Had the same problem with the other statins, muscle aches stopped after about a week after discontinuing. Lipitor worked for me for over a year before problem started. I developed the side effect in July and I still have severe muscle and joint pain. Doctor told me blood test normal and it wasn't the lipitor but can't tell me what the cause is. Anybody else have this experience?
How long does muscle pain as a side effect last after discontinuing lipitor (statins)? I have 2 mnth
Question posted by rkeenanjr on 6 Oct 2011
Last updated on 22 December 2021 by Harsini
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
27 Answers
Harsini
22 Dec 2021
I use pravastatin 10 mg then I have pain in muscle in my leg with numbness and stiffness in my knee joint , can I stop using pravastatin or not
Joyce J Jordan
22 June 2021
If you are taking a med for cholesterol AND a med to reduce stomach acid/heartburn, GERD, the two WILL cause muscle pain. Eliminate the need for cholesterol med by changing your diet; start a
Mediterranean diet, use EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL for cooking/ baking instead of soy or corn oil. The extra virgin olive oil is very mild tasting compared to olive oil that is not. Baking- it will NOT affect taste of baked goods. Olive oil also aids your immune system & being from a green plant it lowers cholesterol & helps you lose weight & helps prevent dementia/alzheimers disease. A single glass of dark red wine & eating grapes also help prevent dementia/alzheimers. Very few European countries where they drink wine w/ dinner & supper have low numbers of people w/ dementia/alzheimers disease. These things will help w/ preventing heart disease & artery disease.
I am the only one in my family without heart disease or stroke, or diabetes !!! Using this diet WILL keep you very healthy, & helping boost your immune system may help against stress & viruses or any illnesses you are exposed to.
Zimubu
28 Feb 2020
I've been taking Lipitor for 2 years with no problems until the last 3 months. Have pain from head to toe, mostly in my hands, feet and upper arm muscles, and also muscle weakness. Thought it was because I'm getting older. I'm very active and this is unusual for me. I mentioned this to my sister, who is a nurse, and she said her husband had the same thing and had to stop taking Lipitor. So I have stopped the Lipitor for 2 days now and feel so much better. I'm going to let my doctor know so I can start something else.
SamtheBam
29 Feb 2020
Statins ruined my life. They have so many severe side affects that blood tests don’t reveal. If your doctor tells you that your blood work looks good and your health problems aren’t related to statins, that probably isn’t accurate. If you have muscle and joint pain, fatigue, brain fog, memory problems, flu like symptoms, sleep problems, stomach issues, depression, and many other odd health issues that can’t be explained, it is probably statins. I say this because I am experiencing all of these and more health issues that years of blood tests, and several different doctors have not determined anything wrong with me. After several years of going to doctors with no diagnosis, it makes you start to doubt yourself or you appear to be a hypochondriac. After over 30 years of hurting, not sleeping, fatigued, running fevers and all of the other symptoms I mentioned above, I stopped telling my doctors that anything is wrong with me.
It hasn’t done any good so far. They just keep prescribing pain, inflammation, sleeping, and other meds that doesn’t really help. I have given up hope that I’ll ever be normal again. I just live with it.
Linda Sy
8 Jan 2020
Within one month of starting Atorvastatin I had tendinitis in both wrists and arms interfering with life in general- hair drying, opening jars etc. Dr added Co Q 10 Ubiquitol which helped some but not enough. I had to tell him my whole life was affected by the pain. After seeing a chiropractor and even having ultrasound for 4 months I had enough and told Dr I could not continue my 10 mg nightly. He reduced the amount to 5mg every other night. Within in 7 days my pain was reduced by 70 percent. Now months later my pain is basically gone and no treatments or exercises either. Do Not let your Dr. keep you on this terrible drug. It almost ruined my life . It makes me so sad to think of so many elderly people being told it is arthritis and it is NOT in most cases. I was very active with sports etc and basically they all came to a halt.
I am a 67 year old female who tells everyone I know who is in Pain if they are on a statin drug- find an alternative. I am going to try arginine plus and see if that helps . My cholesterol is at a good level now and I am on bp meds which make me very tired. But the pain is severe with statins and was ruining my life. Do not sit by and not speak up how you feel. I would still be on it if I had not said to my Dr." I cannot live like this anymore!"
