However, not everyone appears to do well on statins without debilitating side effects—and there are plenty of possibilities. Statin cardiomyopathy is one such adverse reaction that could be serious: an impact on the heart through a change to the structure of the heart muscle.Statin Rhabdomyolysis is another that has been addressed in the past. Rhabdomyolysis is a rare, but serious condition typified by the breaking down of muscle tissue at the hands of the statin. The potential for such broken down muscle tissue to become absorbed into the bloodstream, together with serious consequences to the kidney, cannot be understated. Many have died from this rare occurrence.
And here's one you may not have heard before: a lowered libido. While statins and Rhabdomyolysis remains the rare but serious cousin to a fairly common byproduct of statins such as Crestor—muscle pain—there is one muscle in particular that has become problematic for a 45-year-old man recently prescribed Crestor.
The contributor to The People's Pharmacy, a syndicated medical advice column penned by the husband-and-wife team of Joe Graedon, M.S., and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D., describes himself as a physical training instructor with the US Army. Active at 45, he began taking Crestor only to find that statin drugs did more than lower his cholesterol…
It also proved to lower his libido. "My sex drive has totally disappeared," he writes in a column that appeared in the Spokesman Review of Spokane, Washington (6/5/12). "I am unable to maintain an erection and feel tired all the time. It has been causing me a great deal of stress and anguish. Is Crestor causing my erectile dysfunction and libido problems?"
The Graedons answered while there is no mention of a lower sex drive in the Crestor prescribing information, some sexual side effects have been reported in some statin drugs.
But they go one further…
"There is reason to believe that all statins may have a negative impact on sexual function by lowering testosterone levels." The columnists back up their observation by citing studies that appeared in the Journal of Sexual Medicine (April, 2010) and Drug Safety (July, 2009). The latter published French research that suggested statins had the potential to trigger, or worsen erectile dysfunction.
More recent research suggest that statin drugs such as Crestor may cause users to experience decreased energy, fatigue upon exertion or both—as well as muscle aches and pains typically experienced by some patients. In a research letter published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (6/11/12), authors Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD; Marcella A. Evans, BS; Joel E. Dimsdale, MD; and Halbert L. White, PhD outlined their results of a randomized controlled clinical trial that showed fatigue and exercise intolerance inherent with using statins were significantly greater than those patients on a placebo.
READ MORE STATINS LEGAL NEWS
"Side effects of statins generally rise with increasing dose, and these doses were modest by current standards," Golomb said about the statin drugs.
"Yet occurrence of this problem was not rare—even at these doses, and particularly in women. Energy is central to quality of life. It also predicts interest in activity." Golomb, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, described the results as "important findings."
As for the complete loss of libido by a relatively young man, a statin lawsuit would not be a surprise.
READER COMMENTS
Brendan Sexton
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Right now we do not have enough info to choose wisely, but i can certainly understand why some men might feel that increased heart health is not so compelling a benefit if it means a longer life but without sex. Each body (and each sex life!) is different. monitor your own carefully--it is the best teacher.
Mike Bart
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TONY
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Robert DeWolfe
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Yve
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Jeff
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On the statin, no sex drive.
Off the statin, sex drive is back.
I think I would rather block my arteries with cholesterol than to be a neutered male.
Amin Ahmed
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I wanted to share this with others who might be having similar problems like me. With recent literature review and having personally seen quite few patients dealing with statin related side effects, I am beginning to believe statins are a big market push by pharmaceutical industry and the cardiologists are blindly following them. The cholesterol they are chasing is not necessarily the culprit. The cholesterol is needed for a lot of bodily functions especially in the formation of almost every hormone in the body. When we take statins to lower cholesterol, body produces cholesterol through the liver to compensate for cholesterol that is needed for necessary bodily functions including formation of certain hormones. So to counteract the liver response, we continue to increase statin dose with ongoing side effects and no real benefit. The brain itself is made of 40% cholesterol. I wonder if Alzheimer's may have to do anything with the cholesterol lowering agents.
Both this band wagon about going after the cholesterol and also going on a low fat diet have not decreased any incidence of the diseases allegedly related to this; and in fact both heart disease and diabetes are on the rise in US despite the crazy push on statins to lower cholesterol and low fat diets for prevention of Diabetes and obesity. I think a certain amount of fat is needed to absorb fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin D. By stripping fat completely out of the diet and depriving the body, the absorption of vitamin D and other fat soluble nutrients is affected ... no wonder we have new rising epidemic of low vitamin D in our country. Even though people are pushed to take vitamin D but because many of us are on low fat diets ... don not have enough fats needed to absorb the vitamin D. Also, many of the low fat type of diet/milk have added fructose and God knows what other chemicals that are then responsible for elevated sugar despite being on a low fat/low sugar diets. Fructose is the worse of all the added sugars for keeping the pleasant taste of diet products. I think we have just gone too far and must follow a balanced diet, activity level and exercise. I am a physician myself and am beginning to see the reality. Hope this will be helpful to others in general.
Via
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Mel Somma
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Sydney Crackower, M.D.
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the appearance of hematuria with Crestor use. The hematuria is microscopic with occasional passage of
clots of blood. This happened to me personally while on the drug after a yr. or more. It seems to me that the problem
is more widespread than previously know. I discontinued
the Crestor and after two weeks the hematuria which was 3plus is now barely 1 plus. I think that this may be caused by a nephritis occurring perhaps at the higher doses. I was on 40 mg. daily.
John
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ray
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