The guidelines to doctors for cholesterol has been lowered. I have been on lipitor for twenty days and so far so good. Speaking from your own experience does anyone have anything to say about this medication.

I have no experience with Lipitor, or any other statin, and I never will. Both of my elder brothers are on some kind of statin. IMHO they have both gone downhill very noticably since begaining to take them. In case you don't know, and if you want to know, the cholesterol theory is all BS. According to several studies, the Framingham is one, at your age(same as mine), the higher your cholesterol, the longer life you will have. Here are some links:
www.theomnivore.com
www.StatinAlert.org
www.thincs.org
Good luck; but if you decide to keep taking a statin, for whatever reason, at least take some coQ10 suppliment to keep your heart working a bit longer

Please get off it, JMO. Lipitor can damage muscles and the heart, after all the heart is just a muscle. It can also cause bruising and impair healing.

Please read up on its side effects.

To lower cholesterol naturally get off all margarines, butter-like spreads and transfats. Use butter, lard and natural oils. If you must use a spread use one of butter and canola mixed (Land O Lakes makes it).

If you are taking a statin, you must also take CoQ10 because your body also stops making it.

What are your cholesterol numbers? What were they before you started LCing?

Of course it has - to sell more statins!

Hi Bigshot,

"I' have something to say about this medication!

I was on it for 4 short months. All was good at first actually all was GREAT - Lipitor lowered my cholestrol from 268 to 140.

WOW, doesn't that sound wonderful?

Long story short - during my last 3 weeks on Lipitor I began to have muscle weakness & pain so bad that someday's I couldn't walk. My Dr insisted it wasn't the Lipitor causing my problem but it was problems with my bones. I went to a Bone & Joint Dr and he said to come off the Liptor for 3 weeks and see if I feel a different.

So, on that advice I did stop and 4 days later began to feel a lot better.

BUT and I do mean BUT ........ I now have PERMANENT muscle damage from my left hip down.

Bigshot............don't have what happen to me happen to you. PLEASE

Nikki

Thanks for all the help and I think that I will just get off of it without even telling the doctor.

My numbers are Millimoles/liters in Canada

Total: 5.9 mmol/l or 235mg/dl in usa
HDL 1.03 mmol/l or 40mg/dl
LDL 4.17 mmol/l or 145mg/dl
Tri 1.57 mmol/l (2.3 mmol/l = 200 mg/dl)

It is very scary what the doctors are doing. Pretty soon half the male population over 45yo will be on some form of statin drug. We dont have to pay for it but what good is it if it's going to kill us.

I was in Lipitor for about 6 months. I also had a dramatic reduction in my numbers....unfortunately, even my HDL went down. My total was 324 and went down to 154.

I stopped it because I was having fairly severe nausea. I have "stomach trouble" so I wasn't surprised. During my time on Lipitor I had: 1. depression to the point of requiring medication. I could barely get out of bed and cried at anything. 2. exercise intolerance, meaning I was unable to do the exercises (weights) that I could previously do and had pain in my legs when walking, requiring a work-up for arterial disease (negative). 3. memory issues, which I didn't connect to the Lipitor until I stopped it and my memory began to improve (still not normal after over 2yrs)....I also had 2 episodes of amnesia, I had NO recollection of something happening, even tho everyone around me thought I was ok 4. severe dry eye, to the point of no longer being able to wear contact lenses.

I was never told to take coQ10and from what I've heard, few people are told.

I also have NO family or personal history of heart disease, even tho my family is LOADED with diabetics. Te only "risk factors" I have are cholesterol related....I'm not diabetic, have normal to low bp, no signs of heart disease, etc. I did smoke, that's it.

Last spring my cholesterol was back up to around 280, but my HDL was 50+ and my LDL was under 90. My doc wanted me back on the Lipitor, but I refused....and suddenly she decided I really didn't need it, since I'd quit smoking! LOL (a few months later, when I fought her on a test I needed and she wouldn't order...to rule out lung cancer, I went elsewhere and she "fired" me!)

Personally I wouldn't go back on the Lipitor even if my LDL was over 300!

My concern with statins, of all kinds, is that too many docs are blowing off the side effects as either unimportant, or not caused by the meds.

Cholesterol is needed to build blood vessles, nerves and muscles, amoung other things. I know people who have developed neuropathy that is now permanent because their docs said it wasn't caused by statins. Vascular problems, too. I was lucky, it seems my side effects are pretty much gone, but I do still have muscle problems that I wonder about......

Anyway Big....I'm glad you're off the meds.

Thanks a million CindySue. As of this moment, will not take LIpitor anymore. I dont have cardiovascular problems and I feel that the chance of congested heart failure and muscular problems outweighs the benefit of the drug. I have to admit that i am scared of it after reading what you and others have to say about it. Since i went on Lipitor, i have had problem sleeping the whole night, i wake up at 3 or 4 o'clock and i am wide awake, i have to get out of bed. That's exactly what happened this morning. I 've been up and on the computer since 3am and it is now 6 am. I know that i wll be tired and yawning all day with no enthusiasm to do exercise.
I dont want the doctor to fire me because i still need the clinic to do blood works. This morning I will cancel my appointment at the end of this month and will ask to make a new one at the end of March 2006. Hopefully the secretary will do that without even mentioning anything about the Lipitor. I will tell her that I will be out of the city and out of the country. I will get my cholesterol down by following a good nutrition regiment that will include a 30 lbs weight reduction. I will take everything from flax seed to fish oil. I will do LC according to Protein Power while logging an 1800 calories intake limit. For execise, I will walk 2 miles a day. I will limit beer drinking to one bottle a week. I will make sure that while keeping fat down to a minimum, I will use only butter, olive or canola oil in order to elliminate transfats and free radicals. Today, i am taking the bull by the horn.

Hey Bigshot & CindySue48,

I found another great board (just like theis one) that has helped me get healthy after getting off Lipitor.

For me personally, I have chosen to go the alternative route and it has been working for me.

http://www.healthiertalk.com/index.php

There is a whole section on HEART.

Bigshot...Glad you got off Lipitor before any damage was done. In the longrun it will be one of the BEST decisions you will make in being heart healthly.

Be Well,
Nikki

Well I did not take my lipitor last night and I must say that I slept much better and I feel better. I bought some fish oil capsules and flax oil capsules. I am in the process of lowering my carbs to possibly 30 mg. I should also drink more water

If you read the short page linked below, you will either laugh or cry. I'm thinking of doing the later, given the warnings of other posters thus far.

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/enig_chol.html

It's not just the total cholesterol- now the guidelines are for LDL to be under 90- which the MDs even admit is almost impossible for most people- unless you are on statins!!! Even on statins, most people can't get their LDLs that low. So what do you do then- increase the meds?
I think it is very interesting that there is growing evidence about the role of inflamation in heart disease and a bunch of other problems. But we hardly ever hear about that. And this WOL seems to reduce inflamation.

If my doctor tries, I'm going to ask him what he's on and if he can write me a perscription for that instead.

I've heard that a lot of doctors take statins. They get all their drug knowledge from the drug reps and are clueless as to the downside of statins or of the real effects of diet on blood chemistry.