Pleiotropic effects of a drug are actions other than those for which the agent was specifically developed. These effects may be related or unrelated to the primary mechanism of action of the drug, and they are usually unanticipated. Pleiotropic effects may be undesirable (such as side effects or toxicity), neutral, or, as is especially the case with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), beneficial. Pleiotropic effects of statins include improvement of endothelial dysfunction, increased nitric oxide bioavailability, antioxidant properties, inhibition of inflammatory responses, and stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. These and several other emergent properties could act in concert with the potent low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-lowering effects of statins to exert early as well as lasting cardiovascular protective effects. Understanding the pleiotropic effects of statins is important to optimize their use in treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease.
As HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) became more widely used in greater numbers of patients, their effects beyond lipid lowering began to emerge. Such pleiotropic effects include improvement of endothelial dysfunction, increased nitric oxide bioavailability, antioxidant effects, antiinflammatory properties, and stabilization of atherosclerotic plaques. Additional effects of growing interest include the ability to recruit endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), a putative immunosuppressive activity, and inhibition of cardiac hypertrophy. Research indicates that some of the pleiotropic effects of statins may be unrelated to the cholesterol-lowering properties of the drugs. Others may even be fully dissociated from inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase, and many take place at very low drug concentrations. This review focuses on effects that have special cardiovascular relevance. Understanding the full spectrum of benefits associated with statin therapy may allow better therapeutic application and foster the early use of statins in acute coronary syndromes.
6 days ago i thought the only way i can find out if the statin is causing my terrible stiffness and muscle by joints pain is to stop taking them. 3 days ago i told my dr. enough. Didn't tell him i'd been off them for 3 days, but that i was feeling as lousy as he'd ever seen me. I really was then, still. In the past he'd listened and said, ok, still i'd like to continue on the same drug treatment a bit longer. This time he agreed to a trial stop and said see you in 6 months. He said he had had a couple of other patients in the some 3-5% badly affected by statin side effects. Bugger hadn't shared that before. I was on rosuvastatin (Crestor). Anyway, i could hardly pick anything off the floor. Too move abour at all. It hurt to sit on and get up from a chair. It was very bad for about 6 months.
I don't know how long he thought it would take for the side effects to go away, that is, IF statin was the problem. LOL, two days after i saw him i got out of bed and felt no pain . Could walk without hobbling. Amazing. It only took 5 days that terrible problem to virtually disappear. I'll drop him a note next time shopping trip up there.
A good statin story. 5 days of freedom and i haven't stopped celebrating. LOLOL
Very rarely, statins can cause life-threatening muscle damage called rhabdomyolysis (rab-doe-my-OL-ih-sis). Rhabdomyolysis can cause severe muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. The risk of very serious side effects is extremely low, and calculated in a few cases per million people taking statins. Rhabdomyolysis can occur when you take statins in combination with certain drugs or if you take a high dose of statins. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/statin-side-effects/art-20046013
My cholesterol was way down as a result of taking the rosuvastatin, but it was never much too high in the first place. I checked with him and he said i was put on the tablets because bp was way up and because of my two mini-strokes, and subsequent discovering two small blockages. Not because of high cholesterol.
Eyes crossed the cholesterol behaves itself in the next 6 months.
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