I saw a friend yesterday who has a long history of neuropathy and for many years her doctors called it ideopathic but recent years she came to the realization it's from 30 yrs of taking statins. We chatted yesterday and she mentioned she's in a class action lawsuit against lipitor.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encycloped...ugs-29538.html

There are many non-statin alternatives for cholesterol, they're just nowhere near as effective.

Not to argue with anyone, but according to NIH and the American Heart Association criteria, both your cholesterol and LDL are high enough to warrant medication, and right now, statins are recommended as first line. Even if you don't meet criteria for familial hypercholesterolemia, your doctor may have just meant that there's a strong genetic component (i.e. "it's familial"), most studies show that genetics are heavily involved.

And the pharmaceutical companies aren't really making money on them any more. One is on several 4$ or 5$ plans and most of the rest are generic and fairly inexpensive.

I get some people have developed peripheral neuropathy and I definitely can empathize, I have PN from other causes, however statistically it's an uncommon side effect, it just seems to happen a lot bc so many people are on them and most studies show that the symptoms at least diminish and often go away once the statin is stopped.

I really do get that peripheral neuropathy sucks, but what about the alternatives? The second leading cause of death in the 45-54 age group is heart disease with stroke being the 6th leading cause, and heart disease is the third leading cause in the 35-44 age group and stroke the 7th leading cause. Statins do help prevent death from heart disease and stroke. And they both move higher up the list as causes of death the older the individual is.

I don't mean to be antagonistic, I just hope people look at all the facts before stopping life-saving meds such as statins (as controversial as that may be).

I really hope I haven't offended anyone.

Here is some more info on this subject. I'm a believer in that there are at least two sides to everything. Often more. Dr. Sinatra has a lot to say about cholesterol also. And there is plenty of threads on cholesterol if one wants to do a search here.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...olesterol+myth

[ life-saving meds such as statins]
For persons with actual cholesterol/heart issues, statins may be helpful and save a life.

But for the majority of persons with no risk factors, a cholesterol number on a chart should not make for an automatic statin Rx.. as it almost seems to be.

Everyone can make their own mind up when if the time comes for them.
Read about the pros & cons on statins and decide for yourself..

info results-
https://www.google.com/search?q=pros...ins&gws_rd=ssl

This is good information too. My integrative MD has done extensive lipid testing and homocystine and fibrinogen have been elevated....so for the last 3 yrs I've been taking supps to lower both these. They are coming down.

http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/19/w...heart-disease/

There is a Cochrane Collaboration systematic review of the results of 18 clinical trials, with 56934 participants, in which the risks and benefits of statins were examined here; http://www.cochrane.org/CD004816/VAS...scular-disease.

Hello pinkswede17,

I want to start out as saying I'm not offended nor do I find your post antagonistic. You are simply stating your opinion

My opinion is different than your. I consider Statins dangerous.

I spent a year and a half on a low dose Statin without being aware of the potential side effects or controversy.

I have a Neurological Disease so I didn't give the statin much thought as I started having problems. Those problems could have easily been a quick progression of my disease.

I slowly started to lose my strength and my ability to walk (as it is my max walking is 2 miles on a good day), fatigue that was much worse than my "normal" fatigue, and My legs hurt more than usual.

My cognitive abilities took a hit. I would be in the middle of talking and lost what I wanted to say, this got so bad all I could do was cry. I found my driving concentration wasn't there and I was getting lost in familiar places. And, I had memory loss. I stopped driving except when absolute necessary for my safety as well as the safety of others.

I was getting bad enough my Husband suspected I had developed Alzheimer's.

I did what I should have done in the beginning, I started to do research on the only medication I was taking...Lovastatin. What I found shocked and angered me. All of what I was experiencing could be connected to the statin.

I contacted my Drs. office to ask about going off the statin, I received a written note from my Dr. blaming my symptoms on my disease and if I stopped the statin I would have a stroke, but "if you want to take a chance of dying from a stroke then go ahead and stop the statin, it's your choice" .

I was angry. I made an appointment with my Neurologist and agonized over what to do.

I nervously made the decision to stop the statin.

My Neurologist scheduled me for Neuropsych testing. He was not happy that I was put on a statin. I have found many Neurologists recommend that their patients not use a statin. Those of us with Neurological disease would have a difficult time knowing if we are getting worse because of the disease or a statin.

The Neuropsych I saw said he and others in his field are seeing an increase of cases with cognitive problems due to statins. He would be using my case in an article submitted to the FDA.

Within 2 weeks after stopping the statin I was seeing improvement in cognition. It took time, frustration and anger to regain my mobility.

I lost my quality of life due to Lovastatin. I will never use a statin.

[suspected I had developed Alzheimer's]

This was my experience also with Lipitor..I felt so dumb at times and didn't know why...until I did some searches also.. I had such brain fog, spelling issues , word issues...
I also developed repetitive strain issues in same time frame. (muscle soreness)
I had repetitive injuries before, but this time it was greatly magnified and again , I didn't know what part was actual work injury vs what part was from the lipitor..

Here is Dr. Brownstein's newest book: The Statin Disaster

http://www.drbrownstein.com/The-Stat...indisaster.htm

My friend just left and said she bought it as her MD just sent thru a script for a statin. She will NOT take it.

Results of new information regarding Statins causing INCREASED risk of Parkinson's:

Medscape: Medscape Access

Prior information had suggested the reverse. But this large study shows that statins are problematic concerning Parkinson's disease.