Aneamia?

[annie22]

I am trying to find out if Simvastatin could be the cause of this, my mother was put on Simvastatin about a year ago, as soon as she started taking this drug she had the worst leg cramps ever, then she developed back and leg pain, but she put it all down to wear and tear, along the way she developed high blood pressure, common, but hers had always been on the low side, then she told me not long ago that whenever she had to empty her bladder she had tingling in her hands, again she thought it was trapped nerves somewhere.
For the last two months she has been breathless, extreme tiredness, weak, the doctor took lots of blood and the outcome was aneamia, she has had to undergo all the examinations, stomach,bowel and scans, but nothing found, so she is now on iron tablets.
I feel the cholesterol tabs have something to do with it, but she spoke to her doctor and he said a definite no.
Has anyone else heard about Simvastatin possibly causing aneamia?
My mother thinks because she has been on them for a year it cant be the tablets, but she has had symptoms for a long time and didnt realise.

[Allen1]

Hi there annie22,

everything you have mentioned there could have been caused by the Simvastatin and from what you say I would say the resulting problems were definitely linked to them. A lot of doctors are still either unaware of the side effects they cause or are in denial that they exist, most tests will show nothing and a lot of doctors think we are imagining the problems because of that and what they are being told from agencies above them.

The anaemia is a tricky one, I also became anaemic while I was on Simvastatin but I also had a triple bypass a few months beforehand. Women have never been proved to have any benefit from taking statins but doctors keep handing them out to them. Take a look around some of the posts on this forum and then have a look at the link below, Zocor is Simvastatin just another name :-

Remove the asterisk then copy and paste the rest to your address bar

*http://www.askapatient.com/viewratin...766&name=ZOCOR

[David Staup]

Annie,


anemia is listed as a potential side effect many places such as below:

"http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100002859.html

use the search function on this site and you will find many references. this one is typical:

"http://www.spacedoc.net/board/viewtopic.php?p=8655&sid=2bace73872e691c8afa9bb0a48f6f36b

there are more

[annie22]

Thank you Allen1 and David for your replies, I dont feel like a paranoid daughter now!

I had a read of some of the posts and wow!! I cant believe how ill some people have become, its very frightening! I now have to convince my mother to see her doctor again. Can she just stop taking them?
I dont think she was even encouraged to try a low fat diet first, just straight on to simvastatin, her reading was not even that high.
I just hate seeing her look so ill, she used to have the energy of a 20 yr.

I see from some posts that confusion can occur, she sometimes gets muddled, and, she kept falling asleep, I am all for prevention, but if it affects your quality of life then what is the point.

[Allen1]

Hi there Annie,

a lot of people stopped taking the statins like I did cold turkey, it is advisable to actually wean your mother off them by cutting the dose in half for a few days and then quarter for a few days and a then miss every other day for a week or or so to lessen any chance of reactions that may occur.

There is a good possibility that your mother or anyone else that has had such a bad time with Statins, will actually feel worse when they stop. This has happened to quite a lot of us and can last for months before feeling the benefit, She really does need to get some Co-Enzyme Q10 and L Carnitine plus other supplements to help get things back to normal.

Hopefully your mother will be amongst the folk who have little after effect when they stop and life returns to almost normal as it has for many who have been affected while taking Statins.

The stupid thing about Cholesterol levels is that everyone's go up and down, your body regulates what is needed to do its daily maintenance, there never really was a problem with it (apart from rare cases) till money got involved and the drug companies found another way to get rich, that is a bit of simplification but it just about covers it!

Your doctor is probably unaware of the side effects but the information David left in those links show that you know they do exist, hopefully with a bit of tact you can point out the changes to him/her that have occurred since Statins were started. Even if the doctor does not believe the cause he/she should give you the benefit of the doubt and agree to stopping them, do not accept another version as that is a case of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Also don't agree to stopping for 2 weeks or something similar and re-starting, as I mention above the effects can get worse for some time after stopping.

I hope your mother gets well and fully recovers quickly, no one should be going through all the pain and confusion at ANY age never mind as we get older and enough problems crop up health-wise without any help from a poison like Statins.

