Zocor on the shelves of Walgreen’s. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Associated Press | The Food and Drug Administration says the highest available dose of the
cholesterol drug Zocor can cause muscle damage as well as severe and
potentially lethal kidney damage.
The agency says statin drugs like Zocor are known to cause muscle damage
in some patients, but the risk is more severe when patients are taking
80 milligram doses of Zocor. The risks include rhabdomyolysis, a form of
muscle damage that can lead to kidney damage or failure, and death.
Zocor, or simvastatin, is sold by Merck and Co. Merck’s cholesterol drug Vytorin and Abbott Laboratories’ drug Simcor also contain simvastatin.
The FDA says the warning is based on clinical trials, studies, reports of side effects by users and prescription data.
Re: FDA report on Zocor and Kidney
I was prescribed Zocor and Diflucan at the same time. A short time after this useage I began to lose all muscle strength. I went to several doctors who ALL STATED STRONGLY that the prescribed drugs could not have had any affect on my kidney. I eventually went to the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla to see the head neurogist of the ALS group. A series of tests fortunately did not verify ALS. I eventually saw a nephrologist at the same Mayo Clinic who also denied the possibility of Zocor damaging my kidney. He constatnly pursued the association between ibuprofen and kidney damageeven though my use of this anti-jnflamatory drug was amost non-existant.
The presciption for the two drugs was by a Veterans Admin doctor. I wrote to the head of the VA in Charleston, SC. This person answered by denying and possible effect of zocor on the Kidney.
My point in writing is not to rehash the past but simply to point out how doctors simply follow the herd. During my time I found many reserch reports on the internet that strongly suggested a bad result with the use of diflucan and zocor. In fact, the MUSC, in which the Charleston VA is located, placed a warning on the internet against the use of this combination of drugs.
Very truly yours,
On November 18, 2004, Dr. David Graham, associate director in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety gave senate testimony that Crestor was one of five drugs with safety concerns. The drug causes muscle breakdown and renal failure. Now we hear the same warnings for Zocor.
The truth is that women don’t benefit from Zocor, Crestor, Lipitor or any other statin drug for elevated cholesterol. There are no statin trials with even the slightest hint of a mortality benefit in women, and women should be told so.
In the elderly, a lower cholesterol level is associated wih higher mortality. This is demonstrated in many medical studies.
To read more: http://www.drdach.com/Cholesterol_Women_Dr_Dach.html