by brandtrn » 20 Oct 2009, 16:25
In fairness to Crestor, ALL of the statin drugs have the potential for the serious side-effect of rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure (which untreated rhabdo may lead to). Unfortunately, the fact that you have fibromyalgia will make it difficult to detect symptoms of rhabdomyolysis, since so many of them are also common effects of fibromyalgia, i.e. muscle pain, tenderness and weakness, stiffness, etc. A darkening of one's urine is also a symptom. The breakdown of myoglobin into the bloodstream is what causes this, and can cause a red or cola color of the urine. Certain drugs, when taken with statins will increase the risk of rhabdo. These include antifungal medications, erythromycin, Serzone, cyclosporins and niacin. If you do, in fact, have signs and symptoms of rhabdo, your physician needs to be notified promptly. Keep in mind, though, that the symptoms I've listed aren't necessarily specific to rhabdomyolysis, and can, in fact, be caused by other conditions. It's unfortunate, as awesome as some of these new medications are in what they're able to do, they still haven't been able to come up with a med that's completely free from adverse effects. This thought brings to mind something that a Doc from my childhood told me many, many years ago: "Remember that anything I'm able to give you is poison. That's all these chemicals are -- poison. The trick is, to give you enough of the right poison to make you well again."
