I am late to this thread, but the title made me want to read what was being said as I take crestor and have taken almost every statin drug over the last 15 years since my first heart attack. I have CAD and dare not stop them entirely but I have found different ones produce different degrees of muscle pain. Of the most common brands lipitor, crestor I can't tolerate a dose of more than 10 mg. I have a couple of questions if you would answer them.
1 What did your doctors say when you informed them of your stoppage?
2 What dosage where you taking that allowed 1/2 to be 12.5 mg crestor comes in 5 10 20 40 mgs?

1. My dr didn't say anything. I faxed him with my problems and said I had tried 1/2 dose for a few weeks with no change. His nurse called and said he was going to proscribe Prevacol, 40 mg. I'm not sure I will do it. My chol is just above 200, so I think more aggressive diet management and less alcohol might work.

2. I thought I was on 25. It actually was 10 mg. Thanks for calling that out.

I think, as you get older, your body can change so that a drug that works when your in your 40's or 50's can start causing you trouble in your 60's or 70's

I had been taking 20mg of Lipitor starting when I was 54. It lowered my cholesterol from 280 down to 150. Everything was fine until this spring when I turned 63. I was constantly tired and as the doctor described,"had no juice"! Bike rides became a chore and instead of improving over the summer I seemed to stagnate and my riding times didn't improve much. My legs, especially my quads ached constantly. Didn't matter whether I exercised or not. When I got out of my easy chair after I sat for a while it felt like I had been doing leg presses while sitting. Something was not right!

In the middle of September I was sick of it and took myself off the Lipitor. Didn't see much of a change for about a month, but about two weeks ago the leg pain started going away! As of today, I feel much, much better. My legs have some spring in them again.

Called my Doctor, l told him what I'd done and than went in and had a physical and blood work. Dr indicated that I did the right thing stopping the Lipitor. Blood work showed my cholesterol was back to 260 and my LDL was above what the Dr. wanted. When I go in for my next appointment this month we'll discuss other Statin options. Possible going away from a fat soluble Statin to a water soluble Statin.

But, one things for sure, I'll never let myself get that way again! Like I said in the beginning, just because a drug works for you now doesn't mean it won't have side effects as you get older. If it doesn't seem right, something is probably of and it should be time to reevaluate.

You might try a few different ones they can usually find one that works for you, it may take a while and a lot of lab tests. Heart attacks can kill you and I assume since you are posting in the over 50 forum that you qualify age wise.
I had my first heart attack at 50 and almost died defib. and everything. My cholesterol was 270 or so, diet did almost nothing to help, the statins brought it to reasonable levels although I can't quite achieve the current guidelines. If your high cholesterol is generated from within then diet won't do much for you, mine was genetic. Bottom line is if you ignore this problem it could cost you your life.

Reviving an old thread just to add my two cents:

I am off the Statins now, with my doc's approval and feeling 100% better. Using generic Lipitor recently gave me all kinds of bad aches and pains, like a very hard workout that you can't recover from. My cholesterol numbers aren't very bad at all, so to heck with it. YMMV etc. etc.

Ed. note: I had previously used generic Zocor occasionally without issues, but stopped using it because I was cycling so much. Then I got changed to generic Lipitor when Lipitor's patent ran out and decided to try and use it regularly. Seems to have been a big mistake. If I ever go back to statins it won't be Lipitor I don't think.

If you do go back to statins, Crestor is the only one of the lot that has had long term effects studies done.

Lots of indicators over here in the last few years that Statins save lives and plenty of "Elderly" have been put on them to cut cholesterol levels. No idea whether it has worked but due to Cost cutting required in the Health Service- I can see a lot of people being taken off them in the future.

As a diabetic, the threshold for cholesterol limit is significantly lower than non-diabetics. If I weren't diabetic, I wouldn't need to take meds for cholesterol, but I am and I do. I will say cycling got me off one of the meds and reduced the dosage of the other.

It's responsible for getting me completely off of blood pressure and cholesterol medication. My cholesterol level was high and my LDL/HDL and triglyceride levels were all in the toilet and I was 30 pounds overweight. I started taking the medications just about the time I got back into cycling and that's been just over three years ago. Because of cycling, I have been off the medications now for over a year. Losing 35 pounds now puts me in the middle of the weight range for my size. Everything is fine and the numbers keep getting better. However, along with the cycling, I did change what and how much I ate. I no longer eat at fast food places, like BK and MacD, and I quit drinking soft-drinks. When eating at home, I still eat everything I used to, just not as much. The easiest part through all of this was the cycling. The hardest was changing the eating habits.

Congratulations! It sounds like you have been doing all that could be done to provide yourself with a long and healthy life...

Keep up the good work!

I started the Co Q-10 a year ago. At 70. Had problems adjusting to cold weather in the fall. Was starting with memory problems.
If any of you had industrial exposure to TCE or PCE you can have memory problems that mimic Parkinsons Disease. After I stated the Co Q-10 I spoke with some other bikers who are in their 60's and were seeing ride quality dropping with age. When they tried the Co Q-10 they noticed a good improvement in their rides.

