After a slightly high cholesterol count my GP persuaded me to again try low dose statins.
it is 20 years since I last tried them with bad side effects.
So after three weeks trying them I have binned the Pravastatin.
I will update the doc tomorrow.
36 hours after the last pill I am feeling (my) normal again.
I endured several of the listed possible side effects and some were painful.
So in the interest of science I did try to see if the bad effects would stop.
I had hoped that new products would not have the side effects
Same key result as last time. Several other side effects noted this time.
I am one in a hundred that might be affected.
At least joint pain is now in the list of possible side effects.
I still read it is anecdotal but it was painful 20 years ago and was this time.
So medics are disagreeing with the manufacturer.
I am non smoking almost non drinking, cook a lot but no salt on anything except the path in winter so BP is good .
I guess exercise and diet is the key.
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Pravastatin isn't new, it is one of the early statins.
Atorvastatin and Simvastatin have similar side effect profiles.
Pravastatin and Rosuvastatin sometimes agree when the two above do not (sometimes they all cause issues).
Does has a significant effect on side effects - Pravastatin 10mg is about as mild a statin as you can get - if you got problems on that dose you're probably out of luck with statins.
The dose has a much lower effect on the benefit - ie. 10mg of pravastatin probably gives about 75-80% of the benefit you get from 40mg.
The benefit of statins is they reduce your risk of a heart attack/stroke by about 25% (ie if you have a 20% risk over 10 years, a statin taken daily will reduce it to 15%)
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About twenty years ago I was prescribed Pravastatin. I later developed dreadful pain in my right foot. The GP diagnosed a heel spur and recommended wearing trainers and buy a gel insert for my shoes. I had this for a few years and was quite debilitating. Some years later, about 2007 or 2008, I was on holiday in France and happened to read an article by Dr. Le Fanu in the Sunday Telegraph. He mentioned this problem that I had caused by statins. I stopped taking the Pravastatin and in a few days my "heel spur" disappeared. I stayed off them for about a week and decided to try them again in case it was psychosomatic. After a couple of days the pain in my foot recurred so I stopped taking the statin.
When I returned home I saw my GP who agreed the Pravastatin was a problem. He then prescribed this new statin which later turned out to be the generic Atorvastatin. Totally cured my "heel spur."
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Speaking to my pharmacist about the problems I was having with statins he suggested I ask my GP for a non statin cholesterol lowering tablet, he prescribed Ezetrol.
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I've been on statins for nearly ten years. I tried a few different ones in the early days and would give them a try for a couple of weeks and if I thought they were giving problems, then I'd give it a rest for a couple of weeks, report to my GP and he'd prescribe a different one. I eventually ended up on 10mg atorvastatin. I had low cholesterol before, it's even lower now!
My practice tried to increase my daily dose to 80mg - an eightfold increase! I refused and we reached a compromise at 20mg.
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>> Pravastatin 10mg is about as mild a statin as you can get
>>- if you got problems on that dose you're probably out of luck with statins.
>>
Thanks for the updates
It was the 10mg version.
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I am on Atorvastatin 40g and have been for nearly 2 years without apparent review. I have had a couple of blood tests for cholesterol (latest was 28 April) and assume the doc looked at those and saw no need to contact me.
Anyway I got a call today from the surgery reception as the pharmacist has noticed my cholesterol is “borderline”. In which direction the receptionist didn’t know but the doctor “hasn’t said it’s urgent”. Hmm hasn’t said it isn’t urgent though. I have the next available telephone slot with my doc on……..31 August.
As I don’t have any symptoms and I know they are busy I will live with this but it’s hardly great service. Exceptional times though.
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> the pharmacist has noticed my cholesterol is “borderline”.
Don't you have an NHS login or App? Your test results should be on there.
For me, if tests have been requested by my local surgery the results are available pretty quickly. It's a bit of a palaver if they've been requested by the specialist at the hospital though because apparently the hospital IT system cannot upload results to the NHS App system. They have to be sent to my GP who then has to upload them.
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>> said it’s urgent”. Hmm hasn’t said it isn’t urgent though. I have the next available
>> telephone slot with my doc on……..31 August.
>> As I don’t have any symptoms and I know they are busy I will live
>> with this but it’s hardly great service. Exceptional times though.
You can request an urgent telephone consultation if you are worried. Had one this morning - phoned at 08:30, got a call at 10:30 - off to collect the drugs from the chemist this afternoon.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 21 Jul 21 at 10:39
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Thanks for the comments. I know I could insist on an earlier telephone consultation but I don’t regard it as any emergency if the doctor doesn’t. There are people a lot worse off than me who need to take priority. It’s just irritating that it will be four months after the blood test before I get a doctor’s view. Routine care is clearly struggling.
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>> Thanks for the comments. I know I could insist on an earlier telephone consultation but
>> I don’t regard it as any emergency if the doctor doesn’t. There are people a
>> lot worse off than me who need to take priority. It’s just irritating that it
>> will be four months after the blood test before I get a doctor’s view. Routine
>> care is clearly struggling.
