If you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol, your doctor may have prescribed statin. If the levels of cholesterol in your blood are too high, you are at an increased risk of suffering serious complications, including a heart attack, stroke, and even death. Statin is formulated to block a specific substance that the liver needs in order to produce cholesterol. As a result, taking this medication can allow your liver to actually remove cholesterol from the blood.
While statin can be an extremely effective medication for reducing blood cholesterol levels, a number of adverse side effects are associated with it that could be detrimental to your health. There are various types of statin medications, including fluvastatin, atorvastatin, pitavastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin, and rosuvastatin. If you are concerned about the side effects of this medication, or you are experiencing any side effects, you might want to talk to your doctor and stop taking it.
Below, we highlight 9 side effects that are associated with a statin.
1. Pain in the Muscles
Muscle pain is one of the most common side effects reported by people who take a statin. This pain can include soreness and/or weakness in the muscles. The pain can range in severity from a mild nuisance to severe and debilitating. In fact, many people who experience muscle pain as a result of taking statin report that they are unable to participate in regular, non-strenuous activities. Furthermore, the muscle pain caused by this medication can be lasting; meaning that even if you stop taking it, you can continue to experience pain.
In rare cases, statin medications can cause rhabdomyolysis, damage to the muscles that can be life-threatening. Rhabdomyolysis not only causes intense muscle pain, but it can also damage the liver and cause kidney failure, which can result in death; however, the risk of developing this condition is rare, as only a handful of cases per million patients have been reported.
