Testing for Mitochondrial Damage from Statins ??

[Geebee]

The doctors keep changing their minds, they were certain my problems were asthma related about 6 months ago, thats how I ended up on prednisolone, turns out it wasnt asthma but the prednisolone was a miracle for me, first time I have felt normal in 3 years.
Prior to the asthma theory a reaction to statins was the assumed cause and is now again the cheif option, my cadioligist has ruled out trying statins again due to what happened in all the previous trys.
My GP is slowly accepting the fact, helped along by my providing him with some data on it that I would assume a GP should know, he didn't even know of the relationship between Prednisolone and cholesterol levels.

My symtoms: fatigue, weakness, sleep disturbance ie. cant sleep or sleep all the time, pain like athritis in hands and feet, memory loss, coordination issues ie. typing, dry cough at slightest exertion, balance problems, cognitive function affected, headaches etc. the fatigue can get to the point where crossing a room is a major challenge.

I was a very active cyclist with performance, health levels barely below a professional cyclist prior to this

[Geebee]

After yesterday crash back down I took an extra 5 mg of Predinsolone making 17.5 for the day and this morning woke up feeling a lot more normal, I have taken another 17.5 mg today then back to 15 mg.
Last time I attempted to reduce I left it longer going back on to it and just took the 15 mg felt better in 2 or 3 days but my muscle were weak for a few weeks after, I am hoping the rapid, mild OD will stop the muscle damage this time.
I will take the trike (recumbent racing trike) out for a SHORT run this arvo and see how it goes.

[Charles Wilson]

Harley, I look at the at what has happened to me and think of statin damage as if it were in degrees. Some people have very little damage and others have life-threatening damage. I also have myopathy caused by the statin, Lipitor. So, is the statin myopathy a step before mitochondrial myopathy or is it one in the same? I believe the damage to the mitochondrial goes hand in hand with myopathy.

Charles

[eml256]

*http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/137/7/581

Annals of Internal Medicine

Statin-Associated Myopathy with Normal Creatine Kinase Levels

Paul S. Phillips, MD; Richard H. Haas, MD; Sergei Bannykh, MD, PhD; Stephanie Hathaway, RN; Nancy L. Gray, RN; Bruce J. Kimura, MD; Georgirene D. Vladutiu, PhD; John D.F. England, MD, the Scripps Mercy Clinical Research Center*

1 October 2002 | Volume 137 Issue 7 | Pages 581-585


Background: Muscle symptoms in patients who are treated with statins and have normal creatine kinase levels are not well understood.

Objective: To report biopsy-confirmed myopathy and normal creatine kinase levels associated with statin use.

Design: Case reports from preliminary analysis of an ongoing clinical trial.

Setting: Clinical research center in a community hospital.

Patients: Four patients with muscle symptoms that developed during statin therapy and reversed during placebo use.

Measurements: 1] Patients' ability to identify blinded statin therapy and 2) standard measures of functional capacity and muscle strength.

Results: All four patients repeatedly distinguished blinded statin therapy from placebo. Strength testing confirmed weakness during statin therapy that reversed during placebo use. Muscle biopsies showed evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction, including abnormally increased lipid stores, fibers that did not stain for cytochrome oxidase activity, and ragged red fibers. These findings reversed in the three patients who had repeated biopsy when they were not receiving statins. Creatine kinase levels were normal in all four patients despite the presence of significant myopathy.

Conclusion: Some patients who develop muscle symptoms while receiving statin therapy have demonstrable weakness and histopathologic findings of myopathy despite normal serum creatine kinase levels.

[harley2ride]

Charles,
I believe that the term Stain Myopathy, is simply a term used to state the the myopathy was believed to be Statin induced. As for the Myopathy portion, there are multiple types of myopathy's, as there are multiple types of Mitochondrial Myopathy's. My MDA doc tells me that even if he ran dozens more tests on me, he might never be able to tell me with 100% accuracy, which exact Mitochondrial Myopathy that I have. But he is 100% certain that I do have a mitochondrial myopathy, and he is fairly certain as to it being one of possibly 2 or 3 varieties.

He bases that upon my conditions prior to and after my health problems, multiple tests, biopsies, and conferring with multiple other doctors. He also can tell a lot by how the different medications I have tried, have helped, or not helped.

I'm not sure that there is any easy answer here..

[peter s]

I don't know if this is any more helpful than any other way of looking at things but here is how I understand various terms.

Myopathy -- condition resulting from damage to muscles and primarily characterized by WEAKNESS with pain secondary.

Myalgia -- muscle pain without weakness or damage per se.

Myositis -- inflammation of muscles, autoimmune in origin, like myopathy principally characterized by weakness and usually with elevated CK.

[peter s]

Statin myopathy as a metabolic muscle disease.

Full Abstract
The etiology of statin myopathy remains unclear and concern about this toxicity is a leading reason that statins are underutilized. A number of observations suggest that this toxicity may be due to the metabolic effects of lipid-lowering in patients with minor muscle disorders. These patients have a high frequency of mutations for metabolic muscle diseases and often have depleted mitochondrial enzymes. Their exercise physiology and biopsy findings indicate reduced oxidation of fats and mitochondrial dysfunction. These subjects are often intolerant of other lipid-lowering therapies in addition to statins, which suggests that the myopathy is due to lipid-lowering itself more than a simple pharmacokinetic reaction to high statin levels. Altogether, these findings support the concept that statin myopathy is a metabolic muscle disease.

I have the pdf if anyone wants it.

[cjbrooksjc]

Peter. Yes, I would appreciate a copy.

Thanks,

Brooks

[Charles Wilson]

Peter, I would also like a copy.

[peter s]

I neglected to include my email pspaeth12 at comcast.net pls write me there and i will reply with a copy attached