About 12 months ago when my GFR was > 90 and my bold pressure was 130/80, because of high cholesterol my GP put me on 80mg of Lipotor. I thought why not. My blood pressure a few months later crept up to 155/95 (on BP meds) and fluctuated between there and 145/90. I put it down to bad diet and an extra kilo or 2.
Anyway, now and again stupidly I'd double dose 160mg if I missed a day or 2. Anyway in August my GFR dropped to 43 (160 SI Creatinine increase) Lots of head scratching and tests and etc...my blood pressure still at 150/95-100 odd. So I was referred to a nephrologist and he took some tests asked if about am I a cocaine user etc.to cause AKI. Proton pump inhibitors were a potential issue/cause.
Anyway the last couple of months I've decided to stay off statins, my Creatinine has been down to 130 (but up to 140) but my blood pressure has stabilised at 120/80. Anyway my GP got wind of the statins and told me to get back on them, guess what within two days my BP spiked at 161/107, first time it had been over 120/80 in a month. Also sore legs after exercise on statins.
Question is, has anyone heard of an AKI due to overdosing of statins.
Haven't seen my nephrologist since my statin experiment. He's back from leave next week.
The decision to take any medicine or combination of medicines is a balance of risk and benefit, so it's always good to talk to your medical professionals. You mention your nephrologist is back from leave next week and I would suggest that you arrange to see him to discuss your concerns in more detail. Also is your GP aware of the trend in your most recent BP measures and if not I feel that he needs to know?
Our members may also be able to share further information and experience with you.
Hi, I think I would address the blood pressure thing. Lipitor can cause muscle aches, pains. I went off cholesterol meds for awhile, but things didn’t change much, a good part of mine is genetics. So whether on or off mine stays about the same..just okay, and I workout every day and eat well. I am trying a new one that the doctor said is processed in the liver and should not affect kidneys with way.
Sorry, but you have a lot of bad Dr’s IMO! Don’t leave your BP elevated like that. 1.) That is seriously high BP, and it can really hurt you if someone doesn’t get it down. 2.). Its indicative of a “larger” problem - something you do when reacting to statins. However 80 mg of Lipitor is an immense dose to start with. Most Dr’s with common sense bring you from 10 mg to a proper high dose SLOWLY! You generally don’t take a higher dose than needed.
Statins CAN have some bad side effects. Rhabdomyolysis is one of them. One symptom would be sore muscles. I vaguely remember that Rhabdomyolysis can hurt kidneys - but don’ Quote me on it. You Dr. should know. All these things are warning signs of some drug interaction. PPI’s CAN have a bad kidney reaction, which is again why you start low until you get an idea of what happens. I can only imagine the dose of your Drs must have you on with PPI’s.
Basically you need to see these Dr’s NOW - get them to sort out the problem, and if it is some overdosed med that is causing this - ged rid of the med, and get rid of the Dr. Yes, find another. These people seem to be playing games with your health and not paying attention. Thats about as unprofessional as you can get! Good luck.
I was put on 10mg of Lipitor and suffered severe back pain at my rear rib for months. It did very little to lower my cholesterol.
My endocrinologist of 14 years insisted that I was crazy and refused to take me off the drug until my nephrologist intervened on a temporary basis as neither examined me or listened.
A month later, my GP saw me for my annual physical and discovered skeletal muscular swelling and deemed this an allergy.
Prior I looked both Lipitor and Crestor which I had initially been on, up in Drugs.com and printed the effects out.
I have been off statins for a year with low to low normal blood pressure.
My cholesterol is slightly above high normal.
Bear in mind, we are all different and what works for one may not work for another.
Both the endocrinologist and that nephrologist have been discharged from my care team.
It is vital that you have professionals which listen, and look at all angles of your health together and have reasoning for medication.
If they are not, best to consider another opinion.
Please reach out and let us all know how you are..we care!
They all want to work independently. Since most medical systems do not provide well for Dr to Dr communication, they all just do what they want in conflict with each other.
