Statins and effect on Rheumatoid Arthritis?

YOYO

Has anyone noticed a link with taking Statins i.e cholesterol lowering drugs and flares of their Arthritis? I stopped taking my statins a couple of months ago and haven't had a significant flare up since? is this a coincidence or could there be a link?
If anyone has noticed a link between statins and RA please can you let me know? :?
Thank You!

Colin1

Yo, YOYO
I wasent on statind when i first got arthrits but i am now and have not noticed any difference. However some medical people believe that RA patients should take statins as we are at a higher risk of heart attack than the rest of the population.
Reading through the side effects some people can be affected by them
MMMMMM i have now got Fibromalgia will mention this to my Rheumy
Take care yoyo
Colin

tillytop

I don't take statins but I believe that joint and muscle pain are now beginning to be recognised as side effects of some statin drugs.

I read an article a while ago (which I tried to find for you but couldn't) about a hospital consultant (rheumatologist or orthopaedic, can't remember which) who was seeing lots of people in his clinic with unexplained joint pains. When the doc himself started to take statins, he began to experience joint pain too and wondered if there could be a link. When he surveyed his clinic patients, he found that many of them were taking statins.

The link below might be of interest to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8316351/Statins-I-was-in-agony-for-months.html

Tillyxxx

YOYO

Thanks for that info, really useful and interesting that there appears to be plenty of people having problems with Statins! I am taking the Telegraph article to my next Rheumy appointment next week, watch this space! Thanks again for responding, really appreciate it.

tillytop wrote:

I don't take statins but I believe that joint and muscle pain are now beginning to be recognised as side effects of some statin drugs.

I read an article a while ago (which I tried to find for you but couldn't) about a hospital consultant (rheumatologist or orthopaedic, can't remember which) who was seeing lots of people in his clinic with unexplained joint pains. When the doc himself started to take statins, he began to experience joint pain too and wondered if there could be a link. When he surveyed his clinic patients, he found that many of them were taking statins.

The link below might be of interest to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8316351/Statins-I-was-in-agony-for-months.html

Tillyxxx

bubbles

Hi yoyo
I have taken statin's, in one form or another, for the past 17 years, following several heart attacks. From personal experience, they, like most pills, have a range of side effects, muscle pain, joint pain, to name a couple. I certainly have both of those, but I was not diagnosed with widespread OA all those years back. It is difficult to say if the arthur is made worse with them or not, but I would not be surprised at all, if there were some added pain and discomfort due to statin's. I know a lot of people have trouble with them, as they are now so widely prescribed, when a lot of the time they are not really necessary, a simple alteration in diet would suffice. Different if you have hyperlipideamia that cannot be controlled with diet alone.
A bit of a rock and a hard place, but my Drs say that the benefits out way the side effects. xx Bubbles