Reversing Statin Side Effects with Vitamin D

Published: October 17, 2012
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Researchers at the Cholesterol Center of the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati studied 150 patients with high cholesterol who had two things in common:

  1. They developed muscle pain after taking a cholesterol-lowering statin (a common side effect), and
  2. They had low blood levels of vitamin D.

Researchers supplemented the patients with vitamin D (50,000 IU twice a week for 3 weeks, then 50,000 once a week for the next 7 months). After three weeks, they also put all of them back on a statin. The amazing result: 131 of the 150 people no longer had statin-caused muscle pain! And their vitamin D levels normalized. And their cholesterol went way down.

Coenzyme Q10 and the over-the-counter hormone supplement Pregnenolone can also help reverse muscle pain from taking a statin.

As I’ve written previously, statins may have an antiviral effect that helps people with fibromyalgia. So if you and your physician have decided it's best for you to be on a statin — to combat FMS, or to lower cholesterol — you now have another way to prevent statin-caused muscle pain.

References

"Symptomatic myositis-myalgia in hypercholesterolemic statin-treated patients with concurrent vitamin D deficiency leading to statin intolerance may reflect a reversible interaction between vitamin D deficiency and statins on skeletal muscle." Glueck CJ, Abuchaibe C, Wang P. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Jul 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Jacob Teitelbaum, MD

is one of the world's leading integrative medical authorities on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is the lead author of eight research studies on their effective treatments, and has published numerous health & wellness books, including the bestseller on fibromyalgia From Fatigued to Fantastic! and The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution. Dr. Teitelbaum is one of the most frequently quoted fibromyalgia experts in the world and appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health.

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