Anybody else out there on cholesterol medicine (specifically lipitor)? I asked my FP if I could expect any adverse reactions (e.g., cramps, heart exploding, greasy …, etc.) related to training by going on the medication and he said no. Wondering if any others have had any reactions that affected their training?
Yes, I’m taking cholesterol meds, and this is a topic of interest to me so I’ll be interested in seeing other responses.
I originally took Lipitor and it was effective at lowering the LDL, however I also experienced muscle pains (sacroilliac joint area), which prevented me from running for several weeks on two occasions. Muscle pain is a possible side-effect of Lipitor, however my doc didn’t think it was the cause. Since I was a borderline case for the meds, I stopped taking them for a while, and the muscle pains didn’t return. But my LDL went back up again, and my doc advised me to start meds again. I’ve been trying relatively low doses of Crestor, which also has muscle pain as a possible side-effect, but so far so good.
Just my experience, and we’re all different so your experience could be totally different.
Been on simvastatin for several months now with no adverse effects. FWIW I take mine before bed. Not sure that matters to you or not. For a few weeks after I started the meds I’d feel slightly “flushed/warm” after taking them but that went away.
I have been on Crestor and Vytorin at different times several years ago. For me, it started out fine…no adverse effects, cholesterol was quickly brought under control. After a few months I started noticing that workouts seemed harder to complete, I experienced some muscle weakness, recovery took longer. This progressed to a general feeling of fatigue and eventually I just felt weird. It all disappeared when I stopped the meds. My brother (an M.D.) thinks it was all in my head. I started doing a little research into the affects of statins on athletes, primarily endurance athletes, with some interesting results. I should mention that I know other athletes on statins who don’t experience any adverse effects. I wish I was one.
Just wanted to throw a few things out there for you dudes on Statin drugs:
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over 60 adverse side-effects noted for Lipitor including: abdominal pain, back pain, abnormal heart beat, chest pain, constipation, decreased libido, diarrhea, joint pain, leg cramps, muscle aching/weakness, tingling of extremities and unstable emotions. These all taken from the Physicians Desk Reference.
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Have you or any of the other posters had their homocysteine levels checked?
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have you or any of your counterparts had a free T3 or T4 test(s) performed (markers of thyroid function)?
I see patients frequently with the above chief complaints and many are also taking Statin meds. Get back to me on the above questions or PM me and I will be able to give you more information regarding specifics. Just another perspective to add to this discussion. Erik
My dad (a retired pathologist) has been following the cholesterol debates for 40 years. His ideas are controversial with regard to traditional medicine thinking (and he raised 6 kids - 5 of whom became doctors). He was a marathoner and feels that the statins destroy your ability to burn fat. I’ve looked at the biochemical pathways that the statins target and can’t see how it directly affects fat burning for fuel but he says they poison the mitochondria. Several race directors (Portland/Honolulu) are doing a study trying to find marathon finishers who are taking statins. Considering the large races - should be easy to find a bunch as everyone takes statins yet they haven’t found any that I know of…
I posted a few questions on the board and found a few people who said they finished IM’s or marathons on statins though - but only a few…
Lots of athletes fail statins - get muscle pain - can’t train…
And yeah - I’m in medicine - and everyone in medicine will tell you to take the statins and that “they are very well tolerated”. They just don’t know that they aren’t well tolerated by athletes as 99% of the population with high cholesterol aren’t athletes.
Google professional athlete and statins and you’ll find in the British Journal of Pharm.:
“Professional athletes suffering from familial hypercholesterolaemia rarely tolerate statin treatment because of muscular problems”.
Have you looked at the guidelines for primary prevention of heart disease for your cholesterol level/risk factors?
Good Luck,
Dave
I took Lipitor for several years and have been on Crestor for several years as well. I haven’t had any ill effects. I’ve tried not taking them and just rely on diet/exercise. The good news about that was I lost a bunch of weight and got myself into shape…bad news is the Cholesterol went up! So, what other options are there other than the meds?
