statins and hair loss

[nostatic]

Anyone here on statins? My doc put me on them a few years back after a body scan showed calcification of one of my aortas (at age 40). I felt like crap on them and quit, instead focusing on diet and exercise. I got my LDL level below 100 which is the usual cutoff.

Had a followup test (CIMT) that showed I have the carotid arteries of a 55 year old (at 45) so my doc wants my LDL below 70 (I'm at 87 right now). He put me on vytorin, and while it didn't make me feel crappy like the lipitor, I've noticed that my hairline has receded significantly over the past two weeks...fairly corresponding with when I went on the med.

Anyone else experienced this? I think I'm going to bail on them and do more exercise...

[Ronbo]

I've been on Lipitor for about 6 years or so. I haven't had any negative side effects, however during this time my hair has thinned a bit also. I just attributed this as one of the pleasures of aging.

[on-ramp]

those damn drugs. there's never a free ride. they 'cure' one thing and cause other side effects.
My chol. level total was 293 . My doctor wanted to put me on statins too, but I decided to see a nutritionist instead. 6 months later of strict diet/exercise, my overall chol. dropped down to 212. My doctor kept telling me it was genetic. I told him it was the whoppers, chicken McNuggets, and fried foods, and junk food.

try diet/exercise for 6 months. If it's not hereditary, this should make a difference. Here was my plan, if you need an example:

very little meat 1x every 3 weeks.
6 servings fruits/vegetable a day.
Lot of nuts.
Fish 3X a week.
4 glasses of water a day.
Very low sat. and trans fat intake (we're talking 1/2 gram each day).
Read labels on your food and choose foods with NO or very little Sat. and Trans. Fats.
Drink red wine 3X a week to break up clots in the blood.
soy products galore.
oatmeal for lunch 4X a week
one red apple a day.

exercise 30-40 min. 4X a week.

that should take care of it. you'll feel 20 again!

[nostatic]

my total cholesterol is 150, HDL 51, LDL 87. Those number are all well within "normal" range but because I already have some cardiovascular disease, he wants them lower. I swear my hairline has moved back like half an inch in the past week or so. I've had the usual shiite and stress, but the only changes are the vytorin (a combination statin) starting 10 days ago, and some cipro to clear up an unrelated bacterial thing. I've seen no reports/data on cipro causing anything like this, but there is a lot of stuff on statin side effects.

[Don Plumley]

I took lipitor for about a month or three. Felt all wrong - quit. More anecdotal information: Relative with stroke impaired speech. We noticed that she was sounding confused, had more speech problems than "normal." Liptor was the problem - she stopped, all cognitive functions back to normal.

I know it is a lifesaver for many folks, but if you start digging deep into the literature there are some pretty significant sides for some people.

And hair loss! As if I could afford that...

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

And hair loss! As if I could afford that...

you and me both...at least you're married

Interesting site here:

http://www.spacedoc.net/statins_hair_loss.html

He's got a bunch of other pages talking about various side effects. Nasty stuff. Not sure why I didn't do more research before I went on them again.

[alf]

I've been taking lipitor for sometime now, still got lots of hair and just as dumb.

[Dennis Kalma]

I have tried pretty well all the statins....all of them stiffen my muscles to the point where I can't get out of bed in the morning. I suspect that there are a lot of people who do just fine on them, there are a number of folks I have met who have considerable problems.

Personally, based on the best reading and advice I can get, cholesterol is only a single risk factor, the others being things like family history, blood pressure, smoking, fitness etc, and should not be overrrated as a risk as much as the medical profession would like us to believe.

Now having said that, if you have proven heart conditions, do what you need to do, but there are tradeoffs. Personally, I would rather live to be 55 (I am 51) without the extreme discomfort of statins than live to 75 with them.

On a slightly different but related note, I got put on Prozac a number of years back....ostensibly to help with stress and my sleep disorder. The effect was I was unable to **think**, the edge went off my mind and I couldn't focus as intently as I was in the past...took about 2 years after going off them to get to the point where I could see "the pattern". My staff noticed, my friends noticed....again, pharmaceuticals all have their drawbacks.


...but , no extra hair loss for statins for me....

Dennis

[Evans, Marv]

Well, I'm taking the old time Mevacor (Lovastatin). My hair line is still OK and my sparse spot on top is the same. I had 320 which has gone down to between 229 & 255. It's hereditary. Maybe you could try one of the older statins to see if it works without the side effects. Have you talked to your doctor?

[artplumber]

He's got a bunch of other pages talking about various side effects. Nasty stuff. Not sure why I didn't do more research before I went on them again.

Todd,
You are brighter than this. A bunch of people on the internet trying to ascribe everything under the sun to statins, puhlease... As an example, when so many were complaining that the possibility of memory impairment was raised with the use of the drugs, someone actually looked at the incidence of Alzheimer's which was reduced by use of statins. Could it be that you're getting to that age?

