I am so dumbfounded that so many of you have never had any side effects... I think you might be the only group of people I've ever heard that from. Wish I was one of them! Statins are the very bane of my existence.
I've been on 40mg of Pravastatin since last September, and while it has drastically helped my cholesterol, it has also drastically altered my quality of life. Everything I do causes my muscles to cramp up/lock up, and I have the strength of a newborn. But I can't really even pin it down to being in my muscles -- it's that, but it's also this weird seized-up feeling in my joints and bones themselves. Brushing my hair, I have to stop halfway through and rest my arms. My tongue cramps up when I eat. It's RIDICULOUS.
Nothing helps -- Not even a pretty hefty dose of CoQ10. Tried that for a couple of months. What's worse, he took me off the stuff for almost 6 weeks, and the muscle issues didn't go away. He said he could try me on Simvastatin, but the research I did (and I have done way more than I ever cared to) pointed to that statin as being leagues worse than the one I'm on. In fact, the one I'm on is supposed to generally have the fewest side effects.
But it's amazing how many message boards and articles are out there devoted to how completely awful statins are. I wish I had some other choice. I'm 45, but most days I feel about 90.