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Crestor cleans out plaque they say

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Posted 3/14/2006 10:18 PM (GMT 0)
http://tinyurl.com/fzhcq

Forbes online article: "the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (published online in The Journal of the American Medical Association), Crestor, at 40-milligram dose for two years, cleared plaque out of the arteries. No marketed drug has been shown to do this in before now. Crestor reduced the volume of plaque in the arteries by 6.8%. " This decrease in plaque volume in the arteries is unprecedented, according to the article. Some find the study interesting, but won't be changing the way they practice, saying that they still don't know how safe Crestor is. I'm taking Lipitor 20 mg every day. What statins do others take?

Posted 3/15/2006 12:43 AM (GMT 0)
:-)  well, i have tried all of them starting with lipitor, it tripled my liver ast count in 6 weeks, so i went off.  then i tryed crestor and a shrp pain went through my back  i got off that real quick.  you know i am probably jaded towards the statins, first of all everything i read says the count of 100 ldl is not sustainable without statins, sounds like a set up to me, not to mention i personally have had problems which is why i started reading everything i could.  i want to be on one so bad, as a matter of fact i am going to start 5mg pravastatin next week, just a low dose but hopefully i can handle it.  i will say, my muscles seem to have atrophied in the past year, even my  massage therapist mentioned it, i am not sure about anyone else, but the statins have caused me insomnia(Mevacor) and i was always feeling run down starting in the a.m.  now since i stopped them 2 months ago. i am sleeping and wake up with enough energy usually to want to do a few things. i would love to hear from others , women in particular who have been able to tolerate the drug.
Posted 3/15/2006 1:59 AM (GMT 0)
I haven't heard of pravastatin before, so I want to go look that up. I never know what to trust as far as studies and that. One says one thing and another contradicts it. I started taking it because a study came out saying that people who already had heart disease had a lower risk of having another if they were on statins. This came out about 2 months after I had my heart attack. I am tired all the time, but I know that almost 75% of my medications have the side effect of having fatigure. Sheesh. I wish you lots of luck, Dreamgirl!
Posted 3/15/2006 4:05 AM (GMT 0)
Kathlyn, I have never been able to tolerate statins, though I have a heriditary disorder that causes my blood lipids to be very high. I am living proof that uncontrolled, high cholesterol causes CAD, plus I have smoked for many years and have a strong family history of heart disease. That being said, I split a 40mg tablet of Lipitor last night. I am determined to try again with smaller doses. I would love to keep my four pet stents clear :)

I took Crestor last late summer and almost croaked. I was probably on the highest recommended dose, though.

I got my fingers crossed for all of us :)

RJ
Posted 3/15/2006 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
I also tried 40 mg of lipitor and could not tolerate it. My muscles felt really weak and my legs were wobbling. Very weird experience. I called the cardi right away and they put me back at twenty mg. I seem to do well on that. My total cholesterol is 166 where it was just over 200. I'll keep my fingers crossed, too, Aldo!
Posted 3/15/2006 11:07 PM (GMT 0)
Well Kathlyn....I felt a wee bit of the "unexplained muscle pain", after 2 consecutive nights of 20mg's of Lipitor. The lowest sample doses my doctor had was 40mg's. So I be splitting them ta 2.... This wee little pain is in the same place as always, my groin, but for now I will pretend that I am imagining it. I was getting over a bout with food poisoning as of yesterday, but I have not felt so great today. Kinda sore and achy all over. Hopes it wasn't the Lipitor....

Your blood lipid values are great.....I am so envious :)

Rj
Posted 3/16/2006 12:46 AM (GMT 0)
:-)  i am envious too. pravchol is one of the older statins i beleive. i will try only 5mg. something is better than nothing.  hey aldo, do you mind giving me your cholesteral #'s you mentioned once before they were staggeringly high. what is that #?  also aldo and katlyn, they make you so run down, i felt 80 years old for 10months and finally decided i would rather have energy that live a year or two longer feeling so old and tired, also very depressed.  Aldo, i do not know if it is the same thing since i am a female, but i hurt on my inner thighs right in i guesss the groin area and have for about 2 months, sort of like a weakening in that area, makes spreading my legs hurt.(please forgive the picture that sends) sort of like something is out of joint, is that how you feel? 
Posted 3/16/2006 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
:-)  kathlyn, one other thing, statins are know to reduce the risk of a heart attack by 25%, so if your overall risk is lets say one in one hundred people, you are really only reducing it by maybe two percent , at least that what he said, i am not sure if i beleive that however, i want to take that VAP test one way was talking about, those are the numbers to be afraid of.
Posted 3/16/2006 2:01 AM (GMT 0)
Can you believe my cardi wanted my cholesterol lower so hence the reason he increased my statin to 40 that time! I was feeling pretty good about my cholestrerol up until he said that. Yikes. !
Posted 3/16/2006 3:34 AM (GMT 0)
Hey Dgirl :)