Here, generally if they are in house; associated with the same hospital, visit summaries are CC to other attending physicians listed in your records.
Some will fax something to my PCP. We have a war going on between 2 local hospitals which prohibits a physician associated with one hospital to talk to someone associated with tbe other. Refer to a doctor in the other hospital yields a fine. Lame?
Unfortunately in many cases, not all the specialists become so head swollen with what they do..only want to focus on their area of expertise, even if it intertwines with another.
Sad as the patient suffers. If you are lucky to find a "team player" grab them!
"We have a war going on between 2 local hospitals which prohibits a physician associated with one hospital to talk to someone associated with the other."
We have something like that going on here, and both hospital systems are mediocre at best. So, for anything major that comes up I have been going to a hospital about 50 miles away (Stanford). If in doubt, go to the best! So, I understand what you have do deal with - and it stinks. I It sounds like you have mediocre medicine there too. You seem to be doing the best thing which is to police them for everything.
It does sound like the war between the hospitals around you is borderline illegal. Well, you can force communication between Drs, but you can't make them think.
Frankly what I am seeing is that since my wife and I have been on Medicare (since June), we can't get any Dr. to follow up on anything. I have a feeling that it's the crappy Medicare payments that they get. They have to take us, but it's almost as if they want to get rid of us.
So, when it comes to team players - I wonder if there really are any. Between the egos and the corporations that "own" the medical practitioners - forget it. They do either what they want, or they follow corporate policy and try hard to get you out of the door quickly. The patients do suffer - and it is not fair. Even when you can get an opinion, it's just a half-baked barely thought out guess!
I guess I'm the odd man out in understanding exactly what you are indicating. My fault I suppose and not yours. But Lipitor is taken to control Cholesterol, not blood pressure. Cholesterol itself can increase blood pressure over long period of times. Because it is the build up of plaques in your blood and blocks arteries. Over time, Lipitor breaks down these plagues. Lipitor does NOT act instantly. It takes time to become effective. It is not like an aspirin that you take for headache and in that day the headache is gone. And as someone mentioned, to start with 80mg is ineffective and ridiculous. I personally take 80mg per day. The control of my blood pressure is done by medications made for that purpose. Yes, every once in a while these blood pressure medications need adjustment in quantities or replacement by other drugs as the ones you take become ineffective. My personal case is during the winter months I need a higher dose of my amlodipine, than I do in the summer months. It has become a routine adjustment for me every year.
You definitely need a different doctor if your doctor seems satisfied when your pressure is 150??? I think that is what you are saying. This is way too high. I totally believe you measured correctly, but do not believe that just stopping 80mg of Lipitor dropped your blood pressure and dropped your creatinine level so dramatically. Something else is going on.
It is hard to put links on this website. When you paste a link, it chops off the complete pasting of the information and does not work. But I will type one out for you. It is just an example of many, many studies on Lipitor. My strongest advice is to go to google and enter "what is the effect of Lipitor upon plague". The results will give you many links. Some are from private studies, which I have small faith in being accurate. But go to the ones such as the mayo clinic study. The website WebMD. Here is a good one from the Cleveland Clinic. I have put spaces between the words, because as I say this website does not allow complete links. So when you type it out, eliminate the spaces.
Strange. I have posted complete links before and then people write to me they could not use it because it was incomplete. I have also clicked on the links of others and have the same problem. Perhaps it is me who has the problem, something I'm doing wrong. I will check further. Thanks for the info.
I agree to some extent. Absolutely this should be further investigated as that BP is way out of control. I don't think that Kiddingnee let us know what BP med was prescribed and if the dose was adjusted. That is key.
Statins such as Crestor and Lipitor can increase protein spilling so it could be playing havoc with his/her whole system, especially the kidney, which is best determined by a nephrologist.
The dose may be too high
( that happened to another community member) or it just may not be a compatible statin for this patient.
My BP was effected by the statin to my knowledge but many other labs were as I am allergic. Since off, my BP has returned to where it normally is; but that is just me.
I agree that the best course of action is to see a team of reliable professionals to assess this.
