Rosuvastatin is the active drug (generic name) in the brand-name medication Crestor. The two are essentially the same medication and are considered equally safe and effective by the FDA, with the primary differences being cost and inactive ingredients.
Rosuvastatin (Crestor® or Ezallor®) is a high cholesterol treatment. It helps lower your cholesterol, which reduces your risk of having a stroke or heart attack. Combining this medicine with exercise and a healthy diet will give you the best results.
Serious side effects are rare and happen in less than 1 in 1,000 people. Stop taking rosuvastatin and call a doctor or call 111 now if: you get unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, weakness or cramps – these can be signs of muscle breakdown and kidney damage.
Compared to another cholesterol-lowering medicine, Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium), CRESTOR got more high-risk patients'[*] LDL cholesterol to a goal of under 100 mg/dL. Along with diet, CRESTOR has been shown to help lower LDL cholesterol by up to 55% (at 20-mg dose versus 7% with placebo)
Drug rashes are a side effect of a medication that manifests as a skin reaction. Drug rashes usually are caused by an allergic reaction to a medication, but some drug rashes are not allergic. Typical symptoms include redness, bumps, blisters, hives, itching, and sometimes peeling, or pain.
CRESTOR may cause you to have protein and blood in your urine. Elevated blood sugar levels have been reported with statins, including CRESTOR. The most common side effects may include headache, nausea, muscle aches, weakness, and constipation.
Studies have shown simvastatin and pravastatin to be safer and better tolerated than the other statins. Statins having adverse events are rare and are low-risk medications.
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 serious enough to make it hard to do your daily activities.
You may need to stop using this medicine if you have a major surgery, major injury, or if you develop other serious health problems. Call your doctor right away if you have unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness, especially if you also have unusual tiredness or a fever.
Atorvastatin has been widely investigated among the older subjects and has the greatest magnitude of favorable effects on clinical outcomes of CHD. The pharmacokinetic properties of atorvastatin allow it to be used every other day, a factor which may decrease adverse events and be especially important in the elderly.
Rosuvastatin, the newest agent in the armamentarium, are often called super-statin due to its highest potency and efficacy in terms of lipid-lowering ability. But it can have a serious side effect in the form of myopathy and renal injury.
Weight gain and weight loss are not known side effects of rosuvastatin. People taking the drug in clinical trials did not report weight changes. Sometimes, your doctor may recommend taking rosuvastatin along with changes in diet, such as limiting saturated fat.
According to a review of guidelines on cholesterol management published in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, examples of low-dose statin regimens are:
Effects were seen in a generally healthy sample given modest statin doses, and both simvastatin and pravastatin contributed to the significant adverse effect of statins on energy and fatigue with exertion. Particularly for women, these unfavorable effects were not uncommon.
Both Crestor and Lipitor are well tolerated and cause similar side effects. There is no scientific evidence that one is significantly safer than the other. You may tolerate one statin better than another.
Physicians have prescribed CRESTOR® (rosuvastatin) over 15 million times – ask if it's right for you. When diet and exercise alone are not enough, CRESTOR is prescribed along with diet in adults to lower high cholesterol and to slow plaque buildup in arteries as part of a treatment plan to lower cholesterol to goal.
Although all medications can have side effects, research indicates that certain statins may have fewer side effects than others. Pravastatin and fluvastatin are associated with fewer muscle-related discomfort, while simvastatin may cause fewer gastrointestinal issues.
These data are consistent with other reported studies, indicating that rosuva is not a good candidate for metabolism-based drug-drug interactions. Therefore, rosuva can be administered safely along with omeprazole.
Rosuvastatin starts to work within a week to reduce cholesterol, but it can take up to a month to achieve its full effect. Your cholesterol levels should drop within 4 weeks if you take your medicine regularly, as prescribed. Are there any long-term side effects? Rosuvastatin is safe to take for a long time.
The results indicated that statins have no significant adverse effect on sleep duration and efficiency, entry to stage I, or latency to stage I sleep, but significantly reduce wake time and number of awakenings.