Yeah, there are a bunch of endorks (thanks acidrock) out there, but I'm lucky enough to have one of the best!
I left a message last night to say that I'd experimented on myself and stopped my Lipitor for a week, and BOOM, the horrific leg cramps that have wakenened me nightly for almost 2 years are gone!
His response: That's great! He said there are studies that have shown that if the statin is stopped for about a month, then one restarts on 1/2 dose, the cramps often don't return and cholesterol control is re-established. His final comment was "Let's hope your body read the study."
Oh, those horrific leg cramps! I'm still trying to figure out what's up with that! Mine had stopped for a while but, they started up again. So, you think it's the Lipitor that was causing your leg cramps?
so long as he agrees with me, I love mine. When he disagrees, he is obviously incompetent. I see him next week, so check back if you want my up todate feelings.
I don't have an Endo although I've asked for a referral to see one. A few years ago I did have one and he retired. I think there will not be another like him.
I am one of those people who cannot tolerate statins. I took Crestor for 3 years, great numbers, and doctor was pleased. Woke up one morning out of the blue with horrid muscle cramps in my legs. That started a 3 year saga of searching for a statin drug that I could tolerate. Sadly I did not find one and the doctor has given up trying. The muscle cramps are gone when the statin drug was stopped in my case.
I had horrible leg cramps for quite a while, but the ONLY medication I was on was metformin. I stopped it myself and in two days my legs were almost back to normal. I envy you your endo, I have to do everything myself, not "allowed" to see an endo at Kaiser because my A1Cs are too low for their standards (but not mine) and my personal doc is a wonderful person but pretty much follows whatever the ADA says.
NO MY Endo is the best. I too stopped lipitor probably about 6 months ago because of one of the classic side effects myalgia (fancy doctor term for muscle pain). I told her I had stopped and why so she put in my record that I am allergic to statins. My brother in law takes 80 mgs of lipitor a day and has "restless leg syndrome" which is most definitely statin related, but he has tried the alternate cholesterol lowering remedies and his is still chronically high, so now in addition to lipitor he has to take something for restless legs. There are times when I think many doctors basically just buy in to whatever the drug company reps tell them. Thankfully my endo and my primary are actually smart enough to read up on the current info, sounds like your endo is too. Hope your legs read the same study.
I used to have an endo who wasn't great - I basically started seeing him because he was the only adult endo in my area after I "grew out" of the endo at the children's hospital. I saw him for something like 15 years and was never that happy with him.
So I finally got up the nerve to ask to switch about a year ago when I moved to a new area of the city. The endo I got has Type 1 himself and is great! He does keep mentioning statins every time I see him, but he also doesn't push it when I say no (though he does joke that he'll probably be bringing it up at each appointment). He didn't seem that happy with me at my last appointment, but part of that is because I've been stressed lately and haven't done a great job with my diabetes.
My old endo thought an A1c in the 7s was perfect for me and was never willing to work with me to get it lower. My new endo thinks it's too high, although he too is at a loss as to what to do. He says I really need a CGM so I will be jumping on that as soon as the Vibe gets to Canada!
The center I visit has a lot of nurses, doctors, dieticians, etc., and I don’t always know in advance who I will meet this time.
Sometimes they give conflicting advise. Even though they use the journal to keep each other up to date I miss seeing the same person on a regular basis, like you do.
But on the other hand the different perspectives sometimes forces you to consider more aspects of the situation, so on average I feel the system works.
My endo is great. I really do all my own self-management and diabetes experiment, but she really works with me to tweak things for better control, and she helped me get my Dexcom. And I love to travel, so she's helped me get all the things I need to travel safely (and my endo recently sent me an email asking for travel advice for another of her patients, a T1 going to India). I also have a great GP. I think I am lucky in the doc department.
I was on statins for many a moon. One morning I woke up and God told me to quit taking them. So I did, much to the chagrin of my Doctor.
With statins: HDL 71, LDL 91, Trigs 62 Without statins: HDL 87, LDL 87, Trigs 57
This looks like an improvement to me.
So I would appreciate if some informed person could explain to me why I was taking them in the first place? I had muscle pain in the legs and memory issues such as forgetting my wife's name for about 10 seconds. The memory issues nearly got me fired from my job. Of course my Doctor insists that there are very few reported side effects with statins. Yes! Nobody reports them because they are ignored.
My endo is great. He is ethnic Chinese and thinks outside of the box. He has helped me on several issues including some not related to diabetes. My previous endo was Head of Medicine at Mississauga General Hospital. He was also tremendous. I seem to be lucky with endos but not always with family doctors.
I liked my endo but she's moving or perhaps has moved already so I'm starting w/ her partner in August. I generally have picked them by sort of different criteria. When I lived in Champaign, IL, it's kind of out in the country and I picked the young, Indian doc figuring correctly, as it turned out, that she'd be underselected and easier to get into than the old, white head of the department guy at the geographically convenient clinic. She was very good at math as once she did a "bolus wizard" type of calculation about something we were talking about, like 2 possibilities, on paper in like 4 seconds and I was like "woah." The settings she picked for my pump, based on my logs (which were basically garbage...), were almost perfect. A few very small adjustments and I was *acidrockin'*!
Then we moved and I found another endo, just called a clinic. She was also very bright. I had a few issues, two hypos requiring assistance (both at family gatherings. I believe MrsAcidRock had them under control however other relatives called the paramedics). The second time, I had a weird heartbeat on the paramedics' EKG and they were like "uh, you need to see your doctor IMMEDIATELY..." so I went through a bunch of cardio tests but, when I saw the endo and said "could being zonked out on insulin have gotten my heart out of whack..." and she said "maybe, we can't be sure...without more tests..." I blew off more tests.
The office I go to is somewhat small, 3x docs, and there's a much bigger place at the far end of another suburb. I've thought of going there, if only because they might offer better hours and more support from staff or whatever but I've been pretty lazy about it. As long as the RXs don't stop, I'm cool...
Have you had memory loss since taking statins? That's another nasty side effect. People have been incorrectly diagnosed with dementia & early stage Alzheimer's due to statins.
Wonder how statin use is justified for heart health when it causes muscle loss & muscle pain when the heart's a muscle?
Let's hope your leg cramps don't return, because those suckers really hurt. I got myself an adjustable slant-board for calf stretches and an electric massager. Also IMS Intra-Muscular Stimulation (a form of acupuncture) helps. Try magnesium and malic acid supplements.
When on statins, your CoQ10 is depleted. So a CoQ10 supplement is a must. No Doctor ever prescribed that for me.
We're all individuals. I also quit them cold turkey without asking permission first. I also, at about the same time, went low carb and lost a bunch of weight. With statins, total was around 200, can't remember the breakdown. Without statins, LDL is 50 something, HDL is 90 something, trigs are in the 40s.
I was having some annoying muscle spasms on statins. That's the only irritating side effect I observed, but for reasons too boring to go on about, I'm pretty sure there was at least one other.
Thanks Alan. I take mag and CoQ10 (most of the time). Haven't found anything to relieve them though, except getting up, making funny noises and trying to flatten my foot. Even tried my TENS unit lol. I FORBID them, they will not come back!!!
