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Since the explosion in the number of prescriptions for statin drugs, I’ve noticed a trend in the patients I see in my practice.  People who suddenly develop joint and/or muscle pains without any history of trauma or unusual stress, infection, or toxic exposure tend to have one thing in common:  they are taking statin drugs to lower their cholesterol.

This is primarily true in cases where the patient develops pain all over, as opposed to a specific muscle or joint, but it has been my experience that the onset of even localized unexplained pains can sometimes be traced to taking statins.

Many of these patients come in pre-diagnosed (either by themselves or another doctor) as having arthritis, fibromyalgia, bursitis, etc. because those are the most common diagnoses that fit the pain patterns these people are having.  But the sudden onset with no immediately apparent cause is a tip-off that statins may be involved.

The existence of statin-induced muscle damage and pain syndromes is acknowledged by the drug manufacturers; however, the official stance is that this is a rare problem.  But my experience says otherwise.

In fact the problem is so common, now when I see a patient who has pain all over, I usually find myself asking when they started taking the statin drugs rather than asking if they are taking statins.  In the vast majority of cases, the response to that question is that the patient started on statins just before they started developing the pain.  In a smaller group, they may have been on statins for several years, or may have recently changed from one statin drug to another, but in almost all cases of sudden onset, widespread pains, they are taking statins.

Now that might be circumstantial evidence, but in those patients who stop taking the cholesterol drugs, my expereince has been that nearly all of them report symptom improvement within a few days.  Of course, one might argue that the resolution of the pain after getting off the statins is circumstantial too, but if I’m on that jury, I’m going to render a guilty verdict.

Some people do just fine on statins and do not have any significant pain or other side-effects, but for those who do develop statin-related pains, it is a sign of potentially dangerous muscle damage and my recommendation is to discuss getting off the drugs with the prescribing physician.  What should you do if your physician isnt willing to even try taking you off the drugs?  My advice is to find another physician.  At the very least, such pain can be very debilitating and can severely diminish one’s quality of life and your doctor needs to recognize that the harm the drugs are obviously doing probably outweighs the benefits they might be providing.  One of my patients told her doctor that she was quitting the statins and he told her that she had to keep taking them in order to prevent a heart attack, to which she replied that she’d rather die of a heart attack than live like she had been with the statin-related pain (and she meant it!). 

Ultimately, high cholesterol in and of itself is actually not the big danger that we’ve been led to believe anyway (more on that in a future post), so for those who do experience statin-related pain, in my opinion the damage from the statins usually far outweighs the benefits they may provide. 

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more information on cholesterol and your health.

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