CRESTOR ????

[CAMMO]

Hello, New to this. Ok i'm a 42 yr old male, went to hospital with chest pain they kept me in overnight did blood work and stress test everything tested fine except my cholesterol was a 245 reading. Doc told me this is a treatable level and Perscribed Crestor i dont take medicine at all. let me give you a little of my history,

Like i said im a 42 yr old male 174 lbs, 5' 8" tall i smoked cigarettes for 26yrs just quit March 12 2006. since i quit smoking i almost instantly gained 10 lbs 164-174lbs this is the first time i been to a doctors since i departed the military. should i take the crestor and go back to the doc's for blood work to see if the crestor will give me side affects or should i just eat cherreoos and oatmeal?

[sos_group_owner]

Hi CAMMO & Welcome to the Forum,

First of all, cholesterol lowering drugs are NOT the first course of
treatment. Dr's are supposed to suggest lifestyle changes. Excellent
that you stopped smoking, because that's the number 1 thing you
can do to improve your health.

Please read Dr Graveline's article " Statin Alternatives":
http://www.spacedoc.net/statin_alternatives.htm

Statin Alternatives include low dose aspirin and nutritional supplements
that are designed to reduce inflammation, are anti-oxidants, reduce
platelet stickiness, control (toxic) homocysteine and have the same
anti-inflammatory affect as 20 mg's of Lipitor, without side effects.

Did your Dr give you the following info (total cholesterol components)?
LDL -
HDL -
Triglycerides -

Total cholesterol does not tell the whole story. Low HDL and elevated
triglycerides can usually be "normalized" by diet.

Fran

[CAMMO]

Fran
Thank you for your response, no the Doctor only suggested medicine no lifestyle change and he only gave me my cholesterol level when i asked. Like i said i haven't been to a doctors office in 10yrs and i felt like i was just a product not a paitence i will tell the doctor i am not taking his perscription and will ask for LDL -
HDL -
Triglycerides thank you again

[harley2ride]

CAMMO,
I only took Crestor for 30 days (lowest dose) over two years ago. Now I'm slowly dying with Mitochondrial Myopathy (a form of muscular distrophy. I had a genetic marker which contributed to this, but the docs say that I never would have had the problems I now have, to this degree, had it not been for the Crestor. I'm sure that there are some people who do not have the negative effects, and there may likely be some that this drug actually helps. But you have to ask yourself. Are you feeling lucky!!!

[bunnylady]

Harley- would you pm me and explain what your symptoms are- my muscles are still so weak-

Patty

[harley2ride]

Bunny,
My symptoms started out as muscle pain, cramping, spasms, high wbc count, muscles would wear out quickly. Now symptoms are those, plus frequent fevers, swollen glands, lowered body temp (97.0 is normal), chronic fatigue (I'm tired all the time), I only feel decent, if I take four days off in a row, and do a lot of resting, loss of appetite (I only eat once a day, and I eat about 1/4 of a normal meal portion, muscles keep getting tired quicker and quicker, carpel tunnel in hands has gotten much worse, occassional memory problems, my eyes have become very sensitive to light all of the time, and a severe sleep disorder. No matter how tired I am, I can't sleep for more than 15 - 20 minutes, without taking restoral and zanaflex.

[CatMom]

CAMMO, try other methods before you ever swollow one of those pills. ANY one of these stories here could be YOU on statins, are you willing to risk that?

I eat oatmeal EVERY day with a teaspoon of cinnamon and walnuts, both also good for you, I use the cheerios for snack munchies. I am also on the supplements suggested here.

IF, off of statins my numbers were what yours are, I would be tickled to death and wouldn't worry. I personally, don't think that is high at all..

But it is your body and your life, only you can decide what is best for you.

[Esmeralda]

CAMMO--

If I were you, I would run, not walk, away from Crestor!

I spent 18 days on Crestor in May of this year, and am still not completely back to normal. I experienced excruciating pain in my right knee along with swelling in that knee and in the right thigh. It also fried the hair on the right side of my head. I still have some swelling in the knee and thigh, but I am now able to return to my exercise routine without fear of hurting myself. Hard to believe that I can say this now, but I feel lucky for having the acute effects so early with Crestor. The effects came slowly over the 18-day period--a sensation of water filling up my leg, then slow swelling, the slowly increasing pain in the ligaments/tendons around the knee, leading up to the 18th day where I was in so much pain I could barely walk. I knew instantly that the Crestor was the culprit; too bad I didn't put it all together sooner.

On the other hand, my husband started Lipitor in January, 2006. He complained of no ill effects until my Crestor problem. Then he said that he had been having random muscle cramps, attributing the cramps to old age. He was reluctant to stop the Lipitor, but did; the cramping went away.

