Statin Intolerance can be Resolved by Vitamin D

A popular post on this blog has been a study I covered back in 2011, which showed vitamin D supplementation reduced muscle pain and inflammation induced by statin medications (click HERE for that post). In that post, I already explained that cholesterol is the precursor to vitamin D, so logically, if we're reducing cholesterol, we're inducing a state of vitamin D deficiency--which in turn leads to at least some of the adverse effects experienced by patients using these statin drugs.

We know that low serum vitamin D levels can cause myalgia (muscle pain), myositis (inflammed muscles), myopathy (muscle disorders), and myonecrosis (muscle cell death).

Now here's another study that adds more weight and confirmation that supplementing with vitamin D can resolve these drug-induced problems.

In this study, researchers looked at 74 men and 72 women (age 59 ± 14 years) who were intolerant to at least 2 statins because of myalgia, myositis, myopathy, or myonecrosis and found to have low (<32 ng/mL) serum vitamin D. They assessed whether vitamin D supplementation (vitamin D2: 50,000 - 100,000 UI/week, which works out to 7,143 - 14,286 IU/day) to normalize serum vitamin D would allow these individuals to successful restart statin therapy. (It's unfortunately the researchers used D2, which subscribers may remember isn't as good as D3...click HERE for that study)

With vitamin D supplementation, serum vitamin D normalized at 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months follow-up in 90%, 86%, and 91% of the patients, respectively. On rechallenge with statins while on vitamin D supplementation, median low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) fell from the levels at the start of the study.

On follow-up at median 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months on statins and vitamin D, 88%, 91%, and 95% of the previously statin-intolerant patients, respectively, were free of myalgia, myositis, myopathy, and/or myonecrosis.

Therefore, the researchers concluded, "Statin intolerance because of myalgia, myositis, myopathy, or myonecrosis associated with low serum vitamin D can be safely resolved by vitamin D supplementation (50,000-100,000 units /week) in most cases (88-95%)."

Just remember, if you or a loved one is taking one of these common medications, please share the various posts in this blog with them, and encourage them to take both vitamin D and CoQ10 supplements.