I have not had any problems on Lipitor yet. But doc just upped my subscript to 40mg instead of the 20mg. Said at 113 my cholesterol was too high! Two weeks after the higher dosage I had bad gallbladder attacks. So bad that I had it removed. Result of higher Lipitor does? I don't know but I think I am going back to 20mg. I think 113 is low enough.

I can't tolerate statins at all, and Crestor was one of the worst! (Lipitor having the dubious distinction of being #1.) Within TWO DAYS of starting Crestor, I broke out in open sores on the bottoms of my feet. Just to be sure, I waited weeks for the sores to heal, then tried again. THE NEXT MORNING I had an open sore on one foot. That one took over a month to heal. The cardiologist wanted me to come in to try yet another statin in the hopes we could find one; but instead I fired him. Enough is enough. AFAIC, killing me now is not a good alternative to taking a chance of problems later.

Yikes. Statins are not for you.

Time to fire that doctor. And possibly see a lawyer.

Is 113 your total cholesterol or your LDL cholesterol? Depending on your risk factors, an LDL of 113 may be higher than recommended.

An attitude that reflects one of the reasons I can hardly wait to retire.

Are you a lawyer or a doctor

I can echo many of the observations on this thread... I picked up my riding but found I was exhausted most of teh time and my recover times prevented me from riding more that 3 days in a row. I weaned off Simvastatin about 9 months ago. I had a doctor who helped me and we've been doing blood tests every quarter, My levels bumped up and I should have gone back on, but I can't stand the thought of feeling so beat. Instead I've tried a regimine of Niacin and Red Yeast. I'm going for a retest this weekend and we'll see if that has had any effect.
Thanks to all for this useful thread

I'm another one here who also fell for the "Great Cholesterol Lie." When I was on Simvistatin(Zocor), I was constantly having muscle aches and cramping badly even on low-intensity tempo rides; I was always tired and my erection went, "poof." I took DHEA and L-Arginine for six months, and things are nearly back to normal.

A 95-year old man once said...."Cholesterol is BS - we all need it." That same guy had elevated Cholesterol levels(380+) for thirty years and even outlived two physicians who told him he was gonna die, if he did not address his high Triglycerides and Cholesterol ASAP. He ate whatever he wanted and even enjoyed sex without Viagra....that man is my hero!

I weighed again yesterday and am about thirty-five pounds down from my last doctor visit (early November). I was losing weight before I took up cycling but I believe it has increased my weight loss. It also seems to be giving me more energy. I'll say I cut down fast food places but, like you, the major change has been portion control. I also cut down on the number of snacks I eat and the content, no more cookies and candy and I'm learning to like Styrofoam (they say they are rice cakes but I have my doubts). When I see the doctor in ten days I will be very disappointed if my numbers haven't improved.....of course it took years to get in this condition and I may be expecting to much to think that three months can solve my problems.

You've done great and hearing stories like yours and some others on here is real encouragement for me.

Yes -- But you are off to a good start...

Just be aware that the real damage is not the stuff you can see or measure (like your BMI or cholesterol or sugar) -- it is what those things did to your organs and arteries while you weren't paying attention.

But that damage too can be fixed. But that's where the commitment over the long haul comes in... Healthy diet, lots of exercise and so on...

For example: You can lose weight pretty quickly -- and that will lead to dropping the sugar and cholesterol levels -- and that will lead to repairing the damage to your eyes, kidneys and arteries caused by years of high sugar, cholesterol and inflammation... But that means years of doing the right things rather than the wrong things...

You have taken the first, big step!

I revived this thread to add my voice to the idea that "hey, the side-effects of these things can be significant and may be more common than we think." Whether or not the widespread concern for cholesterol levels is a hoax, well that's another issue and I'm not prepared to make that assertion myself at this point.

You must be reading my mail or listening in to my conversations. Last night I told my wife I have four goals to meet:
1) drop below 200#
2) ride as often as possible, hopefully increasing my mileage each month
3) by exercise and weight loss (and eating somewhat healthier) get BP, Cholesterol and blood sugar levels down
4) maintain that lifestyle until the Lord calls me home

#4 is just as important as the other three goals. Medication has been a temporary fix for the conditions mentioned, lifestyle may be a permanent fix if I haven't done too much damage already.

I agree 100%. Medical studies are like everything else and in most cases the results favor those that provided the funding. You can find studies funded by pharmaceutical companies that conclude that medical problem "A" causes "X", "Y" and "Z" issues and low-and-behold, they have the magic cure for it. Or you have the studies that are funded by the insurance companies that say doing "X" is no longer needed in the treatment of "Y" and now they no longer have to pay for it. Then you have the conflicting independent studies where you end up not knowing who to believe. For me, until they come up with convincing consensus that cholesterol levels don't matter, I'll continue to do what I have to in order to keep it low.

For many like myself, extremely high cholesterol (300+) is familial and diet and exercise simply do not work. Since my bypass five years ago, I have been on statins (plus Zetia, plus niacin) which together with diet and exercise are probably saving my life by keeping me from clogging up again. I am grateful that I have no side effects, which have prevented some of my friends from staying on statins (although some have found that switching statins works). Incidentally, even with all of the above, LDL is still about 92, far from my cardiologist's goal of 80.