Lipitor and joint pains

[Jillius]

I'm taking the cholesterol lowering drug Lipitor but I have terrible joint pains. Does it ever get better? I can hardly walk for the pain in my legs. I went to the GP and was told that it was a common side effect.

[Jillius]

I hate taking them but within weeks my cholesterol came down from 10.2 to 4.3 so they definately work. For the first 6 months or so I had very painful arm joints and now the pain has moved to my knees and legs. I'm hoping that after a few more months the pain will go. It's like you say, really bad arthritis. I read the info leaflet and it is one of the common side effects. I am taking 20mg a day.

[wired]

Go see your GP, the statins can be changed although joint pains are a common side affect.The leaflet that comes with your tablets should tell you this.I had to come off statins as they all gave me quite serious side affects,there's always more than one solution, hope you find the right one for you.

[Dassie]

Pickle......It's certainly not a fad! These statins cost the NHS a fortune and doctors will not prescribe them unless absolutely necessary.....budgets and all that.
Ask to switch to Simvastatin which helped me. It's a little weaker so they'll up the dose from 20mg to 40mg to compensate but this did the trick for myself.

[Dassie]

Pickle......Firstly there is no interaction between statins and other drugs. Some brands of margarine contain them!

You need a blood test to determine your current cholesterol levels...ask for one, it is your right.
If they are high, then one of two things need correcting ,which a good doctor will be able to tell you by correctly interpreting the results.

I say correctly because my GP told me I needed to just change my diet and that would do the trick...............a year later it had gone up to 7.4. Not trusting the NHS I paid for a private doctor ( and test ) in South Africa when on a visit....a real eye-opener I might add. He told me any doctor worth his salt could see from the results that my liver was producing far too much cholesterol and no amount of diet change would help. Today my level is 4.2 By the way the acceptable level is 4.5 and NOT 5 as the UK will tell you.
Good luck

[happyworld]

There are some times where your side effects can be also due to the medications that are interacting with Lipitor. Please have look at the ones that interact with lipitor at http://www.internatio...mart.com/lipitor.html

You must also have good diet along with it.