a ? for folks here with muscle pain

[peter s]

For those of you who can definitively connect your muscle pain with statins, is the pain generalized, or only in certain muscle groups, and if the latter, does it worsen with using the muscles in exercise?

I am at the very beginning of this road, and I think (especially as I was fortunate enough to learn about CoQ10 within days of starting on Lipitor) that my present leg pain is more the result of starting to exercise for the first time in ten years -- and admittedly without doing the proper stretching -- than to the drug, but trying nevertheless to gather information to help me figure it all out. Thanks.

I should add, FWIW, that my legs seem to hurt more AFTER exercise than during.

[Brian C.]

My indicative muscle is in my upper right arm. For years it felt as if I had pulled it and it never healed. If I reduce my CoQ10 & L-carnitine intake the twinges of pain return and to the same muscle in the left arm too. I avoid carrying anything at all heavy but if it is unavoidable I will only use my left hand.

I have not had a biopsy but it is likely I have "ragged red fibres" in the muscle, which are very fragile.

18 months off statins.


Brian.

[Ray Holder]

Hi peters
It sounds as if you are finding Lcarnitine deficiency problems in your legs, no doubt due to Q10 lowering. The pain after exercise is often caused by lactic acidosis, where the waste products of energy production in the muscle mitochondria find insufficient carnitine to carry them away, giving pain.

Lcarnitine, or if pain only, Acetyl L carnitine has been found beneficial to overcome this problem, and is the natural body product used all the time in energy making in this situation. Build up your dose gradually, say 500mg daily first thing for a few days, then add another 500a day for a few more days, and so on, stopping when you feel OK again, or if your bowels object.

Ray

[peter s]

Thank you. I had independently, in response to some other information here, ordered Dr. Sinatra's carnitine product (I believe it is a combination of three forms) so I will see if that helps. I have been supplementing with CoQ10 so would be surprised if I had much of a deficiency after only three weeks. I am still thinking the most logical explanation may be 10 years of inactivity combined with being too lazy to do my stretching, but anything is possible.