Statin Drugs: Pain For Nothing
I underwent a cardiac catherization recently. It was a terrible experience. So much so that I threatened to punch one of the doctor’s in the face if he didn’t leave my bedside post-procedure.
Three things here:
1) Without the influence of the statin, I would not have threatened the doctor
2) Without the influence of the statin, I would not have had the cardiac problems I’d experienced
3) Without the influence of the statin, I would not have had the breathing problems I’d experienced
A statin drug can shorten your life. A statin drug can kill you.
Read those two sentences again. They are true.
In the Comments here, someone named Joseph pointed me to a patent application from Merck. It is revelatory. They wanted to patent a combo drug: a statin with CoEnzyme-Q10.
I’d heard about CoQ-10 (as it’s commonly called) since the 1970s. But I’d heard of it from the health-food fringe. That group is not altogether trustworthy — or, let me be charitable here, is subject to easy infiltration by snake-oil fraudsters who then tend to cause the entire group to seem untrustworthy. (Back in the 1970s, Laetrile was being touted as a suppressed cancer cure, along with — I am not kidding! — coffee enemas!)
Anyway, this Merck patent is the first thing I’ve read that shows mainstream scientific evidence for the efficacy of CoQ-10. It’s also the first time I’ve read mainstream scientific evidence that a statin drug can lead to a decrease in cardiac performance!
It’s also the first time I’ve read of a statin drug causing vision problems. My vision has turned to crap — coincidentally during the very two years I’d been on the statin! I thought it was my imagination yesterday morning when I didn’t need my reading glasses for a while. Another thing I’ve already noticed is that my breathing has measurably improved. While on the statin I had two major bouts of bronchitis and ongoing breathing/cardiac problems that made some days just an absolute misery.
A statin drug can also have the side-effect of headaches. Here’s a curious twist in my case. In my adult life, I’ve rarely had headaches. And I didn’t while on the statin. Since dropping the statin, I’ve had evening headaches for the past three days and have a minor headache as I type this. I’m chalking this up to my brain cells having a non-stop party over the cholesterol that’s coming in.
I’d say having to undergo a cardiac cath for nothing is lawsuit material. But still I don’t want to sue. First, I want to get on with my (statin-free!) life. Second, at least the cath let me know my arteries were clear.
But here’s a word to the makers of statins: You’d better start coming clean and filling up those warning labels with the side-effects you refuse to acknowledge. You live in a world with the Internet. People are reading these posts. Sooner or later, a sharp attorney will read these posts and get the idea for a class-action lawsuit that can bury you.
Mike Cane 2008 
February 26, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Christ-in-a-sidecar, I’m glad you’re doing better, Mike! I had an aunt who nearly puked up her entire blood supply after taking Celebrex. Drug makers consider such side effects, even death — and the ensuing lawsuits — as the cost of doing business. The ferret-nosed parasites. Thanks for sharing your terrible experience. The ole cardiac cath is probably not too far away in my future and this stuff is good to know.
September 12, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I have been having mysterious vision problems ever since last October, and I think that they might be related to my statin usage. I have been on and off statins since last October because of black spots in front of my eyes that at times seem to brighten and get dark and move. I also have flashing lights, after images, and visual distortions. These symptoms never go away but seem to get worse when I take statins. I am interested in knowing what types of vision problems people are having who have been taking statins. I am desperate for this information as I am trying to figure out what is wrong with me.
October 26, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Christina – I stopped taking statins a few months ago after taking them for over a year. I’m 38. I’ve had perfect vision all my life and suddenly in the dame time frame as the statins I now need glasses. I’ve become nearsighted in only one eye which my eye doc said is very rare. I quit due to eye twitching (strangely not the one I need glasses for) and bad joint pain. I’m pretty hacked off that now I need glasses from this crap!
November 7, 2013 at 8:53 am
The formation of cataracts at an earlier than normal age. You have floaters talk to your eye doctor.
May 26, 2012 at 1:55 pm
My cholesterol level was 172, but the ratio wasn’t making my doctor happy. So, she gave me Pravastatin 10mg for 6 months. Subsequent blood test showed that it hadn’t changed my HDL/LDL ratio enough so she boosted it to 20mg. I started noticing left eye discomfort and ‘tiredness’. After reading for a while, I couldn’t see very well and it would last the rest of the day. It got progressively worse, affecting both eyes with redness, blurriness and double vision.
