My opinion of STATINS and my suspected side effects

Sidelined Surfer

I’m a MALE – 55 YO – Cholesterol was 214 and in May 2005 I had a heart attack. A neurosurgeon I know who exercises had a heart attack with 140 cholesterol ! The cardiologist put me on statins. Shortly thereafter I complained of leg cramps (Charley Horses) so severe I thought my leg bone may break. I fell to the floor at times doubled up screaming in pain. I told my cardiologist and PCP about this and they developed that deer in the head-light look. I’m not a doctor and I really thought it may be a potassium deficiency caused by statins. Blood test showed my potassium levels were in the normal range. I asked my PCP to write a script for “STRONG” (20 MEQ’s) potassium chloride tabs anyway. Shortly after taking the potassium my leg pain subsided dramatically, my hunch appeared to be correct or at least it helped relieve the pain and the deer in the head-light, the doctors looked normal again. I changed PCP’s and told the new PCP my story. He suggested I dose with 250 mg’s of magnesium twice a day to help my body absorb more potassium. I started doing this and the pain subsided even more. I still have mild leg cramps brought on by body position.

My new PCP switched me from Lisinopril to Diovan (BP drugs) to reduce my ace cough, it worked great. However, Diovan has a strong warning NOT to take potassium when using the drug because you can lower your BP to dangerous levels and increase your potassium to dangerous levels. I have ignored this warning for over a year because pain is a great motivator. 2 weeks ago my blood test indicated my potassium levels at 4.0 which is on the low side of the ideal range NOT HIGH – the ideal range is 3.5 to 5.5. My potassium level is .5 away from being low in spite of the Diovan warning. Also my blood pressure runs high at about 160/95 in spite of all the drugs I’m taking to lower it. I started taking another BP drug which is working until my body starts to ignore it and my BP creeps up as it has with all the other BP drugs. In my opinion the knowledge base and research done by the drug companies appears to be lacking.

The final zinger is… after a couple of years of taking statins I have developed Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy or CIDP. My body’s autoimmune system has broken down and my body is destroying the fatty myelin sheath with covers my nerves, much like stripping a wire of its insulation. This in turn causes my muscles to do what they want (shake and quiver) or the nerve and electrical pulse from my brain short circuits and causes me severe pain. The icing on the cake is I have 7 medicated stents implanted in my heart arteries. My neurologist wants me to start IVIG treatments. A second opinion neurologist, a druggist and others told me, “be careful, the IVIG will increase the blood volume and you could have a heart attack or stroke from IVIG”. Translated, IVIG will make my blood thick, I take Plavix to make it thin, heart & CAD patients do better with thin blood. I see my cardiologist the end of this month for his opinion. If anyone knows anything about stents and IVIG PLEASE tell me, my life may be at stake and you may help save it ! I’m not being melodramatic… I’m scared as heck and don’t know what to do ! Please ask your IVIG infusers if they have any IVIG patients who have medicated stents – THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Research in Europe (Denmark) and internet chatter is getting louder. I believe the drug companies may not know all the adverse side effects of drugs such as the statins and ace inhibitors they are marketing and selling (or maybe they do ?). Cardiologists say the benefits of taking statins is worth the risk. I wonder if they would continue that line of reasoning if they were lying on the floor screaming in agony from the pain and the poor quality of life that statins may be responsible for. Because of this, in my opinion and my experience – STATINS DO INDUCE CIDP AND GBS. Now there is chatter about cholesterol levels not causing heart attacks…
I believe this will be proven in the near future. AGAIN – This is only my opinion and my disclaimer for the drug maker’s lawyers:rolleyes: .

I have filed formal reports (on-line and easy) with the FDA and the MHRA. The MHRA is the European equivalent to the USA’s FDA. The MHRA shares their data publicly. This data, the Denmark study and numerous informal reports by statin users helped convince me of the correlation of statin induced CIDP/GBS contraction. I encourage anyone with similar experiences to report their experience to both agencies. Without your input and FDA action, many more people could be afflicted with these horrible diseases without knowing why and how they contracted them. These future patients would be making better informed decisions in whether or not they want to use statins. This disease (CIDP) is the direct cause of me being put out on permanent disability after being employed in R&D for 22+ years, some of that time was spent in drug manufacturing R&D. Now I stay home, eating chocolate bon bons, trying to ignore the pain, fatigue and way too many other symptoms all the while attempting to keep a sense of humor and face yet another speed bump of life.

Tally Ho