It's been 3 and a half months since I stopped taking lovastatin. I'd only taken it one month. The pain started after 3 weeks. I stopped a week later.

Before lovastatin I had no pain in my legs. Now the pain is constant. When it first hit after 3 weeks, I could barely stand.

I used to be able to hike forever with no pain. Now a couple miles and I have to rest, take ibuprofen, message my legs, and experience anger that I have this pain when I shouldn't have been subjected to this "wonder drug."

Prior to statins, my cholesterol was 180, my HDL was 49, triglycerides 53, and LDL 120. I was prescribed lovastatin as a "preventative."

Of 18 people I've talked to in person who have taken statins, 7 have quit because of severe pain. That's more than 1 out of 3.

My doctor told me side effects were rare.
This was a lie.
I don't know if he knew he was lying, or if he just believed the lies the drug companies were telling him.

I looked up what the doctors are hearing; they're being told side effects are 1 out of 4933. That's incredibly untrue.

I have a hard time believing such a lie has been foistered in the American people. I wonder when this travesty will end. I suppose as long as there are huge profits to be made, it never will.

I don't make policy. But if I did, statins would never be prescribed for healthy people. And I wonder about the wisdom of prescribing them for anybody.

I was talking to an older company doctor about statins during a physical exam, and he said he knew about their dangers, and was at a conference years ago where somebody said they did not think statins would be successful in humans because they could tell the animals using them (in experiments) felt terrible.