysfunction, kidney problems, and tendon ruptures—and found no convincing evidence that statins increased these risks. Fewer than 1 in 100 statin users develop muscle pain (myalgia) of any degree, compared to a placebo. The symptoms usually begin within the first few weeks or months of treatment (or after an interacting drug is started) but sometimes start later, and in some cases can be precipitated by increased physical activity. What is clear is that these drugs have been proved effective in treating high cholesterol. These symptoms commonly occur in large muscles in the legs, chest, upper arms, shoulders, or lower back, but can occur elsewhere. Exercise causes muscle pain too, so it is sometimes difficult to know if the pain comes from the statin or the exercise in someone who just started an exercise program. If this is the case for you, your doctor will likely start by ruling out other factors that might be contributing to your pain, such as: Sometimes a brief break from statin medication is needed in order to determine if the muscle aches you’re experiencing are due to statin usage or just a part of the natural aging process. Common complaints, especially in the lower body, include: People who are physically active are more likely to have myopathy than people who are sedentary. Resources such as the National Lipid Association’s Statin Myalgia Clinical Index Score focus on location, symmetry, and timing of muscle pain as well as response to dechallenge and challenge, producing statin myalgia likelihood score. Certain medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism. For people who already have diabetes, statins may cause a small increase in blood sugar. Cookie Preferences Myositis presents itself with muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness and a higher level of creatine kinase in the bloodstream. Deaths from coronary artery disease have plummeted in recent decades, and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have played a major role in this success story. These plans provide the same coverage as…. This article first appeared in the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. This study adds to the growing body of…, A new report on childhood cholesterol levels delivers some promising news, but it's not time to cheer. The most common side effect is myopathy, a painful clinical disorder of the skeletal muscles. Myopathy is separated into three different types based on toxicity: As with most cases of myopathy, symptoms originate in the muscles of the upper arms, shoulders, pelvis, and thighs. A blood test is usually ordered to measure creatine kinase levels and rule out rhabdomyolysis. One in four Americans over age 40 now take a statin, but about one in ten stop because of symptoms they attribute, often mistakenly, to the drugs, according to a recent Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association (AHA), which attempts to set the record straight about statin safety. Do Not Sell My Info That occurs when negative expectations and fears about statins’ risks—aroused by media reports, warnings in package inserts, word of mouth from statin users, and rumors on the internet—become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Any disease affecting kidney or liver function. Are they worth trying? Taking certain other medications, such as some antibiotic, antifungal, or HIV drugs. And with only one exception, the trials were not specifically designed to examine the effect of statins on muscles. The time to find out if Medicare covers ambulance service is before you need one. This suggests that the adverse effects were not caused by statins, were mild enough to be tolerable, or went away when patients switched to a lower dose or different statin. That often helps. For this reason, your doctor might simply suggest switching to another statin that works just as well but can be taken in a smaller dose. Statins may cause a dose-related rise in blood markers for liver damage in about 1 percent of people, but this alone does not indicate clinically significant liverinjury. Also see our interview with Ronald Krauss, MD, on this subject. –weakness of the large muscles in the upper arms and thighs without pain, or –both muscular pain and weakness. Statins are one of the most popular classes of prescription drugs. Most often the problem is mild and manifests itself as muscle discomfort or weakness. Thus, the study concluded, most people who have adverse effects should not give up on statins. Privacy Policy Since people with diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, the benefit of statin therapy outweighs this side effect. All rights reserved. During the advanced stage of the disease, the muscles of the feet and hands can be affected. Liver damage used to be a major concern, but research has found that statin-related liver problems are rare and seldom progress to serious disease. We explain the rules for ambulance service and Medicare. About 1 in 10,000 develop rhabdomyolysis. More serious muscle damage causes moderate to severe pain. Seven people developed rhabdomyolysis. In the majority of situations, creatine kinase will be normal or only mildly elevated. In those serious cases, treatment is needed to help clear up the infection. According to the Mayo Clinic, several risk factors have been associated with statin-induced myopathy: If you begin to show symptoms of muscle myopathy after starting statin therapy, talk to your doctor or physician as soon as possible. Rhabdomyolysis is an extreme, life-threatening type of myopathy. 2. Statins are a class of drugs that lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol levels in the body by preventing production in the liver, where the majority of the…. The statin may not be to blame, or other factors may be involved. In contrast, in large observational studies as well as clinical practice, anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of people (or possibly even more) report muscle symptoms that are ascribed to statins, according to Ronald Krauss, MD, director of Atherosclerosis Research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and a member of our Editorial Board, “and that is likely an underestimate of more subtle effects of statins on muscle biology.”. Myositis: Myositis, a type of myopathy, causes muscle pain and inflammation, as well as an elevation in CK (a muscle enzyme) levels in the blood. According to the AHA’s analysis of clinical trials: However, some researchers believe that participants in statin trials have not been representative of the general population, so the results may underestimate the true prevalence of statin-related side effects. Such steps may allow you to take a lower statin dose—or may even make the drug unnecessary in the first place. If you have any unexplained joint or muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness while taking statins, you should call your doctor immediately.
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