Welcome franzee. I'm a physician in the US who finds himself at odds with much of western medicine. I prescribe certain medications (statins, vaccines) to my patients because it's the standard of care, but in my heart I question whether I'm helping or harming. The literature, as you note, can be misleading. For example, a drug that touts its reduction in cardiovascular deaths might require treating 100 people for 3 years to prevent 1 death, while the other 99 risk muscle aches, liver damage, memory loss and diabetes. I look forward to hearing your point of view on some of these issues. Voted, resteemed and followed.
Good to meet you kunschj :), it seems to me as these are all possible side effects of statins, the gold standard of lipid lowering treatment and certainly the first line agent here in Australia to prevent cardiovascular events such as STEMI's and NSTEMI's which lead to the progression of acute coronary syndromes, which is what we aim to prevent. Rosuvastatin and Atorvastatin are the most prescribed statins here in Australia, but mainly depending on drug metabolism to prevent the increased risk of muscle aches and pains. If the patient is telling us that they have muscle aches we will refer them to get their creatinine kinase levels checked to make sure they withdraw from therapy before rhabdomyolysis occurs which is unlikely as it is a serious case. Any who I say this because, statins are a great therapy for their indication and many of the side effects can be managed easily and withdrawn if need be, but as I say benefits always must outweigh risks. We need to factor in the patients lipid levels (obviously), family history, BMI, previous cardiovascular events etc, before we know we can give the drug any ways. Therefore, the drug is given for good reason, there are definitely benefits with the treatment.
Muscle aches with statins are also more common in those with low levels of vitamin D. Taking a CoQ10 supplement may also help prevent muscle aches with statins.
Very interesting, thank you for the input, that is something new I learned. Usually because of increased sun exposure especially towards northern states here in Australia, Vit D levels are usually on par, but supplements could definitely help patients in lower orientated states.