First stop was the eye doctor who said my eyes appeared fine, and to look into problems with medication. I researched the meds that I was taking and all of them said they could cause vision problems. So I stopped all of them, much to my doctor’s consternation. But she is used to me taking matters into my own hands…I’m an x-ray technologist, so I have limited but helpful medical knowledge. She worked with me, adding one med at a time every 4 weeks to see if we could figure out the problem. Two weeks after adding back the Pravastatin, BAM, the vision went blurry. I called her and told her that I wouldn’t be taking it anymore. That was 3 weeks ago and the vision problems are still lingering and I’m wondering if they are permanent now. I’m going to the store and getting some of that CoQ10. I hope it will help. Statins are EVIL!
February 26, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Did your vision problems clear up with CoQ10, Valerie?
February 26, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Unfortunately, the vision problems have not cleared up even with the CoQ10. If I don’t do any close work, my vision is pretty good. With reading, computer or knitting, I have about an hour before I start seeing double again. The left eye is worse than the left and if I squint, I can bring the images together. My eye doctor has tried drops and new lenses with a prism, but no change. He insists that I to go to an opthalmologist next week to be sure that there isn’t something going on with the retina.
December 5, 2015 at 12:42 am
Valerie, if I may: I’ve been taking Magnesium Citrate 1000mg, Hawthorn, CoQ10 and Doctor’s Best Vision Enhancer. I’ve seen immediate improvement.
February 1, 2010 at 7:56 am
Being diagnosed with diabetes Type 2 last year, the GP put me on statins, which gave me shooting pains in my head after a couple of months, so I stopped taking them. However, on my next visit to the clinic, my cholesterol had shot up again and the nurse and GP strongly advised me to try another type of statin, because of the risk of stroke or heart attack if I didn’t take them. I seemed OK for the first couple of months on the “synthetic” statin, but have now started the head pains again and also, get muscle and joint pain far worse than I ever used to get them. I think I would rather risk a stroke/heart attack then have this constant pain. In Devon they don’t force statins on folk like they do here in Kent! I wonder why?
March 7, 2011 at 3:37 am
I am the one who left a post in 2009. I have since discovered that double vision and other vision issues have been associated with statin use. It is supposedly a rare side effect that statins degrade the muscles of the eye. Although this was called a “rare” side effect, I am wondering if this is more common than the literature is saying…doctors might not just recognize the association between the drug and the visual problems. I am now on a super absorbable CoQ10, which helps the muscles due to statin use. I am no longer on statins of any kind (not even niacin). Double vision and after images have disappeared, but I still have significant visual disturbances (visual snow, distorted picasso like vision).
July 12, 2012 at 8:58 am
try getting almost every side effects that is mentioned with statins..that’s me. Plus two cancers, CLL and breast cancer. Breast cancer was hid in the testing results that were done by the drug co.’s. My cholestrol wasn’t that high to begin with and I spent 7 long yrs. with severe breathing problems that I still have to date. Most doctors do not listen to anything you say when you complain about the pain, torn ligaments, damaged muscles, breathing issues, nerve damage, ……………………….. It has been since 1995 one by one I still get more medical issues. THANKS STATINS!
September 10, 2012 at 3:34 am
My husband started taking statins around 1995. I made him come off them 2 years ago because he now has Peripheral Neuropathy with unsteady gait, Macular Degeneration, and Glaucoma, Statins are supposed to prevent heart attacks – what a downright lie. My husband had a heart attack 25 May 2012 with 2 of his main arteries occluded, one by 95%. When he went for his pre-med for an angiogram almost all the rest of the patients waiting were on statins. SO STATINS DO NOT PROCTECT FROM HEART ATTACKS.I spoke to one of the patients who had come off them. I advised her to start taking Co-enzyme Q10 or better still UBIQUINONE, plus Vit E at least 8ooiu, Vit. C 1,000mg and
Omega 3 . She started taking the supplements – when she went for the next 2 stents.
My Sister in Austraila, (on statins for 10 years) had a heart attack whilst having her stents put in!! They were unable to do the 2nd stent. she now has extremely bad asthmatic problems as well as the existing heart problem.
Doctors say none of the above are related to statins. I worked in cardio thoracic and spent some time in the angiogram department. The cardiologist there was of the opinion that cholesterol has very little to do with heart problems. In order to convince my husband’s consultant, I managed to get into the websites of Merck (2011 & 2012) who now state that those prescribed statins should take C0-Q10 BECAUSE STATINS DESTROY THIS VITAL ENZYME. Not only that, but I read out to him the advice from the British N.H.S. and the British medical magazine THE LANCET where an artical admitted that statins can cause side effects. Guess what? Among my husband’s take home drugs was one for statins!!. Just “Google” in all the side effects above and see for yourself. Eventually there will be an explosion of compensation law suits.