I read that there are more side effects with the 10 mg than with the higher doses. I had taken lots of Aleve and it helped the pain but hurt my stomach. Take control of your own health. Stopping for a week or so will give you the answer you need to be in control of your pain.
Icontrl
6 Nov 2019
I took Crestor (Rosuvastatin) about 5 years ago and I noticed that I had really bad muscle aches. I told my doctor and he told me to stop and switched me to Pravachol (Pravastatin). I took Pravachol for 4 years @40mg daily. I had blood work done 2 months ago that came back not good for bad cholesterol, so my doctor told me to double the Pravachol to 80mg daily. From that point on I’ve been having severe muscle pain in my whole shoulder area to my elbow. I also had muscle pain on the left side of my head and in my calves. I’ve been taking pain meds and muscle relaxers non stop, which doesn’t really help and went to physical therapy for 2 agonizing weeks. I had no idea these “statins” could cause so much pain! I just bought a bunch of vitamins (CoQ10, D, fish oil, turmeric & B12). It’s been 2 days since I’ve stopped and I hope the pain goes away soon. I will update again when it does go away.
llamoria
16 Aug 2019
I was put on Atorvastatin 3 months ago, and started experiencing awful back and shoulder and neck pain and cramping. I thought I did something at the gym at first. I tried the chiropractor and all over the counter meds before heading to urgent care and my dr. in tears because I literally couldn't sit because the achey cramping was worse then. He put me on a week of prednisone and valium for spasms. This lessened the pain, but its never gone away. I took my self off atorvastatin after a few long sleepless nights laying still on my back trying to sleep while feeling every joint and muscle ache at the same time. I woke in the morning, thought "what in gods name is wrong with me" and decided to read the side effect to this med... of which I had most!! I could have cried right then!! an answer!! I called dr. and he switched me to Pravastatin... This didn't change a thing..it only added a foggy head to my situation. I stopped that also.
its only been a couple days off them, but the achey crampy feelings I get in my back and body and joints is still here.. I can only pray in time it goes away. I wish I could go back in time. I would never ever take this med again.
professionalservice
17 Aug 2019
Remember Doctors only address symptoms with medical prescriptions. They do not know how to address the causes of your symptoms because they were never educated on that aspect of their medical education. It appears that you have gotten on the merry-go-round of medicines. Your doctor will pump you full of drugs until your body collapses. One of my close friends did everything his doctor said and took every pill he wrote a script for, until he wound up in a wheelchair. Now he can't even get out of bed.
I suggest that you go to a Naturalist Medical Physician to wean you off of all drugs and reset your immune system the way that nature created you. The changing of medicines; the changing of doctors or even going to a specialist will be a fruitless effort on your part with no results.
And praying won't help either. No human should live in pain but taking pills is not getting to the cause of your pain. Be smart and start to control your body by seeking a better way to address your pain.
professionalservice
8 Aug 2019
I was using Lipitor for well over a year and could not understand why the muscle pain. My Endocrinologist also said it was not because of Lipitor. I even thought it might be a slight tear in rotator cup muscle so I went to physical therapy for relief. That did not work. All of my blood work did not show any abnormalities. When I stopped Lipitor, all of the pain went away within one week and has remained that way until today.
Remember that doctors are taught how to prescribe drugs to alleviate the symptoms. They are not trained into researching to find out the actual cause. In addition, not all doctors got an "A"
in academics while in medical school...
Ellissee
7 Aug 2019
Has anyone else answered this? I’d like to know too, but for lovastatin. Thanks.
professionalservice
7 Aug 2019
Lipitor is one of the worst drugs on the market. Doctors, in general, only know how to prescribe drugs and not how to address any disease. They treat symptoms only and NEVER try to solve the cause.
I have a friend who was on Lipitor and listened to his doctor and continued to stay on this dangerous drug. He is now in a wheelchair...
Janie11
15 June 2019
Hi
I took Lipitor too for 2 years and a half .The pain started about 2 years before it started . I had thought I hurt myself at the gym. It still hurts , I started reading about all of this here and more . My brother can’t take it it bothers his legs , I though it would only bother your legs not anywhere , mine is my neck / shoulder mostly but who knows . I am seeing a new dr now but how do you know it’s from the stations for sure ? I was on 40 mg and late 50s , will be 60 soon . I heard at the hospital that said it takes 5 to 6 months to heal . I have stoped them 3 months now it’s better at times but it seems it’s been bothering me a lot lately . Does exercising make it worst!
