Simvastatin and heart attacks

In people close to me I have seen the following side effects:

All statins have similar side effects. They can come at once or after many years.

Pain in neck, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, legs, feet

Pains that keep moving to different parts of the body and could be unbearable -like nerve pains.

Head ache

Burning, tingling sensations in the different body parts mentiond above and numbness

Weakness in hands which caused the person to drop things

Hair loss, difficulties to swallow, ringing noise in the ears, loss of taste, memory problems - particularly with short term memory, difficulties to find words and to remember what just had been read, impotens, extreme sensitivity in the skin (abdomen).

Please "educate" yourself.

Read books and look for information in many different places. Remember to find out who is behind a certain webb-adress. Could it be a pharmaceutical company.

Unfortunately I am not allowed to write webb-adresses here - but Google the titles of the books/writers below and you will find some webb-adresses.

The Great Cholesterol Con (Anthony Colpo)

--------------------"--------------- (Malcolm McKendrick) - this is another book

The Cholesterol Myths (Uffe Ravnskov)

Malignant Medical Myths (Joel F. Kauffman)

Overdosed America (John Abramson)

Lipitor - thief of memory (Duane Graveline)
Duane G. has an interesting site

The Truth About The Drug Companies (Marcia Angell)

Google "Stopped our statins" and you will find this webb-site.

Under print articles to the left you will find an interesting article from Weston Price Foundation.

It takes time to look for information and then read it, but often it`s quite essential to do that and to make up your own mind.

It`s your body and you know best how you feel.

Remember it`s a lot of money involved and that`s why news about serious side effects quite often are delayed.

The cholesterol issue - that high cholesterol should cause heart attacks etc - is very controversial. But it`s only the pharmaceutical companies who have the money to "brainwash" by advertisements, ghostwriters etc.

I hope my suggestions can make you more interested in the medications that you are taking.

Finally - a very interesting book about a certain kind of antibiotics - Bitter Pills by Stephen Fried.

English is not my native language but I was forced to read a lot of English books because of the suffering of my relatives, but without the Internet I would not have found them.

Remember new drugs are not necessarily better than old, but always more unsafe. They are also more expensive and that`s why they are so highly promoted.

I am 45 and have been taking statins for 5 years since having 3 heart attacks in a 4 day period.At first I was on Atorvastatin 10mg and didn't suffer any side affects,I was put on Simvastatin 40mg 2 years ago due to cost.Since then I suffer with very sore muscle pain down the length of my right arm.My GP keeps on prescribing painkillers and doesn't mention the fact it may be side affects of the Simvastatin.I find it sad that costs of drugs are the reason I am in pain.

I was prescribed Simvastatin four days ago, against my wishes, as I had heard about the side effects of muscle pain and numbness in the joints and feet. However, what I had not expected were the terrible nightmarish dreams that followed. On the fourth night I stopped taking Simvastin as I was literally too afraid to go to sleep.
I then slept fitfully but did not experience the vivid and disturbing dreams of the previous three nights.
I shall ask my doctor for alternative medication. If she cannot offer me anything other than statins, I shall stick to Benecol and research further!

Jacqui M.

I have been taking Simvastatin 20 mg. for about two and 1/2 months now. It really lowered my Cholesterol but I have been extremely fatigued and now I am getting really dizzy when standing up and having some nausea.