Its all about priorities, but I get your point, a quick review of notes and a telephone call isn't going to tip the system into the red.
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I'm supposed to have an annual blood test to ensure my thyroid drugs are still at the right level. While they're there the usually do the cholesterol, diabetes, PST etc (I think).
I contacted the surgery (via email, it's impossible any other way these days) as it is well over 18 months now since last test, but they say the local facility is only doing emergency blood tests, not routine. (I'm not sure I believe them as SWMBO had one not so long ago which wasn't emergency, referred by the hospital though not the GP).
They've not done that sort of stuff in our surgery for a few years now.
At the same time I requested a meds review, again supposed to happen annually alongside the blood test.. They responded that someone would contact me if anything needed changing. They didn't but I am not convinced that anyone has looked. It'd be nice to get some kind of feedback ( - yes, I can see my full medical record).
Used to get my ears cleaned out maybe every year or so but now have to go to Specsavers or somewhere where it's about £70 a pair. They still do it while you wait though, which is handy. :-)
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>> Used to get my ears cleaned out maybe every year or so but now have
>> to go to Specsavers or somewhere where it's about £70 a pair. They still do
>> it while you wait though, which is handy. :-)
>>
A friend living about 5 miles away had to have his done a couple of months ago. He too was told that the service was no longer unavailable at his local surgery, so he sauntered off to Specsavers.
I was more fortunate. Rang my surgery last week and have an appointment booked for next week.
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>>Used to get my ears cleaned out maybe every year or so but now have to go to Specsavers or somewhere where it's about £70 a pair. They still do it while you wait though,
What's the alternative, leave them there and pick them up later?
;>)
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>>I am on Atorvastatin 40g
I do hope you mean mg?
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Yes Tom, luckily I have no prospect of being a pharmacist
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>Pravastatin and Rosuvastatin sometimes agree when the two above do not (sometimes they all cause issues).
I had an appointment with he top lipid man at my local hospital and agreed to try a statin once again.
I started with 5mg Rosuvastatin every other day and later one a day.
I developed pain in joints and serious trouble walking
I have decided to stop the statin and 36 hours after the last tablet I am transformed.
This is what occurred on all previous attempts
I am taking 20g of both almonds and walnuts daily plus Benecol.
A new blood test in a few days might indicate progress.
I have been offered the latest injections (Inclisiran ) as an alternative.
Anyone tried this or any feedback?
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My cholesterol was borderline 2 years ago so my GP suggested taking a statin if no side effects. So I do and no side effects. Atorvastatin 40mg daily. Just had my first test in 2 years and cholesterol is 4.7 mmol/L whatever that is …think it’s a good result. Don’t eat junk food, or much processed food, lots of fresh veg and frozen sprouts, so this thread has prompted me to ask if my dosage could be reduced.
Had a phone chat with new GP two weeks ago and I was honest about my alcohol units…have a half ( gallon) probably 4 nights a week in my local pub with friends. Sensible proper beer, circa 4%, not strong lager, very rarely drink any alcohol at home…GP thought my units were more than recommended…did I need any “help” ? Saw the funny side when I asked if they could put £40 a week behind the bar for me.
So long as I don’t feel the need to drink at home and can comfortably cover 17/20 miles on group walks I’ll stay as I am.
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>> Don’t eat junk food, or much processed food, lots of fresh
>> veg and frozen sprouts,
I prefer my sprouts defrosted and cooked.
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Since "retiring" my health has gone to pot.
From taking the usual fare of tablets when I caught a bug to now having to have a multi-coloured pill dispenser to cope with the multiple doses of two types of blood pressure tablets, statins, etc.
In all 9 tablets a day! Thank goodness for prescription season tickets!
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I've never been one for going to the doc, and I often "suffer in silence" (certainly comparative to some!!) so when I retired I had a whole bunch of minor things I wanted to talk to the doc about. I made an initial list of about 6 and went for an appointment.
Turned out you could only discuss one issue per appointment, for which 10 minutes is allocated.
We could have comfortably covered off all my "concerns" in that time but he was adamant. What a waste of everyone's time. Means I still try not bother him as I find it so frustrating (difference chap/chapess now).
When I've watched some of those GPs Behind Closed Doors programmes I feel I must be in the wrong part of the country. They seem to be a lot more easy going up North, with the meds, sick notes and their time. :-)
Anyway - I was put on statins years ago (Astorvastatin 10mg) cos the doc at the time thought it a Good Thing for all. I'm supposed to have an annual check that medications for a couple of conditions are still doing their job (solely based on blood tests - they gave up the well man clinic some years back). They always seem to need a fairly strong prod to issue the necessary, and never trouble me with the results, but I can now see them myself online and have chased up any dodgy one. But having just checked the last results it seems they've dropped the cholesterol test off my portfolio. They'd also dropped a more important one which I have but I spotted that. I know these things cost a bit but surely easier to do them all in one go? It's things like that which make me a bit despondent about efficiency in the NHS
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>> When I've watched some of those GPs Behind Closed Doors programmes I feel I must
>> be in the wrong part of the country. They seem to be a lot more
>> easy going up North, with the meds, sick notes and their time. :-)
I've become convinced that all GPs do is google your symptoms. I can do that and spend more time looking at all the options, then deciding my own course of action. I then consult my GP with my views and they generally concur!
