[Evans, Marv]

I'm on 40 mg simvastatin right now & have been for the last year or two. My cholesterol level was originally 318 with and HDL of 52 (or 56 - don't remember). I was originally on Mevacor in the '80s but it didn't have any effect on my level. I gave up on it & didn't start on medication again until maybe 12 years ago. My level was in the 220 to 260 range on symvastatin, and my doc changed me to Vytorin about 3 years ago. Things went along OK, and my cholesterol level went from the 200's down to 160, then to 115 (which made me a little suspicious). I was happy but after being on it for about a year & a half, I started to experience pain in my upper body, shoulders, & arms. At first I thought it was old age & hard work, so I didn't pay too much attention to it. As time went on, the pain got worse & worse, and I lost a lot of strength in my muscles in genera & especially in my upper bodyl. Another thing that happened was memory loss. My memory went to absolute schyt. My wife was always asking me why I was confused, and I sort of secretly wondered if Alzheimers (sp.?) was setting in. Finally the pain & muscle weakness go so bad I figured it really wasn't something natural & there was a reason I was experiencing all of this, and the only thing I could tie my suspicion to was an adverse reaction to the Vytorin. I went online and became convinced it was a reaction to the Vytorin - including the memory problems. So I stopped taking it & emailed my doc a description of my problems & told him I was quitting the cholesterol medication. I began to feel better in less than a week and continued to feel better as time went on, and my memory went back to normal (for an old fart). So after 6 months, my doc put me back on symvastatin and I began taking CoQ10 - not that I can identify if it's doing any good or not. So it took me about a month or more to almost completely recover from the reaction to the drug, and sofar things are going well, & my level as of this week is 166. If you're experiencing problems I'd have a serious talk with your doctor about them.