I was on medication in and out as I develop side effects to the statin drugs. I was on Lipitor, then on Pravachol and lastly on Crestor. None of them had problems loweting the Choesterol levels, but muscle and joint pain even with Vit D and Co Q10 as prescribed my physician. However, I came off crestor yesterday as I started feeling Dizzy. I am normally a "healthy", active energetic person. Now my doc thinks we should try Zetia which is in a different family of drugs.
The Fenofibrate can cause bloating indigestion, stomach pain, and increased liver enzymes or liver problems in addition to other side effects. The Zetia can cause some of these too. Have they tested your liver enzymes yet? If so were they normal? There are other drugs for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides that work as well. You can ask him to have you try Lipitor (generic) and there is now a generic Niaspan. I know because my husband is on it.
The side effects from Zetia....muscle weakness, joint pain, upper respiratory infectikns resemble the symptoms of malabsorption of Vitamin A,D, E and K. Our bodies need cholestorol to help coat our nerves and help with brain function and it naturally increases as we get older, so why are we trying to lower it, could this be why we are seeing so many people with dementia?
If it were me I would give pravastatin a chance, but if I had the same side effects and I could not live with them, I would try something like Zetia. You could also add a fenofibrate like Tricor to lower your TGLs as well, very safe and no side effects. This will help lower your overall number but will not impact your LDL which is you main issue. You really need to get that under 130 with no other risk factors.
Vytorin does a remarkable job of reducing your Cholesterol, much better than Zocor (Simvastatin) alone. However, Zetia doesn't seem to add anything to the picture as far as preventing heart disease is concened. But read this about Zocor:
-"Zocor Users Not Warned of Risks:
The FDA's June 2011 safety alert is the most serious of many warnings regarding Zocor and associated risks of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis. Zocor manufacturer Merck & Co.
t find the right medicine...Lipitor caused severe muscle weakness, Zetia caused all kind of digestive problems and Pravachol zapped my energy...my count actually went up 30 points while taking WelChol! My doctor is telling me that I have no other choices of medicine to lower my count (total 285, HDL 106 VLDL 21, LDL 188, Triglycerids 106.) My sister is having the same problem so I guess this problem is a family thing. I am really troubled by my doctor's lack of concern.
t treat these until they get over 150. Your doctor has weighed the risk of side effects to the benefit of your treatment and made this decision. I would not be too concerned about enzymes that high, I have seen these well over 300 and as I said, doctors don't usually give it a second thought until it spikes over 150.
I have been on them for many years as I was unable to lower my LDL with diet and exercise alone. They have worked well and I have had no side effects, but everyone is different. Most of these can be replaced by the generic Simvastatin. It's cheap and is the basis of many of the meds out there. For instance, it's the generic for Zocor plus Vytorin is Simvastatin with Zetia, a Fenofibrate for lowering tri's.
Statins work in the liver and every commercial I have seen advises not to take if you have liver problems. Zetia works in the intestines.
Was the Zetia working?
If my memory serves me correctly, MikeS is taking statins and he had a TP. He is far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am and hopefully he will see this post and give his input.
Zetia is part of a class of drugs called cholesterol absorption inhibitors.
If it is a true allergic reaction you will want to find the source quickly and stop the medication before more serious side effects develop. Any medication can react in this manner. I have a list of 14 that cause (among other side effects) itching. Red may very well be correct, it could be the Lovaza but have this confirmed before you take any action.
Best of luck to you. Please let us know how you are doing.
AST on upper end of normal at 40. The doctor said to stop the Lipitor...but stay on the Zetia...... and retest in 1-1/2 weeks which he did this past Sept. 30th. His ALP came down to normal at 91, his ALT stayed the same at 79, his AST stayed relatively the same at 42, but his GGTP went quite high at 240. The doctor's office called and told him to come in next week.
I finally went to a specialist in Baltimore who read my history which showed all the meds I was taking and he noticed that I was taking Zetia and told me that he believed Zetia caused chronic coughing in some people; so he looked it up on his computer and sure enough, that was one of the warnings. I stopped the Zetia and the coughing disappeared completely within a couple of weeks. The point here is that medicines, while helping one problem, frequently can cause another.
I just got off of zetia and welchol. I could not take statins. I tried them all. Used to take Niaspan and fenofibrate but they took me off cause both cause problems in some and had not 'reduced the incidence of cardiac events'. I think they have concluded that neither do Zetia, except when used with a statin, so it is the statin doing the work. I also think Welchol has been shown to not reduce cardiac events too. not sure. I am on Repatha. Third bi weekly shot.
I'd look up each medication or supplement you take, and see if pink night sweats is a known side effect. (When someone has been getting too much beta-carotene, for example, their skin can turn orange.) Talk to your doctor to see if this is a known side-effect from anything.
I was on Femara for almost 2 years with bad side effects. Switched to tamoxifen for the last 6 months. I also take zetia and lipitor for cholesterol as well as the usual vitamins/minerals (CA,C,D,Selenium, OsteoBiflex, zinc,multi,E).
My new oncologist ran a CA27.29 test which showed a reading of 45 which is considered high. Initially, he wanted to run a PET scan, but decided that we could rerun the test again in 3 months to see if the Lipitor or something else was affecting it.
I am 55 yrs old female and went for a physical and was told i had high blood presure, that day it was 144/92. I had a blood test and it showed high cholesteral 257. Doctor put me on 10 MG Lisinopril. I took the tab for 5 days on the fifth day my heart was pounding so hard in my chest and i felt like someone was sitting on my chest. This happened a few more time over the next week and it would go away after a few min.
22 days on sovaldi-olysio-no side effects,not even a headache.And to this life long non responder who has done and failed with everything that has been on the market,this combo is working.Cant believe I am getting better and not suffering like I did with all the previous poison.Its like Dr. Bones McCoy from Star Trek brought this stuff back from the future.
I woke this morning with aches and pains and have been experiencing a headache on and off all day that is when I am not SLEEPING. Honestly I am not complaining especially since I had expected much worse. My question is do the symptoms change or/and get worse as treatment continues. I would assume they do get worse since the meds build up in your body. I have 3 kids ages 16,11,and 7.
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