Dave, my four grandparents died in their 80’s or 90’s from stroke or heart attacks. They lead full lives. They all had “heart disease”. I have high cholesterol (have had for 7 years that I know of). Both my parents have high cholesterol (65-71 years old). My HDL is high as is my LDL…my ratios are “good” (in fact excellent).
That being said, I am not buying into the fear mongering in the cholesterol front. Mammals are supposed to have it! All this research is funded by GUESS WHO…the companies that sell this crap.
My genetic history indicates that I can lead a full life with high cholesterol. So I’m rolling the dice and instead of having gone on the drugs at 37, and perhaps had liver issues by my 60’s, I’m just doing what I can do the natural way. Anytime we put something into our bodies, there are always side effects. For now, the rest of my body pretty well works “FORMULA 1 SPEED” for a 43 year old and I’m not messing with something that is revving quit nicely.
Some people can say “I told you so” when I blow up from a clogged artery, but for now, on every stress test, I’m doing just fine. Of course, I keep a lookout for all the traditional signs of arterial blockage etc. In the mean time, no smoking, minimal sat fats, zero alcohol, reduced refined sugars, good sleep, OMEGA3’s, complex carbs, and work on keeping stress down. Lean muscle mass and exercise are taken care of already…can’t really do more of that 
:-).
Most people don’t want to do the hard stuff, the standard is to give lipitor…for those of us who are willing to do the hard stuff, I’ll keep contesting the bogus research cause it NEVER IS INDEPENDENT.
Dev;
Good to see you’ve got that stress under control… 
Relax.
Brad
Re: muscle damage. My mom has been on and off statins for quite a while. She had a pain in one calf for years that doctors could never properly diagnose. It was so bad she coudln’t stand in lines for any period of time, coudln’t stand at UT Football games (very important!), and couldn’t walk as much for exercise as she would have liked (she isn’t an endurance athlete or anything…). Finally, she took herself off the statins and her leg got better. She went back on, it got worse. She recently went back off and started eating a certain kind of rice which is supposed to naturally contain statins…even with that, the pain came back. None of her doctors will admit the muscle pain could be from the statins, but it is pretty obvious to her that that is the issue. So now she is kind of stuck in the middle…bad leg or bad heart. Tough call.
I guess point being she did have the muscle pain/damage that others talk about, and that no doctors would admit to being the cause.
You’re preaching to the choir…
How high is your HDL? I forget what exact number my dad uses but basically he says if your HDL is anywhere near 100 (like my ultra-running moms) - you are basically indestructible…
He’d also tell you that you can’t have a heart attack as long as you don’t smoke, don’t live with a smoker, and have run a marathon in the past few years. You actually have to run the marathon though - can’t just say you could because you run 50 miles/week…Lots of really fast short course guys have heart attacks but they never go past 2 hours. My dad used to collect cases - he’d review autopsies/collect info on runners that died. A lot of them had heart attack or MI listed as the cause of death but it never was substantiated. Some cases an autopsy was never done - some cases they had normal coronaries/heart yet still called it a heart attack as they like to call it something…
Fixx lived with a smoker - plus he hadn’t finished a marathon for years.
Ryan Shea’s autopsy was normal - yet the press still likes to say he had a heart attack (even Runner’s World botched this one recently).
Salazar had some event - it took days for them to finally say it was a heart attack and then they had to get a specially made stent as his coronaries were so large from all the running. Makes no sense.
One last thing though - be careful with limiting fats. Lots of really good runners who die with normal autopsies have gone the low fat route prior to their death. Fat is good - you need it - you burn it. My dad used to fight with Pritikin all the time.
Dave
Hey, does it count if I finish Ironman marathons…I see the point of the “marathon stress test”. I have not done a regular marathon since 2005 and don’t plan one :-).
As for fats, I do get a good amount from Olive, Fish Oils and Flaxseed. No smokers at home, although I lived 15 out of the first 17 years of my life with my dad who was a heavy smoker (2 years smoke free at boarding school)…
decreased libido
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one.
