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Nightly leg bone/muscle pain

Beader34
1 Recommendation

This last Monday nite I started experiencing bone/muscle pain in my right lower leg, right above the ankle when I went to bed. During the day it is fine, but the minute my leg sees the bed, it starts getting pain. I talked to my Doctor's nurse and found that this could happen because of the statin drugs I am on for my angina. She told me to get CoQ10, a vitamin which replenishes the cells that the statin drugs drain and this should help. I took 100 mg. last nite, 2 of them to get right into system and nothing helped. Does it take several days to start working.
Because of all this pain, I can barely sleep at nite and have to have my leg dangle down .
I need to hear from others regarding this. I read where many women have it for a long time and I just can't go on like this.

Explore topics in this discussion:

Exercise Cancer Heart failure Muscle cramps Angina Crestor Zocor Zetia Advil High triglycerides Simvastatin Diltiazem Breast cancer Hypertension Pain Bone cancer Heart attack Congestive heart failure

21 replies

grace5

Hi Beader, you're certainly not alone in this, maybe you should talk to your doctor about the statin dosage you're on. I can't take any statins because of the excruciating pain I suffered, I tried several. If you put women/statins in your search engine you'll find lots of information or you could put statins in the little 'find it' box at the top right of this page to see all the previous posts on the subject. I know how horrible that pain is, I truly sympathise.
Hugs,
Lidia xx

martzj

Hi Beader,

I see Lidia has found you so you are in good hands. : )

Hang in there,
Jaynie

Beader34

Hi Lydia,
Thank you so much for your reply. I know I am not alone, but that still doesn't help the pain.
So if you can't take statins, then what are you on to lower your cholesterol?? I had absolutely no problem when I was on 20 mg of simvastin, but it didn't lower my cholesterol enough, even though I have such high good cholesterol, the average was not below 200.
Was your pain only at night?? I guess because I have had breast cancer and preuteren cancer, I am thinking this could be bone cancer, but the nurse thinks I don't need to worry about this which is a relief. Have you tried the CoQ10???
Mimi

gracie62

Beader:

I was switched from Diltiazem CD to Diltiazem HCL. Within days, I had severe leg cramping at night mainly. It would start in my toes and go up to my knees. This may or may not be related for you, but worth asking your doctor about. My statin was okay. I had been on Lovostatin for a while. They switched me back and the cramps went away within days. I am not on a diuretic for now. Just something to consider.

Dianna

grace5

Hi Mimi, I have to confess I don't worry about my cholesterol now, I read just about everything about statins for women and decided that the evidence that they benefit women at all is too weak to be convincing. Of course I'm not advocating that anyone should stop their meds, this was my own personal decision. Thanks for the Q10 advice by the way, but I'm in England so I have to pay through the nose for it, but it's worth it!
Diana has a valid point, some people tolerate statins very well but get muscle pain from other drugs, trial and error is the only way to find out. I stopped taking statins for a week and the pain and cramping stopped, then I took just one and that night I was in agony again so for me it was obvious.
I've sent you a link so you can make up your own mind about the women/statins controversy.
(PS. My total cholesterol is way over 200.)

http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/pdf/10.2217/14796678.5.1.1
I hope you find the cause of your pain and a solution, not sleeping and constant pain just wears you down. Some people take statins in the morning with their doctors blessing, that didn't help me but you never know until you try!
Lidia xx

Lynnedz56

I have congestive heart failure as well and I had pain and cramping in my lower leg before I was diagnosed with the congestive heart failure. Fluid was building up in my lower legs. Also, I had pain in that area when I had a blood clot in my leg. I would wonder if it is only one leg. Didn't mean to scare you, but those were my experiences. Now that I'm on the right meds and I do take simvastitin, it's ok.

Kennarina

Hi Beader

<< "...I have had breast cancer and preuteren cancer, I am thinking this could be bone cancer, but the nurse thinks I don't need to worry about this .." >>

Unless your nurse is a board-certified oncologist, DO NOT take her medical reassurance with 100% certainty. You have a pre-existing condition that could also indicate a possible cancer link.

XOXOXO


http://www.myheartsisters.org

mandyblue

Dear Beader,

When one is experiencing the type of pain in your leg with muscle and bone pain, and you are taking a statin drug...then the statin drug should be one of the first places to check for problems. It is one of the serious side-effects that are possible for statin drugs.

