Statins should not be taken if you have liver disease or if blood tests suggest that your liver may not be working properly. This is because statins can affect your liver, and this is more likely to cause serious problems if you already have a damaged liver.
you get unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, weakness or cramps – these can be signs of muscle breakdown and kidney damage. the whites of your eyes turn yellow, or your skin turns yellow, although this may be less obvious on brown or black skin, or if you have pale poo and dark pee – these can be signs of liver ...
Memory loss, liver damage, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease are all serious side effects associated with atorvastatin. In fact, a lawsuit in 2014 alleged that Lipitor raised blood sugar levels to the point that some demographic groups were at very high risk of developing diabetes.
have ever had an allergic reaction to atorvastatin or any other medicine. have liver or kidney problems. think you might be pregnant, are already pregnant, or you're breastfeeding. have lung disease.
Although there are some potential side effects long-term for statins, in most cases, if your doctor has identified you as having high cholesterol and needing a statin, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.
Statin use has been linked to a higher risk of developing diabetes because the medication can fuel mild glucose elevations in predisposed individuals — an effect that can often be countervailed by exercise and losing as little as a few pounds.
It's important to know that stopping statins cold turkey, or even gradually, can cause serious health problems and you should talk to your doctor before doing so.
However, stopping atorvastatin may cause your cholesterol to rise. This increases your risk of heart attacks and strokes. If you want to stop taking your medicine, it's important to find another way to lower your cholesterol.
Foods to avoid when taking atorvastatin:
Grapefruit and grapefruit juice. Atorvastatin is broken down by a digestive enzyme called CYP3A. Several compounds within grapefruit can block the CYP3A enzyme from being able to metabolize atorvastatin.
Statins are effective, accessible, and affordable. However, well-known side effects like muscle pain keep some people from taking them.
Call your doctor right away if you get a headache, stomach pain, vomiting, dark-colored urine, loss of appetite, weight loss, general feeling of tiredness or weakness, light-colored stools, upper right stomach pain, or yellow eyes or skin. These could be symptoms of liver damage.
Depending on the reason why you're taking atorvastatin, you may have to take it for a long time, even for the rest of your life. You may want to stop atorvastatin if you think you're having side effects. Talk to your doctor first to see if it really is a side effect of atorvastatin or an unrelated problem.
Descriptions. Atorvastatin is used together with a proper diet to lower cholesterol and triglyceride (fats) levels in the blood. This medicine may help prevent medical problems (eg, chest pain, heart attack, or stroke) that are caused by fats clogging the blood vessels.
When considering the reasoning behind why some statins are recommended to be taken at bedtime, it is important to take into account both the medication's half-life as well as how cholesterol is made. However, since atorvastatin's half-life is 14 hours, when you take it should not matter greatly.
Statins block an enzyme the liver needs to make cholesterol. This causes the liver to remove cholesterol from the blood. While statins are highly effective and safe for most people, they have been linked to muscle pain, digestive problems and mental fuzziness in some people. Rarely, they may cause liver damage.
People who take statin medications are usually advised not to eat or drink grapefruit or grapefruit-type products. Pummelos have a similar profile to grapefruit and also should be avoided.
If you miss a dose of this medicine, take it as soon as possible. However, if it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not double doses.
Is it safe to mix the two? Although taking the two together has no direct risks, both statins and alcohol can impair liver function and cause tissue damage. Mixing alcohol and statins can, therefore, increase the burden on the liver, potentially raising the risk of liver damage or disease.
Statins can stabilize cholesterol plaque already attached to artery walls, making it less likely to get worse or rupture, causing a heart attack or stroke. "Statins also help remove cholesterol from you blood by causing the liver to express more LDL cholesterol receptors that take cholesterol out of your blood," Dr.
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.
Missing your cholesterol medications may not be the right thing to do according to Dr Shah. Missing one or two doses won t be a problem. But anything more than that would be wrong, says Dr Shah. There will be something called a rebound effect in the person s body, he adds.