I know the statin drugs can cause muscle weakness while you're taking them. What about when you go off of them? Can you get a sudden muscle weakness from going cold turkey off of Zocor?

Hy freydis,
I was on Lipitor and my doctor took me off cold turkey and I had no problems.
I was on a low dose of Lipitor , if your are on a higher dose I am pretty sure your pharmacist could tell you. I always ask the pharmacist about my prescriptions they are really on the ball.

Pene

Freydis

May I ask why you want to stop the statins? Sounds to me like it's without your doc's approval?

I ask because I just started medication. My total cholesterol and LDL went up dramatically...and my HDL went down. I just started Lipitor tuesday night and I'm hoping this works. My LDL is almost as high as my total was this past August! My doc thinks it's a genetic mutation.

Did you have a reaction? I've been told, both by my doc and people who took the med that it's pain, not aches or weakness. My doc is testing my CPK....which is an indicator of muscle damage...to make sure I'm not reacting to it. And, if caught early, it's 100% reversable. It's when the muscle damage is not monitored and causes kidney damage that there's a danger.

Apparently, when the meds were first released the muscle damage side effect wasnt' known (not sure why!!!!) and the pain was ignored and lead to kidney damage. Now that they know about it your CPK can be monitored and the med stopped if there's a problem. Be aware tho...don't have the levels drawn after hurting (banging, bruising, piercing) a muscle. In some people, even a simple IM injection can cause a dramatic increase in CPK! My doc also said no weights for 48-72 hrs prior to the test.

I've been reading a lot about cholesterol, statins, the whole nine yards. I strongly believe that many docs are too quick to put people on meds, but there are also times that it's needed! Just like any med.

Like I said, just curious. I hope you're not having a reaction! I hear it can be quite painful!

Oh! and I agree with Pene. I always ask the pharmacist for help. If it's a prescription, they'll give you as much info as they can....and they know a whole lot more about the meds than the docs usually do! And if it's over the counter they usually have no trouble telling you when something works...or is a waste of money. And most of them are very nice people!

Cindy

Thank you both for your replies.

As I understand things, Zocor is a med that is specifically intended to reduce cholesterol. Over the summer, I went off of my meds (all of them) temporarily, without my doctor's permission, because I wanted to try controlling with diet alone (Atkins). This was not a successful effort for controlling my blood sugars or my blood pressure, and I went back on all my meds. However, I was also tested for my cholesterol levels (September), and my cholesterol test was BETTER than the November test which was taken after I returned to all meds.

So, while I intend to stay on the others until improvement is shown, and they do seem to be controlling my bp and bs better than diet alone, the Zocor seems to be interfering with my own body's use of cholesterol. No, I don't have my doctor's permission, but I am trying to lower my dependence on meds and I think this is a fairly safe experiment to try now that I have the better health that Atkins has given me. If my lipid panels are worse after the next test, I'll let the doc know and go back on Zocor. If they're better, I'll let the doc know and stay off of Zocor. 2-3 months shouldn't kill me, especially since going off of everything for 2-3 months over the summer didn't kill me.