In most cases, if you're going to have muscle pain from statins, you will notice it soon after you start taking the medication. For many people, however, this side effect is temporary and goes away somewhat quickly.
You may feel this pain as a soreness, tiredness or weakness in your muscles. The pain can be a mild discomfort, or it can be severe enough to make your daily activities difficult. However, researchers have found a "nocebo" effect when it comes to perceived muscle pain and statins.
About 5 to 10% of people who try statins are affected. It's more common in the elderly, in women and in those taking the more potent statins. Fortunately, these effects disappear within a month after stopping statin therapy. If you think you can't take statins, ask your doctor about trying the following steps.
Symptoms tend to disappear within 3 months after you stop taking statins, with no permanent damage in most cases.
The muscle ache and pain that some people get with statins use are typically a generalised muscle discomfort lasting more than a couple of days, similar to the muscle aches caused by the flu.
Rhabdomyolysis or milder forms of muscle inflammation from statins can be diagnosed with a blood test measuring levels of the enzyme creatinine kinase. If you notice moderate or severe muscle aches after starting to take a statin, contact your doctor.
Use of statins is associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
Statins can rarely cause muscle inflammation (swelling) and damage. Speak to your doctor if you have muscle pain, tenderness or weakness that cannot be explained – for example, pain that is not caused by physical work.
According to the research, published in JACC: Basic to Translational Science, statins cause spontaneous and irregular leaks of calcium from storage compartments within muscle cells. Under normal conditions, coordinated releases of calcium from these stores make the muscles contract.
If you're taking a statin medication to lower your cholesterol, you will need to keep taking your prescription, or your cholesterol will likely go back up. Stopping your statin can put you at risk of having heart disease and other preventable health problems like stroke and heart attack from high cholesterol.
New research finds that statins do not commonly cause pain, stiffness and weakness in the muscles. Severe weakness and pain in muscles (myositis) is a rare side effect of statins.
Elevated levels of CPK, or creatine kinase, a muscle enzyme that when elevated, can cause muscle pain, mild inflammation, and muscle weakness.
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may have an added benefit, or risk, depending on the dose. New research suggests that a low dose of statins may protect against osteoporosis, but that high doses may increase the risk for the bone-damaging condition.
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics, statins, and aromatase inhibitors are among the medications that most commonly cause joint or muscle pain.
Importantly, when considering a statin, other factors such as potency (i.e., effect on low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol levels) should be considered. While pravastatin and fluvastatin may be associated with the lowest incidence of myalgia, the LDL-lowering effect is low compared to other statins.
Studies on the association between statins use and symptoms of osteoarthritis (OA). A longitudinal study, a 4-year follow-up of 4,448 community-dwelling adults from the Osteoarthritis Initiative Study. Using statins was not associated with lower risk of pain worsening, incident OA, or symptomatic KOA.
The majority of muscle damage by statins is secondary to its direct toxic effects, possibly via coenzyme Q10 depletion causing mitochondrial dysfunction. The injury is dose dependent and reversible after withdrawing the drug, with most recovery of symptoms occurring within 2–3 months (3).
PCSK-9 inhibitors thus reduce cholesterol levels by maintaining higher levels of LDL receptors that remove cholesterol from the blood. Currently, PCSK-9 inhibitors are limited in use as they must be administered as shots. Further research into them could expand their use as an alternative to statins.
After starting a statin, it takes about six weeks for cholesterol levels to stabilise, so most doctors would re-check your cholesterol after about eight weeks.
It can be a mild tiredness or discomfort, or it can be severe enough to make your daily activities difficult. These side effects usually occur within 4 to 6 weeks of starting a statin, but they can occur even after several years.
According to the researchers' observations, simvastatin has a strong anti-inflammatory activity even in small doses (3mg/kg). Another study showed that simvastatin can inhibit vascular inflammation in ApoE–/– mice [57].
It is fine to take painkillers such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, co-codamol with simvastatin.
Fear of side effects and perceived side effects are the most common reasons for declining or discontinuing statin therapy. Willingness to take a statin is high, among both patients who have declined statin therapy and those who have never been offered one.