All the best,
Allen.

[David Staup]

Annie,

print this post out for your mother and your doctor it is a list of the symptoms of many of the adverse effects of statins and is from a study published early in '09. a link to the study (for purchase) is included.

"http://www.spacedoc.net/board/viewtopic.php?t=1653

Your mother and her doctor should see the connection...

also see this study about women and statins:

"http://www.whp-apsf.ca/pdf/statinsEvidenceCaution.pdf

remove the quote marks to use the links

David

[annie22]

Hi Allen and Dave,

Thank you both for your advice, I have printed out a list of all the symptoms for my mother to take to the doctors, I think I might go with her the next time.
Thanks for you advice on the stopping of these tablets too! I didnt realise you had to come off them slowly.

I totally agree with you on the whole cholesterol level thing, my mothers was a healthy reading and after one slightly higher reading they popped her on the pills, I just hope they do more to try to warn people of the dangers.

Anyway, I really appreciate your help here so many thanks again, and hopefully things improve for my mother.

Ann

[Allen1]

Hi there Ann,

I know that I was affected by statins to the point that my mind was just a blur, you could have told me that I won the lottery and 5 minutes later I wouldn't recall it. Going to the Doctors with your Mother is a good idea, as you will be able to assist her with the questions if need be and for moral support.

Dr Graveline has an article on the stopping of Statins, it mentions the reason for weaning off them, I think it was to do with halting any reaction which may cause a blood clot and the damage that could occur thereafter. Most of us stopped straight away without ill effects mainly because we didn't know but why take a risk when it isn't necessary.

Good luck at the doctors and I do hope your mother gets back to normal pretty quick

All the best,
Allen

[Allen1]

Would you credit it, I couldn't find the article about stopping when I wanted it but just after posting I did :-

http://www.spacedoc.net/stopping_statins.html

[vicki]

Annie 22 Your mothers symptoms sound just like mine, I became anemic also. After starting statins, I first developed severe breathing problems, they told me it was asthma. I still have severe breathing problems to date, 8 yrs. later. I have had asthma before, just not for years and certainly not like this at all. I thought I was chocking all the time and my asthma medication didn't work. I was put on prednisone and keneloge shots constantly. Heart palputatins, high blood pressure, ended up from cramps and torn muscles wearing 8 different braces on my leg, wrist, ankle knee. (someone else mentioned that everything to them happened on the right side, that was the same with me). I had a full leg brace on rt. side and had to use crutches. Not once did my doctor get a clue it was the statiins. I told him I was sure all my medical problems were from statins and he insisted it wasn't. I thought I was dying. These were just some of the medical problems I had and have.

As time goes on, off the statins, I have developed diabeties , worse breathing problems, cataracts and on Mar. of 2001 this yr., now CLL.

After being off the statins for 8 + yrs. I still have the nerve and muscle damage, I doubt it will ever go away.
When I developed the memory problems , my worse one was, one day when I was driving my school bus route. I didn't know where I was. I stopped the bus. I've drove that rt. for yrs, and suddenly didn't know where I was ,my memory came back a few mins. later, yet as of today I have a real time remembering things. I strugle all the time. I can't describe how scared I was that day. My next worse day was all of a sudden I was lying in ft. of the fireplace, my heart went wild, my chest hurt, I tried to get up and couldn't, I was sure I was dying. I had to crawl to get my phone and call for help. I crawled to a chair then and pulled myself up, I could hardly walk. My friends were sure I had developed MS.

My doctor says some drugs have side effects, that is true BUT my doctor told me to tell him if I had any leg cramps or anything be sure and tell him. When I told him he said "You need to learn to tolerate the pain" this pill is good for you.
I will never forget those words...... ya it sure was good for me. He left me on for 7 yrs. telling me how great they were for me and that pill was lowereing my cholestrol.
I just hope I live long enough to see these statins taken off the market and the companies are sued for everything they got. I know it won't help all of us now that we have the damage, it will make me feel better to know they won't hurt anyone else.