I will call tomorrow and get my latest cholesterol and triglyceride values. I had planned that today, but I plum forgot it...My last numbers were around 325 TC, and ~800 or so on the triglycerides. If your tri's are over 400, then the Friedman formula that is used to calculate ldl from knowing your TC, hdl and your triglycerides, cannot be used. So I have never known the true value of my ldl. AH HA, I read about the VAP testing also. So about 3 weeks ago, I had a direct ldl test for the first time. I think I dread hearing the results.

The feeling you describe is similar to what I am having now. I only have it on the right side. That's better than having it on the wrong side, eh? Always before, I started much higher doses because the doctors were concerned. These higher doses of nearly every statin out there, at one time or another, gave me a much more intense pain in the same spot. It felt like I had been kicked there pretty hard. It also changed with movement like you described. I think that is when the groin muscle is supporting the weight of your legs, when you move them like you stated. I have pulled a groin muscle before and it feels similar but maybe not nearly as intense.

I have felt drained of energy myself today. The only medicine that I have taken for a long period of time is in a different class of drugs, but it carries the same warnings and can cause the same side effects as statins. It is a fenofibrate, Tricor is the brand. It is used to specifically lower triglycerides, as I understand it. I took this medicine for about 9 months, and in combination with Baycol (a statin) for a while. Baycol was removed from the market about 4 years ago due to too many deaths amongst the takers. Anyway, I developed peripheral neuropathy (PN= damage to the nerves in the extremeties) pretty bad. I started reading and asking questions on the net. I stopped the Tricor and the PN in my legs has improved, but has become worse in my arms. I also remember not feeling well during this time while on this med.

I am desperate to try to keep my pet stents clear, but I will not feel like crap all the time in order to attempt to let the statin prevent restenosis of my stents. Quality of life has to figure in here somewhere....I would have to take narcotic type pain pills in order to ease the body pain, if it got as bad as it did on the Tricor. Doctors would not believe that because some are skeptical, I think, about the validity of the painful side effects from statins and Tricor, so nada for pain...

What was the subject now? Ha ha ha

Rj
Posted 3/17/2006 1:26 AM (GMT 0)
hi Aldo, i went to the dr. today because i was so fatiqued last nite and woke up that way, she did the ususal ekg and ran my blood work, no heart attack , but i guess i wonder if it was artery blockage, would that have shown up, i suspect no.  i cannot beleive the only way to see if there is re blockage you have only the two options angiogram or 64 slice ct scan, that scan is very high radiation.do you know of any other options? well your total cholesteral is not that bad but your triiglycerides are scary, mine are normal. what did you mean you had  never known the true value of your ldl?? i have forgotten how old you are i think it was around 54??? i personally have back pain that feels like there is a fire in my upper back, but i am hanging in there ,want to save taking those painkillers for a few years, i understand you build a tolerance to them  ,then what.

Posted 3/18/2006 6:28 AM (GMT 0)
Hi , I'm from the Chron's board, but like to see what's going on here, since I work in Cardiology. My husband had a narrowing in the LAD which was improved after taking Mevacor for a year. This was many years ago, before Lipitor, which he is on now, and way befor Crestor. Personally I think they're the only ones to do a study on reduction of plaque, because it certainly is not the only statin to do the trick. I made the cardiologist show me his cath films, the docs were pretty excited. Unfortunately, there are NO medicines, herbs, etc. that don't have some kind of side effect, we just have to make the best choices we can. Sometimes I just think its a crapshoot, oh sorry, forgot this isn't the chronnies.
Posted 3/18/2006 4:17 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry for being so late in replying to you, Dgirl :( I have been in a grand funk....I hated to hear that you are feeling bad.

That pain in your back gets my attention. I know for a fact that you can feel angina in the back. I have read references to this many times, and experience it occasionally, still. It may be associated with the area of your heart that is not receiving enough blood flow. I need to google that...