February 26, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Sure wish I could sue the drug company for all the damage that statins have done to my vision 5 years ago. I will have to live with this disability for the rest of my life. All: a very rare side effect of statins is double vision. I had worse than just double vision…visual snow and optic migraine like symptoms that never went away. Things have gotten better over time with CoQ10 therapy but my vision will never be the same again.
October 1, 2012 at 8:17 pm
i thought i was going blind to. seemed like everything dark. could hardly see inside house. muscle pain and nerve damage in legs worst. taking co-q-10 ubiquinol- vitamin c 1000mg-alpha lopic lysine 1000mg to protect strss scars in heart-garlic tablets-vitamin d 2000mg.-b12 three times day co-q-10 is a must 400mg day. join lawsuit for zocor online to try make them pay for what they have done to all of you. good luck and dont give up. the truth will come out one day.
January 14, 2013 at 7:52 am
The side effects were killing me. Constant back pain & neck pain, numbness in my left thigh and numbness in toes of both feet, numbness in my thumb while holding the phone handset, visual disturbance such as double vision, blurred vision, vision loss while seeing a bright zig-zag strobing semi-circle that would expand, memory loss while driving where I’d forget where I was going, sleep disturbance, depression, feeling like the end was near. Statins should be used as rat poison.
November 7, 2013 at 8:59 am
I just started taking a statin for a test that read over 300. Blood test in 3 months but i was told to adjust my diet, get more exercise as the DR doesn’t like to use statins for long term use. I am in early 50’s and below average weight for my height.
September 26, 2015 at 10:14 am
My husband was on Pravastatin ever since his TIA in 2007. About 4 months ago he developed severe pain all over, both legs,both arms his chest, we went to the ER. We thought he was having a heart attack. All tests came back fine. He went off the drug cold turkey, no weaning. He felt better almost immediately. The pains he had on a regular basis (his everyday aches & pains) began to subside as well. His knees that have always given him trouble and the injections that didn’t help, also started to feel better as well as his right arm that always ached. Now, two months ago he started having a severe headache in his left temple. It does not go away even with pain meds. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most severe it is almost always an 8 or 9. We went to the hospital ER again when it started and they admitted him. After every test you can imagine, MRI, CAT Scan, echo of his heart they found nothing. So now he continues to have this headache. I am searching the internet trying to find a solution and I see where you, Mike have headaches too after being on a statin. I will immediately get him the CoQ10. Any other suggestions? How many others are experiencing this unrelenting headache?
September 26, 2015 at 10:46 am
No headaches for me at all. Sorry. Good luck.
December 5, 2015 at 12:19 am
I’ve just concluded my Doctor must have been on a mission (hopefully unintended) to kill me. I recently had an eye test and my left eye could not be corrected to 20/20. I then had an epiphany: Over the years, I’ve had multiple problems with my left side. Left eye, left shoulder, left thumb (fingernail turned brown and malformed), left knee and a thickening of my left toenail. My Doctor told me my left thumbnail problem was eczema. Guess what else is on my left side.
I truly feel like an idiot. For as long as I can remember, you go see a Doctor and you trust that you’re receiving the best care available. I once looked at old movies and thought how primitive medical treatment was. It would be overly simplistic to say not much has changed, but is it better? What’s driving our care, the desire to cure a problem or big Pharma’s shiny new drug?
How often do you feel your Doctor is trying to cure you? You go to them with a symptom and they provide a pill. Before long, you need another pill to treat the side-effects of the first. And the never ending cycle has begun.
To make a long story short: I stopped the Statins and immediately felt better. From head to toe, things are improving. I’m alive because I stopped. I’m better because I now know Doctors are human and should be questioned, like anyone else.
December 6, 2015 at 4:36 pm
The day I stopped taking the Statin, I also stopped taking a Diuretic. I then replaced this treatment with Magnesium Citrate (1000mg), CoQ10 (200mg), Hawthorn (1200mg), Garlic (1000mg) and Doctor’s Best Vision Enhancer. My BP went from an average of 138/83 (with all the Meds) to a low of 105/54 (just last night). It has taken me less than a month to get here. Probably too fast, but I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have two Meds left (Losartan and Amlodipine) at this point.
As a response to my BP being too low last night, I’ve cut Amlodipine. My BP today has averaged 123/81. I’m monitoring my BP hourly to make sure I don’t get into trouble.
I post this not to encourage anyone to follow my lead. I’m simply providing my experience.
I have not felt this good in years.
Work out your own Salvation, with fear and trembling.