Muscle pain and damage One of the most common complaints of people taking statins is muscle pain. 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.
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.
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).
Muscle pain usually goes away within 1 to 2 weeks after you stop taking a statin.
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.
One of the most common complaints of people taking statins is muscle pain. 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.
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.
Often the only way to halt the effects of statins on your muscle cells is to stop taking the medications. Symptoms tend to disappear within 3 months after you stop taking statins, with no permanent damage in most cases. But a 2018 study suggests that in rare cases, some muscle damage isn't reversible.
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.
Within a month of starting statin therapy, they may feel aches or weakness in the large muscles of their arms, shoulders, thighs or buttocks on both sides of the body. 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.
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.
Statin-induced autoimmune myopathy should be considered with high suspicion when there is a significantly elevated CPK level. Discontinuation of statin therapy does not lead to muscle recovery or improvement in the CPK level. Diagnosis is confirmed by positive anti-HMG-CoA reductase autoantibody and a muscle biopsy.
Your doctor will carry out a blood test to measure a substance in your blood called creatine kinase (CK), which is released into the blood when your muscles are inflamed or damaged. If the level of CK in your blood is more than 5 times the normal level, your doctor may advise you to stop taking the statin.
A recent study found that people taking statins had a 19 percent higher risk of having musculoskeletal problems compared to non-statin users and were 13 percent more likely to suffer from strains, sprains and dislocations.
Use of statins is associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
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.
According to a research review people who take simvastatin (Zocor) or pravastatin (Pravachol) may experience fewer side effects.
Which cholesterol-lowering drug is the safest? Overall, statins are safe as a class of drugs. Serious adverse events are very rare. Among the individual medications, studies have shown that simvastatin (Zocor®) and pravastatin (Pravachol®) seem to be safer and better tolerated than the other statins.
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.
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.
Carimi says it's best to stick with the medication. He says the risk is too high, even if you're now living a better, healthier lifestyle. However, if you haven't had a stroke or heart attack and you are taking statins due to high cholesterol numbers, ending statin use might be an option.