I have been taking statin drugs for years, along with fibrates for high triglycerides and hypertension drugs.
I have been on Zocor 80mg for at least the past 8 years+ and had been complaining of additional pain in my legs, bone and muscles. The pain was always attributed to my auto-immune disease by the doctors and I have always had blood-work every 3 months. Even so I ended up in the ER and hospital with what turned out to be Hyponatremia and Rhabdmyolysis, which has caused serious permanent muscle, joint and kidney damage. It could have been prevented if they had checked the statin drug as the culprit that it turned out to be. I promise you that this is not something that you want to add to your already serious list of health problems, especially with it being something preventable. If your Cardiologist will not further investigate the statin drug treatment as the source, then please talk to a good Nephrologist. I know that statin drugs help many people without any problems, and the did help me for a while. But I promise you when they do cause side-effects, they can be very serious. I would hate for anyone else to go through what happened to me if it can be prevented. I wish the doctors had taken me seriously about the extra pain and I wish the doctors had taken the side-effects of statin drugs seriously. It is not something that they would like to experience either. Maybe if they did, more would not be so eager to prescribe it or at least they would be more vigilant in testing, when a patient complains. I have since found research that indicates that the combination of statins with fibrates gives a 35% greater chance of bad side-effects. These are just my opinions for you. Most of my health problems have been more from aggressive treatments with high dosages than with my disease process itself.

Please check this out with your doctors.

My best wishes and prayers to you for good health.
Most sincerely,
Mandy

Beader34

I was originally on 20 mg of symvastin but after my heart attack with clear arteries, they put me on 40 mg of symvastin. I never had any problems with the 20 mg. So when I return from our trip, I will immediately see my doctor. The pain only occurs at night and they gave me coQ10 as well as Advil. I will stop the Advil when I get home. The CoQ10 I will continue. I will be having a long discussion about all this. Thanks for your note. I am sure glad I found this site!!
Mimi

ellen128

i went off of all of my cholesterol drugs, and then my total cholesterol was 499. needless to say, i jumped into my home and started taking crestor.

within 3 weeks, i was in amazing pain. so now, i am just taking flaxseed oil and want to find a place to get powdered garlic.

this really was so scarey! if any of you who suffered severe pain from statins and/or zetia..pleas tell your story~ thanks! Ellen

ellen128

I have had to stop all statins as well as zetia - the muscle pain in my legs was just TOO MUCH! HOPE you will research the term "statin myopathy" - i feel you will find out a lot when you do this. the statins DO lower our levels, but to what benefit? I am hoping to hear from a lot more people regarding this amazingly horrid side effect of any/all statins.

ellen128

I so do reinforce this for you. My legs were amazingly painful and so i had to stop taking statins.

i hope that you are able to go online and research this.

some docs will give us pain meds, muscle relaxers, etc. however; we need to have them know that the amazingly horrid pain is definitely from the statins!

ellen128

amazing - as my pain was much worse at night - i was thinking my problem was "restless legs" - B UT

i went off my statin, and my zetia - was feeling fine - but as i went on crestor due to my last bloodwork saying my ldl was 499 - after just 3 weeks on crestor - my legs were just hurting so much that I did not care if I lived or died. i felt like i just would not want a life filled with the pain i felt from the statins. i am now taking flaxseed oil along with lecithin and going to get garlic powder. one thing i know for sure is that i am not going to have that PAIN...never again.

scarey!

ellen128

thanks be to god that when i got off the statins the pain went away. i am now taking fish oil, lecithin and flaxseed oil - i will not ever EVER go back on ANY statin!

Beader34

Hi Everyone who was kind enough to respond to my nite time leg pain.
You won't believe this, but after 3 weeks, it completely disappeared and my doctor feels that I sprained my ankle without even knowing it. I am still on 40mg of Simvastin and 125 mg Diltizan HCL with absolutely no leg pains at all. It is a very rare thing that I might get a muscle cramp and then I get out of bed and just dangle it and walk a few steps and it goes away. I am careful not to stretch my legs in bed as before, this seemed to start the cramps. I think I have been mighty lucky this way I guess. Thanks again for all your support, it is so nice that there is a wonderful group of women out there and we can all talk to when in need. Mimi

ellen128

This is a very painful side effect of statins, and it would be good for you to do some online research. There is a lot of research online which will explain this side effect called statin myopathy. Which statin and what dosage are you on? I totally sympathize with you on that issue as I suffered so much from the pain which also started to hurt during the day. Let me know how you are doing.

ellen128

ps: the only way that this will stop is when you go off the statin. Unfortunately, that is the truth.

wondering48

Hello Beader...I was also getting bad muscle pains from the simvastatin 40mg I was taking and had
to stop. I now take Welchol 3 tablets 2x a day and
it has helped greatly. No more of those leg cramps
and, yes, my cholestrol level has gone down
because I watch the food I eat plus am going
to rehab doing exercise on the machines.
I use to be a couch potato and all I did was
pack on the pounds and felt so depressed
and lousy. I am losing weight slowly but do
feel better. I have more weight to lose but when
you hang in there it can be done....just have to
make up your mind.

ellen128

Despite the fact that I know through experience that I am unable to take the statins, which was the only way my ldl was controlled (so far), it makes me feel so much better to read your posts that you have experienced this severe pain from statins (statin myopathy) the same as I have. So thank you, thank you sooo much.

Stay well.

Beader34

Ellen,
I HAVEN'T experienced the pain to the extent that you have, but I have had muscle cramps as has my husband.
I am still on the statins as well as Diltazen HCL.
Mimi

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