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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Can Lipitor 80 Mg Be Cause Any Harm To Body?

My Dr. Today said to up my Lipitor to 80 mg because me cholesterol was high. I am afraid to do that and am having blood tests tomorrow morning. I have had a heart attack and stroke on the same day. June 8th , 2012 Had an ablation at Royal Oak Beaumont on Dec of 2012 . I feel that 80 mg of Lipitor would put me at risk for death.
posted on Sat, 7 Jun 2014
Twitter Mon, 4 Jul 2016 Answered on
Twitter Tue, 5 Jul 2016 Last reviewed on
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Addiction Medicine Specialist,  's  Response
Death, well....that is a bit harsh. However, it is not generally recommended to exceed 40 mg of lipitor and switching to crestor is generally done or adding other medications. True medically watched starvation (with at least 10% weight loss), very low fat intake, fairly intense exercise (yes, lifestyle changes that under 10% of us could ever manage) can also be helpful.
Risks of high dose lipitor are the increased rate of those you would have at any other dose: there is risk of muscles breaking down--I have seen it about a dozen times, it is like the worst flu aches and somewhat incapacitating. It is not a sore arm or leg but much worse and shows broken muscle enzymes on blood tests. It is easily noticed and stops rapidly with stopping the drug. Preventing fat from going out of the liver can cause fat to stay in the liver and making you into fois gras. Not only can this be fatal if the liver is entirely replaced by fat, there is no blood test that is abnormal until it is very very serious and perhaps irreversible. Looking at the liver with any imaging study WILL show this at early not serious stages and sometimes just physical examination. The problem is that about 1 in 5 fat people have fat in the liver that isn't going to do anything ever BEFORE THEY EVEN TAKE ANY MEDICINE. And this cannot be differentiated from the potentially fatal drug effect. Fixable with diet, weight loss, exercise at levels that most people can actually do.
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Can Lipitor 80 Mg Be Cause Any Harm To Body?

Death, well....that is a bit harsh. However, it is not generally recommended to exceed 40 mg of lipitor and switching to crestor is generally done or adding other medications. True medically watched starvation (with at least 10% weight loss), very low fat intake, fairly intense exercise (yes, lifestyle changes that under 10% of us could ever manage) can also be helpful. Risks of high dose lipitor are the increased rate of those you would have at any other dose: there is risk of muscles breaking down--I have seen it about a dozen times, it is like the worst flu aches and somewhat incapacitating. It is not a sore arm or leg but much worse and shows broken muscle enzymes on blood tests. It is easily noticed and stops rapidly with stopping the drug. Preventing fat from going out of the liver can cause fat to stay in the liver and making you into fois gras. Not only can this be fatal if the liver is entirely replaced by fat, there is no blood test that is abnormal until it is very very serious and perhaps irreversible. Looking at the liver with any imaging study WILL show this at early not serious stages and sometimes just physical examination. The problem is that about 1 in 5 fat people have fat in the liver that isn t going to do anything ever BEFORE THEY EVEN TAKE ANY MEDICINE. And this cannot be differentiated from the potentially fatal drug effect. Fixable with diet, weight loss, exercise at levels that most people can actually do.