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>>
>> I've become convinced that all GPs do is google your symptoms. I can do that
>> and spend more time looking at all the options, then deciding my own course of
>> action. I then consult my GP with my views and they generally concur!
>>
Miss Z spends a lot of her time treating people who have acted on advice from Google!
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>> I've become convinced that all GPs do is google your symptoms. I can do that
>> and spend more time looking at all the options, then deciding my own course of
>> action. I then consult my GP with my views and they generally concur!
Nothing wrong with being informed.
I've had similar 'all you do is look it up on the internet' thrown at me when providing advice. Thirty years ago I'd have spent hours going through guidance that somebody else spent days keeping up to date.
Professional skill is knowing where to look on the WWW and knowing fact from b*****.
EDIT: I'm in awe of whoever added miss spellings of crude words for spherical objects to the swear filter. For me the ox variant belonged to a guy I worked with all but 30 years ago!!
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 2 Aug 25 at 07:08
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To be fair, most medical diagnosis is simply a matter of observation, questioning, measurement, leading to a likely list of causes in an ordered list. All of which AI (google is a basic form of AI) is perfect for.
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Up to a point I'd agree but you ideally need to know what questions to ask and what to observe for, and what weight to give each element etc, and that really only comes with experience.
Bit like IT support when I was doing it (back in the day when we used to fix stuff, not just blow the image on again, as the people who supported me latterly liked to do, if turning off/on didn't work!!).
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>>To be fair, most medical diagnosis is simply a matter of observation, questioning, measurement, leading to a likely list of causes in an ordered list. All of which AI (google is a basic form of AI) is perfect for.
Absolutely.
Not so good for sticking up your bum though - Zippy's lass will be bored of fishing out smartphones (and perhaps the odd iPAD) from old guys worried about prostate cancer.
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I've just thought of another use for my industrial endoscope.
:)
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>>Fishing out....
Apparently have been some eye-openers! :-D
She has been on one of those TV shows "Doctors behind closed doors" sort of thing and the look on her face is a picture.
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>> From taking the usual fare of tablets when I caught a bug to now having
>> to have a multi-coloured pill dispenser to cope with the multiple doses of two types
>> of blood pressure tablets, statins, etc.
If you need an appliance to manage your meds you score a point or two towards getting PIP.
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0 Tablets ? Pah, amateur ! 15 here plus 3 injections !
Still alive, though !.Just.
Ted
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>> I don't take nun.
>>
Apart from one daily statin tablet, my medication is poured. And regular walkies over the hills and far away, or not so far away . Shap to Appleby today…easy Castles of Eden Stage 2 today, when we talked about joint replacements, heart attacks on distant shores, helicopter evacuations and cameras up places you don’t want.
The joys of walking 14 miles with old folks.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sat 2 Aug 25 at 21:45
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Our good friends live near your walk, in Maulds Meaburn. We visit 3 or 4 times ayear. Love it round there. Funnily enough he was brought up in Bentham, not far from your spot. His parents were headteacher and GP there. Small world.
Ted
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>>
>> Our good friends live near your walk, in Maulds Meaburn.
We ate our lunches sat around the circular table on the large green at MM yesterday. You’ll be familiar with the history of Flass House, the Palladian style mansion built by the Dent family who made their fortune in tea & opium trading in China.
As we walked past Flass House a peep over the wall showed a red Kharmann Ghia parked outside the entrance.
Great day for our walk…Flowerpot figure creations alongside the river Eden as we walked into Appleby. Unfortunately for the third and final stage of the ‘Castles of Eden’ trail, the 18 miles to Kirkby Stephen, I’ll be walking somewhere in Cantabria or Portugals only national park.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sun 3 Aug 25 at 10:16
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We often walk from MM to Crosby Ravensworth for a pint at the Butchers, passing the back of Flass under the bridge which leads from the house to the stables, I think. Keeps the toffs away from us plebs on the public footpath.
My wife is related to the Dents, some of whom moved to Manchester and are buried in the local cemetery. I know the grave locations but the stones are gone. Her cousin is more related and has done some extensive research, especially around Dent village. I'll see if she knows about the Flass connection. I've often thought that it would be interesting to explore some of these less known and minor 'stately homes', particularly the attics and cellars. Full of curiosities, perhaps !
Our friend live by the green at the end of MM with the Lyvennet flowing past the front door ! Flass, until recently was owned by a high up Manchester TV executive or director !
Ted
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>>The joys of walking 14 miles with old folks
I walk every day, but nothing like you like you do, although the walks include some 'cardiac hills' which are supposed to be good for the heart muscle.
Like you, I avoid junk non-food, been making my own wholemeal bread for decades now, I even make a cake once a week :)
I'm 73 next month, so that gives me 20 years on my ole dad who left this world when I was 9.
I do have HBP, but I need that higher pressure at my age to get the claret around my aging body.
:o}
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Statins again. - Lygonos
