Atorvastatin and grapefruit skin#

Your doctor may recommend a lower dose or a different statin, which often resolves the problem. But in the absence of such an explanation, you might suspect the statin, especially if the muscle pain began within a few weeks of starting the statin and affects both sides of your body. Like memory lapses, muscle aches are fairly common in middle age and beyond and may result from vigorous exercise, yard work, or even just a long session hunched over the computer.

Atorvastatin and grapefruit skin#

Symptoms of liver injury include unusual fatigue, loss of appetite, upper abdominal discomfort, dark-colored urine, or yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes.Ībout one in 10 people reports muscle pain and weakness after starting a statin. In 2012, the FDA changed the recommendations to a single test of liver enzymes and CK when a person starts taking a statin, switches to a new one, or develops symptoms of liver or muscle injury. This condition, which occurs in about one in 10,000 statin users, can lead to kidney failure and even death.īut neither of these routine tests proved to accurately predict these serious but very rare problems. Other tests measured creatine kinase (CK), a byproduct of muscle breakdown that can signal the early stages of rhabdomyolysis. MYTH 2 You need regular blood tests to check your liver and kidney function.īecause statins target liver cells, early statin users were advised to get routine blood tests to check their liver enzyme levels, since rising levels warn of possible liver damage. More reliable data come from large studies-one of which included more than 20,000 people-that revealed no effect on thinking and memory caused by statins. 'However, many of the reports were from people who took the drug for just one day,' he says, which suggests that the statin wasn't to blame. Christopher Cannon, a Harvard Medical School professor. The initial concern arose from a number of self-reported complaints to the FDA, says cardiologist Dr. But because memory issues tend to crop up in middle-aged and older adults (the most common users of statins), it's hard to tell if the drug, or another problem such as age-related memory loss, might be to blame. Some people who take statins report confusion or memory loss. Here's what you need to know to take them safely. But these popular medications are often misunderstood.

More than one in four adults ages 45 and older in the United States take a cholesterol-lowering statin.

Some side effects attributed to taking a statin may be caused by a different problem.ĭon't let misconceptions about these medications prevent you from taking them.