Hi Bet! Try the following. go to google. Enter "can Lipitor lower your egfr"? It will display links to websites and studies that show that actually it has been found the Lipitor can REDUCE protein in urine. Yet you will also see links to studies that have found Lipitor can increase kidney damage. BUT if you scan through these studies it really nets down to the dosage. All the negative results of Lipitor as it relates to protein and kidneys happen when the prescription is for high dosage (80 mg). But in lower dosages is seems beneficial for reducing protein in urine, and not harmful for the kidney.
In my case, Lipitor was found to be another drug that I was allergic to.
My pharmacist tipped me off that both Crestor, the newest statin and Lipitor, one of the most prescribed and proven to lower cholesterol, did produce protein spilling. Again, this is a statistic and not everyone is the same; what may be helpful for one person, may not be so in another.
I will check out your suggestions.. Be in touch.
Bet
16mg candastatin and no change to dosage
Stopped taking my 80mg Lipitor and BP back down to perfect,
Saying that I'm hydrating heavily and find that the Lipitor and heavy exercise combined may be pushing up my BP.
I don't want to cause arguments. I'm just quoting what I'm doing and reporting on the results.
I'm tracking the variables now, combinations of Lipitor, exercise, hydration etc...
My body tells me something pushes my BP up and it's one or a combo and 120/80 to 170/110 isn't a slight change
Oh you are not causing arguments. It is really the purpose of this website. For us all to exchange our experiences and what has, and has not worked for us. Naturally we sometimes have completely opposite experiences and knowledge. But it is rare anyone feels they are arguing. It's a discussion group. It there was just a one size fits all for CKD then there would not be a need for such a website. I think we are all part of a "CKD Family", who share both common and different experiences and ideas.
Curious. Your blood pressure went down. What happened to your cholesterol when you stopped the Lipitor? They must have started using Lipitor, and such a high dose, because you had cholesterol problems?? Now you have stopped it, and with the candesartan and exercise achieved good blood pressure. But what are you taking for cholesterol control?
Not taking anything for cholesterol now. It's a short term personal experiment for a few weeks. I was on lipitor for months at huge spikes of BP, my GP kept asking me "are you drinking too much" "what's your diet like" "are you stressed" He basically didn't even consider lowering the dose of Lipitor. At this point I had great GFR. Then it dropped suddenly.
The nephrologist returns from leave next week. So I'll discuss with him. He's not sure what has caused my increase in Creatinine and ran a few tests including some cancer marker tests, ACR etc...(24 urine protein test fine, ACR slightly above, bladder cancer and mentioned I may need to see a urologist). That was end of November and I heard nothing from him. He mentioned a raft of things like cancer, nephritis, acute drug injurys ( I'd been taking Nexium). My father had Poly Anterisis Nodosa. I've been dianosed with hypothyroidism and started drugs 2 months ago. Long story is its highly complicated however it's a no brainer that if you have kidney impairment, acute or chronic your BP needs to be near perfect. Guess what the first time since I started Lipitor it is (over a year)
I be frank I don't believe my current Creatinine levels (ranging from 160, 130, 140, 150 SI and all taken over a 9 week period) have anything to do with my short term blood pressure however I've been constantly hypertensive on BP medication for over a year and now I'm not. I'd at least like a conversation with my nephrologist to cancel out kidney injury due to constant high blood pressure. It's just on of the list of many things with cancer, possible nephritis etc....I want a diagnosis and will be pushing him for a biopsy if he is leaning towards GN. I need to know!!!!
6 years ago my doctor put me on provostatin. Within three months I had gone from owning my own business (fitness trainer) and doing commercial construction in my off-season. to sleeping 20 hours a day and not having the wherewithal to take care of myself.
My GFR bottomed out at 37 and the doctors were at a loss as to why. Third most common side affect of statins is Rhabdomyolisis. This in turn can cause heavy kidney damage.
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My husband is in stage 4 gfr with a count of 19 
Can anyone help me interpret my results?
Hildegirl
CKD or not?