I am 57 and have been taking generic Zocor (20 mg) for about 9 months. So far I haven’t noticed any muscular aches or other side effects other than perhaps a slightly diminished libido (I can’t tell if it is the training or Zocor actually). I originally did 10 mg/day and my LDL did not budge and oddly my HDL dropped a little. The 20 mg/d dose seems to work well in lowering LDL and elevating HDL (I had pretty high levels of HDL even before the Zocor) with what appear to be acceptable side effects.
For those of you on statins (e.g. Lipitor) check with your doctor about taking Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to counteract some of the side-effects of these cholesterol drugs. I have been using CoQ10 and it seems to be beneficial especially during heavy training periods.
Certainly worth investigating…
Brian
I’ve been on 40mg simvastatin for over 10 years (i’m now 42). family history of hypercholesterolemia. vegetarian (eat salmon) very health conscious and I take over 20 supplements per day (life extension interest - flame away - it’s my $, urine and supported by loads of data). competed in tri’s starting 5 yrs ago. does statin usage affect performance? hard to say - I’ve done one IM (IMFL 11:45) and 2-3 half-IM each year (5:21 PR). I’ve had no muscle soreness or other adverse reactions. i have a physical exam and complete blood tests (including homocysteine, cRP, etc) every 6 months for the past ten+ years. I’m a firm believer in low LDL/high HDL as I’m sure everyone else is. If you cannot control your LDL with diet/lifestyle, I encourage you to consider statin usage. watch the other inflammatory markers closely. Balke stress test followed by fast CT and calcinification score is also highly advisable for at-risk individuals. I’ve run across too many “fit” friends who’ve had an MI, CVA or worse to trust my ability to perform endurance events as an indicator of my wellness.
Agree with you totally. Was not very aggressive with training prior to a Heart Attack, clogged artery (95%), was not on statins at the time. Have trained for over a year now with Lipitor and have had no adverse effects. I am beginning to believe that the more aggressive your training, the less muscle fatigue you will experience. No scientific evidence to back that up and it may be a unique situation on my part that I have no muscle fatigue. My training is moderately aggressive, no very long distance training, just an average of 20-30 running miles a week or on heavy biking weeks, 120-150 miles per week. But at least some cardio every day. I would not have believed it prior to my increase in fitness, but I now feel that the whole statin influence is related to the fitness level you are at. If very fit, statin fatigue is less, less fit, statin fatigue greater. Again, no science behind it, just experience. Limited experience at that. I am 44 and thankful that biology is supportive of higher level of training.
Since suffering my heart attack 18 months ago, I’ve been on 40mg of Zocor. I’m racing better than I was before my heart attack which is a big surprise to my Dr since I did suffer some damage due to the 100% blockage of the LAD. I experienced no muscles soreness until recently. My Dr and I are trying some different things currently to see if my current muscle soreness is due to the zocor, or just a small increase in running miles. My hdl is now 59 and my ldl is 79 so I’m going off the meds for a month or so to see if the lower leg muscle soreness goes away. First race of the year is this weekend, run/bike/run. My Internist thinks I should lower my dose to 20mg, but my cardiologist wants me to remain at 40mg, so I guess I’m the one who will make the final decision,
I’m thinking of taking the next month off of running and see if all the muscle pain goes away, and just make it a large cycling specific block. Good part about this is both my Drs understand, one races triathlons and the other does marathons…
I was on Lipitor for 5 years. It almost killed me. I thought I had fibromyalgia, could not train and gained 30lbs. Constantly felt like shit. I discussed the constant muscle pain/tenderness with my doc but he totally missed the connection. It was not until I ran into an old training buddy who asked about my training and weight. When I told him that I wasn’t training and explained the muscle aches. He just said “you’re taking Lipitor aren’t you”.
I never took another pill and within 3-4 months, I was training again and working off those 30lbs. My mother-in-law had the same experience and once she stopped taking Lipitor, her muscle fatigue was gone. If you suffer from any muscle soreness or fatigue, stop taking it!!
I now take niaspan (time released niacin) and it has lowered by LDL almost as much as lipitor with no side effects except for temporary flushing.
Good luck!