This is horrible and very depressing!!
Thanks for listening and if anyone is experiencing or had experience this any help is very much appreciated.
Sincerely
Janie
SamtheBam
28 Jan 2019
My life changing experiences with taking statins would make my response to this question too long, and I would run out of space trying to explain all of the awful side effects of taking statins.
I started taking statins in the late 80's because a doctor told me that I needed to get my total cholesterol numbers down. My cholesterol was normally around 180 to 190. I was very athletic and weighed 168. After a few months of taking various statins (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor), I noticed that I was having severe joint pain, couldn't sleep, severe fatigue, low grade fevers, rashes, and a long list of other ailments. I took a list of the problems to my cardiologist and she laughed about it. It made me think I was imagining the problems. I have gone to several doctors and none of them have been able to tell me what's wrong with me. One doctor diagnosed me with arthritis and fibromyalgia.
All of the doctors seemed as if they were afraid to say anything negative about statins. After years of hurting, not sleeping, and being tired all the time, I decided to stop taking the statins. However, the damage has been irreversible. I still hurt all over my body, I sleep about two hours a night, tired all the time, still have fevers, and rashes. I also have high blood pressure and borderline diabetic. I can't exercise and I lost my job due to my poor health. I would warn anyone to think about it long and hard before taking statins. They truly have changed my life. I'd rather have high cholesterol than to suffer like I have for the last 30 years.
What's even worse than what I explained about my problems is, my 36 year old son started taking statins when he was 6 years old because of his extremely high cholesterol levels. He is experiencing all of the same symptoms that I have. He's had two heart attacks and by-pass surgery.
Markjb
7 Jan 2019
Was put on Crestor and the pain started within a month, had to go to emergancy 2 times thinking I was having a heart attack. My pains are in the upper back between shoulders and chest pains left to right. Shoulder pain sometimes. I found my head was foggy as well.
Tried pravastatin 40mg and still pains. My doc took me off them about 1 month ago, still getting pains in back and not as often in chest. My mind is clearer now. I’m concerned these pains won’t go away now.
Surly there are other drugs to lower levels that don’t make life so hard?!
OldRN
1 Jan 2019
I took Lipitor for >10 yrs, no problem- but I wasn’t terribly diligent, would miss a day here and there. Became more diligent & got the muscle pain. Felt like autoimmune inflammation to me, but labs said no inflammation. Doc said stop Lipitor so I did. I expected pain to subside quickly, but nooo. Pain in thighs, upper arm muscle and also every joint that may have some degenerative changes like spine, hips, jaw, knees, hands. No problems below knees. Very painful at night- I’d lie still in an uncomfortable position rather than incur the pain of twisting & turning over. Worst in morning but remained throughout day. Ibuprofen really offered some relief. I was ready to give up-‘this is my life now’- when, damn -it stopped! 6 weeks off Lipitor and now I just have the normal aches and pains of old age. A miracle.
Janie11
15 June 2019
Hi
Wow 6 weeks your so lucky !!
I am still waiting... :::
Pray for me
rob99999
6 Dec 2018
I feel like all doctors know how to do in 2018 is prescribe drugs.
I'm actually in process of stopping pravastatin 10 mg for a similar reason. After only 6 weeks the muscle pain has gone from aches to a burning sensation. Workouts are becoming impossible, and feeling quite depressed. Funny thing is, the cardiologist didn't ask about anything else that could be causing my problem (like stress) before pushing statins. Hopefully the muscle pain will subside after I stop.
Ros 2
26 Nov 2018
Hello rkeenanjar, I was on Crestor, Lipitor & others. Had to stop them... they got my numbers down, but had severe muscle pain! The only Statin that I've been using is Pravastatin (which is one of the weakest & oldest ones. Currently, on 40mg of Pravastatin! My sister, had the same problems... leg cramps & severe muscle pain. Doctor took her off as well & put her on Pravastatin instead! Not everyone can tolerate these strong Statins!
Take care & stay well
Related topics
lipitor, pain, muscle pain, side effect, muscle
Further information
- Lipitor uses and safety info
- Lipitor prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Lipitor (detailed)
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