A good EKG is a good thing, but with all the trouble that I have had and hearing of others that have had even more, nothing has ever shown up bad on any of our EKG's, except the computer diagnostic readout, that was always explained away by a doc.

My understanding is that you can have an MRI, after 3 months of having a stent implanted. I had an MRI of the brain around 4 months post stents. Now, I have not read about this at all, as far as having the latest and greatest "SUPER MRI Coronary Artery Imaging" technology, that should have minimum radiation (maybe due to some type of radioactive contrast agent or dye) but maximo electromagnetic and magnetic radiation. This type of radiation is totally different from ionizing radiation produced by radioactive isotopes, like you get with a 64 Slice CT Scan.

I do not know if these super MRIs can even see "through" an existing stent, as you have. I'll bet that DocER does :)

I could google this. I may need it myself.

The latest MRI coronary imaging technology is competing with the Computed Tomography (CT) coronary imaging technology. The government has funded this research heavily. The University of Pennsylvania and Baylor School of Medicine was really involved with the MRI part of this research. They have all attempted to create a more powerful (super) magnet to improve the quality of the images.

You may have one of these latest MRIs in your area. Ask your doctor about it. One thing is for sure; if you rely on doctors to tell you when you are sick, at least in pertaining to coronary artery blockages, you probably won't make it too long, lol. As Deltacece says "LISTEN TO YOUR BODY". Doctors rely on YOU to know when you are having angina, that is, after you have already had a stent, ie, you have already been diagnosed with heart disease/cad. Hey I have had 6 cardiac caths. 3 of them saved my life and the other 3 did not kill me, ha ha ha.

Hey, I just turned 53! Don't add a year to me :) I feel 153....My triglycerides have been >400 for 8 years. When they are that high, your ldl can only be accurately calculated using direct ldl testing. I had a cholesterol test, with direct ldl testing for the first time about a month ago. I have called me doc's office 2 times, Thursday and Friday and the nurse has not returned my call, with my test values. I had to temporarily stop my trial with Lipitor. My one day of feeling well and having some stamina, just reminded me of how I could be feeling. I just can't figure out why I can't remain healthy. It may have something to do with the medicine and/or the polymer that contains the medicine in my two latest stents.

The pain pill remark was a joke, lol.

Be well,

Rj

Posted 3/20/2006 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
:-)  Hi Aldo, it is always a riot reading your posts.  thanks for the expanations. i just picked up a book at the health food store that makes me want to start all over again on my statagies for heart health. gosh i wih you had it. i would love to know what you think. i know he has a website, www.dr-rath-health-foundation.org. the book i am reading is called Why animals don't get heart attacks, sounds silly but the book has a chapter on clogged arteries and he has a few ideas about vitamin supplements that sound great. he says that the statins just lower cholesteral but that the reason it sticks to our arteries is because the are unhealthy(have cracks) and the cholesteral jumps into htose cracks.  he bascically says certain vitamins will heal up our arteries and stop all plaque from building. anyone ever heard of this fella?
Posted 3/21/2006 3:31 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on Lipitor 10 mg for 2 years now no trouble got my total down from 300 to 167 my LDl is now 90 from pushing wy over 180 and my HDL in 67 rom 40 and  my triglycerides are only 39.

My Dr is pleased with that i am laso on Altace, A diuretic and then synthroid and Celebrex which cardio said is ok and  Premin creme too. But I have no problems with  Lipitor. I am so glad there is so much ut there for us when we cannot tolerate one cholesterol lowering medicine we can use another one. And each trial shows htere name brand is better. I have herd in a tele conference  with AHA thet each comapny does trials nd to remember who is doing this trial too. But yes It is glad they are findin utnow one is better than another one.

Thanks for great artickle kathy

Hugssssss

Heidi

Posted 3/26/2006 9:21 PM (GMT 0)
I was forced to go back on a statin. For yrs I took lipitor and kept complaing to the dr. about arm, shoulder and knee pain. He kept saying it was "old age", but i knew better. The pain didn't start until the lipitor started. After three or four yrs of this, i took myself of the lipitor. I have tried zetia but it caused back pain so severe i couldn't walk. Also lipitor mad my liver enzyme elevate to that of an alcoholic.


My bp meds cause glucos and cholesterol to rise in spite of a strict diet and exercise. I need the bp med so i agreed with my new dr to try the zorcor. I have been on zorcor (along with coQ10) for two weeks and i don't have any problems so far. But i am watching and waiting!
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