Two and a half years ago, Ms Eclectic was put on Crestor. After only a month or two, she went off it because she felt as if she was suffering from drug-induced fibromyalgia. Shortly after that, our family physician put me on Crestor. I acquiesced, but with some concerns (see this). After experiencing horrendous side effects (see this) I stopped.
A few months ago, Ms Eclectic was put back on a statin, this time Lipitor. Increasingly she experienced painful and other side effects.
I gather these side effects are common, especially in our demographic cohort. For example see this [via Jack]. The money quote from the piece is,
...on the one hand, the results showed "tremendous" potential health benefits to be gained including far fewer heart attacks. On the other hand, potential side effects that may have particular consequences in the elderly - including muscle pain and weakness or mild declines in cognitive function - could offset those gains.
In our case, we are both convinced that the known, experienced side effects do more-than-offset the probabilistic gains.
After experiencing what I went through and after seeing what Ms Eclectic is going through, I'd rather risk heart disease, thank you very much.We simply cannot imagine going through the rest of our lives with these side effects. We are both somewhat risk averse, but not so much that we are willing to put up with known painful side-effects to reduce the chances that we might soon have some sort of heart problems.
Meanwhile, here's hoping there are other medications that are on the way to help others (indeed, our family physician has put Ms Eclectic on a non-statin prescription [Ezetimibe]; here's hoping it works and has at most few and minor side effects).