[Howard Lefkowitz]

Over the past several months I have developed severe leg pains, (in both legs)first in my hamstring muscles and then into my calf muscles. These are not joint pains but are in the muscles. The pain seems to be getting worse with time and now sometimes my right leg feels like it has fallen asleep. I am 72 years old and my Doctor thinks it is simply age related. I spend many hours per week at the gym and do both Cardio and Light weight lifting for exercise. When I am exercising my legs the pain is greatly reduced. I started to think about why both of my legs where affected, why exercise relieves the pain, what did I do a few months ago that could have started this. About 3 months ago my blood pressure was about 130 over 78 and the Cardiologist thought it was a little too high. So they started me on Benicar HT 12.5mg every day. My blood pressure dropped to 118 over 67 after several weeks where it has remained. I was wondering if this could be the cause of the problem? Could the blood flow in my legs be reduced which would cause the pain? I am going to stop taking the Benicar today and see what the affect is on the leg pains. I am in excellent health, have asthma and osteoartheritis and am quite active. I take lipitor, cellebrex and clarinex. Thanks for any help.

[mpvt]

That sounds an awfull lot like sciatica pain to me.Ask the doctor for a ct scan on your lumbar spine.....Dave

[lane413]

I took lipitor and it caused severe muscle pain, including my heart. I stayed on lipitor for 3or 4 yrs b4 it became a problem. I hope you're take coQ10 enzymes pills. But to answer you question, it could be the benicar hct. Benicar is an arb and hct is hctz a diruetic. I was taking zestoretic and suffered pain in my legs and lower back. Alot of drs refuse to believe that a pain has these pains. Ask your pharmacist what is the side effects of your med and you'll most likely get the correct answer.

I literally went blind in my right eye from the lisinopril and toprol bp med. Once i stopped both meds and had eye surgery, my sight was restored to normal.

I also took celebrex and vioxx..celebrex caused stomach to bleed and vioxx caused me to have a heart attack.

I now always check with my pharmacist bcuz he quit knowledgeable and very helpful.. Hope this helps you.

[Howard Lefkowitz]

Thanks Lane413. I have been taking Lipitor for several years and did not guess that it could possibly be the cause. I stopped the Benicar on Sat. and my legs felt much better. I skipped it today as well and they are even better. I will skip it for the rest of next week and see if the pains are gone. You are right I don't think my Doctor is that familiar with the side effects of these drugs. I will check with the Pharmacist.