Had a stroke in July 2022. The doctors at the hospital ran all the standard tests after the stroke: CAT scan, MRI, echocardiogram, blood work, etc. The MRI showed where the stroke occurred in the brain; left side, a little above and in front of the ear top. Cholesterol was high, which it has always been high, but the 3 neurologists and 2 cardiologists who review my scans all said the same thing: your arteries are very clear, very minimal plaque buildup for a man your age and with your cholesterol levels. They also commented that they could not see where any plaque had broken off and could not see any residual plaque in the brain where the blockage occurred, basically they did not know why I had the stroke in the first place.
I was put on 30 days of Plavix, a single 81mg aspirin once a day, and 40 mg of Lipitor a day. I had no side effects for the fist 60 days, felt normal. Then the side effects started popping up: in order - numb heels, itchy skin on my lower legs, hair loss on my lower legs, entire body got bloated, plantar fasciitis in both feet, weakness in my left thigh, purple colored skin on my ankles and the tops of my feet, loss of grip strength in both hands, hand swelling, hand tendon pain. From the numb heels to the hands swelling took about 4 months. The planter fasciitis was so painful I could barely walk 20 feet without being in absolute agony, and that was only with super soft flip flops on, bare foot walking was out of the question completely.
I could not get an appt with my doc, booked up for the next 6 months, so I started doing my own diagnosis. All the side effects came down to being caused by Lipitor. I stopped taking it 2 months ago and most of the side effects have gone away completely, or are 85% gone. The only remaining issues are the hand pain, some minor swelling of my ankles after a long day at work, and even that goes away with a minute or two of me rubbing and massaging my lower legs and ankles. The plantar fasciitis is about 90% gone, still painful if I step on something while walking barefoot, but at least I can walk. Hand pain is much better, but they do continue to cramp up if I work them to hard while grasping or squeezing.
I had taken only two supplements prior to and since my stroke, 500 mg of magnesium citrate/day and 1,000 mgs of turmeric/day. Since I stopped taking the Lipitor I have upped my intake of turmeric to 1,000 mgs every 12 hrs and added 1,000 of L-Arginine every 12 hrs. I believe upping the turmeric and adding the L-Arginine have helped with the lower leg circulation issues, bloat reduction, and foot and hand swelling.
To me, and this is only my opinion, Lipitor is a poison, a slow acting poison that causes more problems than it solves. 80% of the cholesterol is made up by the body, so it is not "bad for you", even the dreaded LDL. In my case the doctors could not tie the stroke to cholesterol or plaque build up in my arteries, they just put me on the statin as there was nothing else they could come up with. Oh, by the way, I caused the stroke my self through an extra hard neck crack. Had a super stiff neck and cracked my neck to loosen it up, was a tad to exuberant, and about 10 minutes after the cracking my right thumb stopped working, then my right hand became a dead weight on the end of my arm, then the entire arm felt like it weighed 100 lbs and I could not lift it up. Right leg got weak and I had to drag my leg to walk. Informed my coworkers of my condition and they got me to the ER within 10 minutes and all is well. Read More Read Less