One problem is that these statin drugs contribute to the aches and pains that we are already experiencing as we get older. If we have been taking a statin drug for a period of a few months to a few years, we don't associate new aches and pains with the statin drug; I don't think our physicians do either--which is a problem in itself. We are used to having an allergic reaction to an insect, food, or drug almost immediately. With statin drugs, the reaction time can be significantly later, making it difficult to pin the blame on the statin drug. At that point the prescription cycle begins--a drug to quell the side effects of another, referral to a specialist, and so on. The cost of of treating damage from the statin drugs has got to be enormous, as well as the decline of physical and mental health.

The bloodwork results were negative, which caused my physician to recommend an orthopedist, then a rheumatologist. I declined both. He wasn't sure the Crestor was the culprit; I was. I declined both referrals, and began looking for safe methods to manage the cholesterol as well as to repair the damage from the Crestor. This site has had a wealth of information for me and for others.

[CAMMO]

[quote="Esmeralda"]CAMMO--Thank you for your comments, i have decided not to take the crestor and yes i have found this site very informative.


If I were you, I would run, not walk, away from Crestor!

I spent 18 days on Crestor in May of this year, and am still not completely back to normal. I experienced excruciating pain in my right knee along with swelling in that knee and in the right thigh. It also fried the hair on the right side of my head. I still have some swelling in the knee and thigh, but I am now able to return to my exercise routine without fear of hurting myself. Hard to believe that I can say this now, but I feel lucky for having the acute effects so early with Crestor. The effects came slowly over the 18-day period--a sensation of water filling up my leg, then slow swelling, the slowly increasing pain in the ligaments/tendons around the knee, leading up to the 18th day where I was in so much pain I could barely walk. I knew instantly that the Crestor was the culprit; too bad I didn't put it all together sooner.

On the other hand, my husband started Lipitor in January, 2006. He complained of no ill effects until my Crestor problem. Then he said that he had been having random muscle cramps, attributing the cramps to old age. He was reluctant to stop the Lipitor, but did; the cramping went away.

One problem is that these statin drugs contribute to the aches and pains that we are already experiencing as we get older. If we have been taking a statin drug for a period of a few months to a few years, we don't associate new aches and pains with the statin drug; I don't think our physicians do either--which is a problem in itself. We are used to having an allergic reaction to an insect, food, or drug almost immediately. With statin drugs, the reaction time can be significantly later, making it difficult to pin the blame on the statin drug. At that point the prescription cycle begins--a drug to quell the side effects of another, referral to a specialist, and so on. The cost of of treating damage from the statin drugs has got to be enormous, as well as the decline of physical and mental health.

The bloodwork results were negative, which caused my physician to recommend an orthopedist, then a rheumatologist. I declined both. He wasn't sure the Crestor was the culprit; I was. I declined both referrals, and began looking for safe methods to manage the cholesterol as well as to repair the damage from the Crestor. This site has had a wealth of information for me and for others.[/quote]

[rudy]

49 yrs. old , 25 days on crestor, pain all over, can not work full time 9 mos. latter, many tests, tried lots of meds, med bills, drug costs, more detailed info to come. But are there any legal actions we can take? HELP

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Rudy,

You can try contacting a lawyer but most are only handling cases with documented rhabdomyolysis accompanied by extremely high CPK levels and some for Lipitor only.

Assuming you reside in the USA, you could do a few things to bring awareness of your adverse effects to Crestor.
1) File a complaint with Astra-Zeneca, the company that distributes Crestor:
ww.crestor.com/c/contact/
2) File an Adverse Event report with FDA's MedWatch:
ww.fda.gov/medwatch/
3) Participate in Dr Beatrice Golomb's ongoing "Statin Effects Study", Univ of CA, San Diego.
http:medicine.ucsd.edu/ses/contribute.htm
4) Participate in a letter writing campaign to bring (statins side effects) awareness to the Senate Finance Committee (SFC). The SFC is charged with writing tax legislation and bills affecting Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs. Statins are not only costing everyone a fortune, but needless pain and suffering.

One issue is that all adverse effects are not disclosed to the patient or in the Drug Package Insert, such as cognitive decline and CoQ10 deficiency. Another issue is the expense to the consumer and our health care providers for drugs that are not improving our health. And, the never ending "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising".

Submit your letter to Senator (Committee Chairman) Charles Grassley and other Majority and Minority Senators.
ww.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newcommittee.cgi?site=ctc&lang=&commcode=sfinance

Fran

[CatMom]

NEWS FLASH! Crestor now has a disclaimer on their TV commercial that says "Crestor has not been proven to prevent heart attacks".. Bottom right hand corner and you have to look hard to see it but it is there...
SO, I ask, why would anyone take the stuff now?

check out their own web sight, they have it on there that it has not been proven to prevent heart attacks or strokes.