I started getting a LOT of leg cramps when swimming last year and have been trying to figure out what changed that may have caused this. I think I've narrowed it down - I started taking simvastatin within a few months of when I first noticed the increase in leg cramps. It's easy to pin that date down since I first really noticed the increase when I got a giant cramp diving in for the 400 IM at SC nationals last year! It's not very fun to swim that event in a big meet with a cramp the whole way.
I've been googling this and it seems that many people report leg cramp problems with statins. Neither my old doctor nor my new doctor suggested this as a possible cause when I complained about the unusual increase in cramping. Has anyone else out there experienced this?
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Former Member
Here's the scoop: there can be a wide range of muscle-related symptoms associated with statins, but there is a lot we don't know about them, and info about it is only recently getting around. The good thing is that it occurs in a minority of people who take statins, and they will go away without any lasting damage in the VAST majority of affected individuals.
Could the cramps be related? Absolutely. There is a possibility that those of us that are more active may be more susceptible to statin-related muscle symptoms. But of course, there are other possible causes of cramps as well.
Here's what I'd do: stop the Zocor, and start taking Vitamin D (about 1,000 Units daily of D-3; this won't hurt and it may just help as D-deficiency is quite common). If the cramps go away, give it a month or so and then re-challenge yourself with Zocor. If the cramps return while still taking D, then there is a very high chance the statin is the culprit.
If Zocor ends up being the problem, don't sweat it. Lovastatin (aka Mevacor) or pravastatin (aka Pravachol) are both cheap and are much less likely to cause this trouble. Of course, you want to let your doc know what you're doing.
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Former Member
Here's the scoop: there can be a wide range of muscle-related symptoms associated with statins, but there is a lot we don't know about them, and info about it is only recently getting around. The good thing is that it occurs in a minority of people who take statins, and they will go away without any lasting damage in the VAST majority of affected individuals.
Could the cramps be related? Absolutely. There is a possibility that those of us that are more active may be more susceptible to statin-related muscle symptoms. But of course, there are other possible causes of cramps as well.
Here's what I'd do: stop the Zocor, and start taking Vitamin D (about 1,000 Units daily of D-3; this won't hurt and it may just help as D-deficiency is quite common). If the cramps go away, give it a month or so and then re-challenge yourself with Zocor. If the cramps return while still taking D, then there is a very high chance the statin is the culprit.
If Zocor ends up being the problem, don't sweat it. Lovastatin (aka Mevacor) or pravastatin (aka Pravachol) are both cheap and are much less likely to cause this trouble. Of course, you want to let your doc know what you're doing.
