Stopping Statins

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I'm wondering if anyone else who has stopped statins has had a similar experience... and if yes, how long did it last? Did you try anything to help?

Here's the details: I recently stopped taking simvastatin after HDL levels increased significantly over about 1.5 years of eating very low carb. The prescribing physician agreed that I could stop based on recent test results.

At about the same time I stopped, I went for a training run (13.18 miles) - it was hot and I sweated a whole lot. During that run, I had a lot of low BG's (I'm a type 1 diabetic) and was constantly taking glucose tablets. Also, I started experiencing leg cramps towards the last 2-3 miles, indicating electrolyte depletion, despite taking 3 Nuun tablets beforehand. Overall, there was probably a lot more walking than running and it was a terrible run. For the rest of the day, I took several more Nuun tablets and still had leg and foot cramping.

Over the next week, I continued to have muscle issues and added a lot of salt and potassium to foods, in addition to continuing to take electrolyte tablets, magnesium, and a multi containing calcium, magnesium, and others. Nothing seemed to help muscles as I continued to increase. By the time the 4th day came, I had increased all the way up to where my consumption on days 4-8 were at 15g-20g of sodium, 3g-6g of potassium, 1.2g magnesium... extremely high levels; and yet my muscles were not back to normal condition. There was improvement on day 8 (I ran a half marathon race this day with only mild cramping); but then the 9th day, I awoke with serious cramps again in leg muscles.

I figured there was something seriously wrong... I was supplementing plenty, but maybe electrolytes were not reaching muscles for some reason. Finally, I put 2 and 2 together and realized that I had stopped simvastatin at the same time this all started. So I messaged the dr., who has sent in for lab tests (I'm going to make it in to get blood drawn tomorrow morning), but he thinks I might be depleted just from pushing too hard running. I've been supplementing way more than enough for that to make sense. I'm wondering if the muscle issues are not electrolyte related at all, despite that the symptoms are very similar to what I've experienced when it was definitely the problem (and much smaller supplementation levels actually worked in those cases).

Google tells me that some have had muscle weakness with statins, but I didn't have these issues for the many years I was taking simvastatin. I've taken Co-Q10 and B-vitamins, but am wondering if anyone else has stopped a statin and simultaneously started to experience muscle cramping and pain. If yes, how long did it last? Did you do anything to help alleviate it? If yes, did it work or not?

Thanks in advance!

spiriteagle99

My husband had the opposite problem, the statins gave him muscle cramps.

jame0529

I never had any issues.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

My husband had the opposite problem, the statins gave him muscle cramps.

This is what Google told me should be the case and that taking CoQ10 helps with that. But for me, I took CoQ10 while taking simvastatin without problems. I still take CoQ10 and will probably continue for some time until I get past this or new information becomes available. But these muscle issues started as soon as I stopped simvastatin.

Need2Exerc1se

Call your physician. Tell them what happened and ask for advice.

scooter5106

Statins cause muscle pain in some people who take them but wouldn't affect you when you stop taking them if it never affected you while you were on them. In general statins are great medications that significantly improve mortality in many disease states.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Call your physician. Tell them what happened and ask for advice.

As mentioned, I messaged the dr. and am in the process of getting labs. His initial assumption does not fit what happened, so perhaps labs will provide better information and perhaps not.

scooter5106 wrote: »

Statins cause muscle pain in some people who take them but wouldn't affect you when you stop taking them if it never affected you while you were on them. In general statins are great medications that significantly improve mortality in many disease states.

That's what I was finding, so it doesn't fit.

Electrolyte depletion doesn't make sense because the symptoms remained even after replenishing at an extreme level. This started when I stopped taking simvastatin, but there is nothing more than correlation as to whether it is the cause - or WHY it could/would be the cause.

I was hoping someone else might have insight, but I guess not.

mph323

It seems like the only variable left is the statins themselves. Is it possible to go back on them for a while and see if that makes any difference in the cramping?

T1DCarnivoreRunner

mph323 wrote: »

It seems like the only variable left is the statins themselves. Is it possible to go back on them for a while and see if that makes any difference in the cramping?

I've considered it, but am hoping the problem will go away without having to go that route. I'm going to see what the lab results show and what the dr. thinks after that... maybe by then another week will have passed and we can see if there is improvement with time.

RedSierra

I'm interested in the cause of your problems and hope you will post an update after your labs. I also take Simvastatin and hope to get off it.

If you take a multivitamin or B supplements, you might look into toxic reactions. I recently stopped taking a multivitamin because I was baffled about high blood pressure when mine is usually normal. I started the multivitamin several months ago and my BP has mysteriously been up since then. I didn't keep track of the interent links, but read that some people's BP will go up with too much Vit E. Sure enough, I stopped the multi and my BP went down.

I also read that some vitamin pills have B12 units in the many thousands, which can be toxic for some people. Check your supplement labels. This may not be the reason for your problems at all, but it's something to consider.

Your doctor might also check for totally unrelated causes of cramping. Good luck.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

RedSierra wrote: »

I'm interested in the cause of your problems and hope you will post an update after your labs. I also take Simvastatin and hope to get off it.

If you take a multivitamin or B supplements, you might look into toxic reactions. I recently stopped taking a multivitamin because I was baffled about high blood pressure when mine is usually normal. I started the multivitamin several months ago and my BP has mysteriously been up since then. I didn't keep track of the interent links, but read that some people's BP will go up with too much Vit E. Sure enough, I stopped the multi and my BP went down.

I also read that some vitamin pills have B12 units in the many thousands, which can be toxic for some people. Check your supplement labels. This may not be the reason for your problems at all, but it's something to consider.

Your doctor might also check for totally unrelated causes of cramping. Good luck.

I have taken multis for a long time and haven't changed that. AFTER the problems started, I increased sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and zinc. Then after I made the connection with stopping simvastatin, I decreased those and increased CoQ10. From what I read, the muscle issue is from a deficiency with CoQ10 caused by statins and supposedly a B-complex helps as well (I'm already getting that).

My BP was good before stopping, but haven't checked since.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I will have see what the dr. thinks... as to electrolyte levels on lab tests:

Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Magnesium were towards the low end, but within a normal range.
Calcium was closer towards the center of the middle of the normal range.

There were several other tests, but as soon as I connected symptom timing with stopping simvastatin, I realized the symptoms might not be electrolyte-related.

The only tests that were higher than the normal range are BUN and AST/SGOT.

Sodium 138 mg/dl
Potassium 4.1 mmol/l
Chloride 102 mmol/l
Calcium 9.3 mg/dl
Magnesium 2.1 mg/dl
Phosphorous 4.5 mg/dl

Will see what he thinks and then see if he has other ideas, other tests, or just give it time. Symptoms seem to have slightly improved yesterday and today so far, so if improvement keeps up at the same rate; I could be back to normal in another 1-2 weeks. If so, then I would see no reason to re-start taking the statin.