"Trouble communicating with your doctor re statin effec

[Spacedoc]

Many people wonder why their physicians have such a difficult time believing that their physical problems might be an adverse effect of Lipitor or one of the other statins? Strangely enough the answer is mostly economic and the result of years of subtle brainwashing of the medical community, many of whom are now their staunchest allies. Statins are now the most widely prescribed of all prescription drugs, making them very big business. The Wall Street Journal Online, in a June 13, 2003 article, “As Drug Sales Teams Multiply, Doctors Start to Tune them Out; 'Arms Race' by Pfizer and Rivals Boosts Pill Prices, Ire, but No One Dares Retreatâ€

[daisie26]

The doctor ordered more blood tests and when they came back his nurse called me to say: Okay, now you can go back to the Lipitor.

I went Oh No I won't. She didn't believe me.
I have asked all my coworkers and even strangers who speak up at checkout lines etc. and so far there is only one person I found who is still taking Lipitor. Everyone seemed to have some kind of reaction and stopped it.
I was wondering it neuoraphy was sitting into my legs when my Care Patterns nurse started questioning me about any reactions to it. Since I have had so many broken bones and now diabetes; I asked her what kind? I was shocked to have her tell me about a man she had just spoken to who had the same thing as I did. He had to hold on when he first stood up because his knees were shaky. No one known reason for this to be happening. Me too.
It took 2 1/2 weeks for all sensations like the shaky knees to finally end while doubling up on the CQ10 to 200 mg.
Now I don't have that. It's GONE! Now I know for sure the Lipitor caused it.

[Darrell]

Mine is a Zocor/Zetia story. My doctor was skeptical when I stopped Zocor after months of taking it for "borderline" cholesterol. I felt like he didn't believe my story. Frankly I was ticked, having just gone through a terrible ordeal and then having it pretty much dismissed by my doctor of 10+ years.

Then I took Zetia and the ordeal resumed until I stopped taking the Zetia. My doctor sent me to an orthopedic specialist (my knee seemed like it was coming apart). The orthopedic doc did a pretty good workup, ruling out all kinds of other things. Then he sent me to a physical therapist. The physical therapist put me on an exercise bike for warm-ups and I quit that because it was giving me chest pains. (FYI, I passed a treadmill stress test with flying colors just a few years earlier.)

That's when I had enough of the medical establishment trying to kill me. I kept taking Q10, I bought a cane and a knee brace for bad times (only one leg affected), and recently I discovered that graduated-compression support stockings will relieve the leg ache.

Now my doctor wants me to start taking Welchol. I'm having a hard time getting started: I'm wondering whether it's actually a good thing to reduce my "borderline" cholesterol. Maybe my body knows better than the medical establishment does. And what are the dismissed side effects of Welchol?

[JIMNSC]

Hi Darrell - You and others may find the following link interesting and when you get the names of some of the doctors there you can search for other information they have produced.

ww.medicalconsumers.org/pages/cholesterol_skeptics.html

(IMO) I'd be hard pressed to go on a statin with borderline high cholesterol.


Good health - Jim