On And Off

[Bearcat7474]

I've been trying to research this and haven't found any answers and was hoping someone here may have that answer, I have been on Atorvastatin for many many years. Due to having to leave my doctor who prescribed it, I had been without it for over a month. Due to my schedule and work, I had not had time to find a new doctor. Thankfully my cardiologist prescribed it to me yesterday and took it today. I'm feeling a little irritable but not sure if it's the meds or a thing called life. Does anyone know what the side effects if any would be or are for starting it up again? I never have had an issue with it before and was curious. I'm on 20 mg. Thanks for your help.

[Jperez]

Hello! Statins, in general, only benefits 1% of users, those are the ones that have had accidents cardiovascular or strokes.

I took stattins 10 md. For 12 years and, as a consequence, got muscle loss and spasms. I stopped taking it 4 years ago and I feel fine.

All depends on the amount of ldl and total cholesterol, if under 300 total, I would not take it anymore since I NEVER had any stroke nor heart attacks.

[DakCB-UK in reply to Jperez]

I think Jperez underestimates the % benefit claimed by studies, but I also suffered muscle spasms on atorvastatin, bad enough for me that I could no longer stand up at times. In addition, I had memory loss, so I cannot be certain what other side effects I suffered. I've been off statins 8 years now, on ezetimibe since before stopping statins and now bempedoic acid for 2. Total cholesterol 5.5-6mmol/dl

 Bearcat7474 - some relatives report mood swings on statins but I've no memory whether I did or not! On other statins tried after that, any mood swings will probably have been hidden by the crushing depression from the side-effects and having effectively sleep-walked through a decade of my life.

I believe the best practice now for statins is to start on a low dose and build up to the target dose, so I don't know why you weren't restarted on 10mg. On simvastatin, I always had the worst side-effects when restarting after any interruption.