That being said, just because your carotid IMT is above normal, with a normal (gross) lipid profile (we now subfractionate), and unknown other non-traditional risks, I wouldn't say that you definitely need the drug.

[nostatic]

Peter, I take everything I read with a grain of salt (including journal articles), but I also believe in principles of eastern medicine. I think the drug companies tend to shove meds at the docs, and there is not much incentive to think of other ways to combat the problem. After looking more closely at my test numbers and what the current thinking is (my lipoprotein a is the *only* marker that is above accepted levels, 36 mg/dL when it should be <30), I don't think statins are indicated unless I really was paranoid about a cardiac event. I've had two nuclear stress tests with totally normal results over the past 5 years. And I think that most any drug has some side effects...just depends on the chemistry of the individual.

I'm just trying to figure out cause and effect. If I've seen an outward change over the past week or so, I need to look at what has changed. And the statins are one of them. If I don't really need them, then might as well eliminate them. I know my trajectory with my hairline, but if one notices a rather sudden acceleration I don't think that is just "reaching the age" unless a bunch of follicle decided to age out at the same time.

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by nostatic

.... I know my trajectory with my hairline, but if one notices a rather sudden acceleration I don't think that is just "reaching the age" unless a bunch of follicle decided to age out at the same time.

Don't you remember the trees/leaves in "The Meaning of Life"?

Why the heck are you getting repeated nucs at your age/health... probably too personal. Let me know if I can help...

[JavaBrewer]

I'm on Vytorin right now. This comes after quitting Liptor ~ 14 months ago because I was in so much muscle pain. No problems thus far with pain or any noticeable side effects. However my total count was north of 300 and that was with 3x week running and lifting and healthy (no fast/processed foods) diet. I drink 1-2 glasses of red wine with dinner too. Lots of fish/salmon, fish oil, yada yada. My wife measures ~120 and we have the same diet. Medicated I'm now seeing my total count down under 200.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by on-ramp

4 glasses of water a day.

ONLY 4? I'd think that you should double that as a minimum.

[Tobra]

Todd, I would suggest that the cause is the elevated cholesterol levels make you more liable to develop plaques on the walls of blood vessels. Small blood vessels, such as the capillaries that supply the skin, or in the retina or kidney, can be affected by this. Perhaps the root of it is the cholesterol, rather than the drug. I would second the diet and excercise thing. If you do not have a genetic predisposition to the problem, that will clear it up.

You will never see a really old, really fat person. The top 10 oldest patients I ever had, up to 110, were not on meds at all. Lot of those pharmaceuticals are kinda nasty, statins in particular.

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by nostatic

Peter, I take everything I read with a grain of salt (including journal articles), but I also believe in principles of eastern medicine. I think the drug companies tend to shove meds at the docs, and there is not much incentive to think of other ways to combat the problem.

PS Not sure if you mean accupuncture or what re "eastern medicine", but Red yeast rice is an eastern med which was purported to improve length of life. Turns out, active ingredient is .....lovastatin (Mevacor). And the class of statins was born....

Again, there isn't anything that you have indicated that would make most CV docs put you on a statin.

[nostatic]

Yeah, I think my doc likes to go to the med box. With my numbers I don't think the meds are indicated either. David's (300), yes. Mine (150, good ratios, etc), no. Maybe the hair will grow back (ha!). Could just be it was time for a bunch of leaves to fall off the tree. Just kind of odd to have a burst of activity in a short time. Now just hoping all the meds clear from my system and maybe things will settle down.

I do the red wine thing now, and actually quit caffeiene a couple weeks ago. Only rarely do soft drinks, and at 6'1" 177lbs I'm not overweight. Could do more exercise though...that's always the case.

As for the eastern medicine, I do get accupuncture sometimes, and have taken some herbal preps in the past. I know that there are "meds" in there, but there are conflicting schools of thought on that. Some argue that you want to pinpoint a single "active" ingredient and just take that, avoiding side effects. Others think that the mixture mediates side effects and you get synergistic effects from the various compounds that you wouldn't see from a single med.

In the end we're all going to die anyway so maybe it doesn't make any difference

[Don Plumley]

Originally Posted by nostatic

you and me both...at least you're married

While Donald Trump gets his share of models, methinks it's more the money than the hair... So if you are broke and have no hair, that's a raw deal

Personal observation: With some age and success, combined with my "unavailability", I seem more interesting to women now than I was when I was younger and had less skin on my head. Ever carry a small child around younger women - you can hear the hormones surge through them...

[Stutzdriver]

Cleveland Clinic Heart patient here. I had a full arrest heart attack in the ER of the local hospital at age 39 (13 years ago). Cleaned the pipes without surgery at the CCF, drove my cholesterol down consistantly since with statins, diet and exercise. Total number under 100 currently, no side affects.

My wife was on lipitor and had to stop due to muscle problems.