How Does It Feel to Take Rosuvastatin (Crestor) for High Cholesterol? 3 People Share Their Experiences
Key takeaways:
People with high cholesterol may need statins, like rosuvastatin (Crestor).
Statins can help lower cholesterol and lower the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Some people take rosuvastatin with no side effects. Others may experience headache, nausea, or muscle pain.
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Rosuvastatin, whose brand name is Crestor, is a common statin medication used to treat high cholesterol.
It’s a pill that can help lower “bad” cholesterol when combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise. These medications can lower the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
What’s it like to take rosuvastatin? Here’s how three people describe it.
A genetic condition and lifetime of high cholesterol
About a year ago, 34-year-old Liz Thomson, a full-time recipe blogger and photographer from Richmond, Virginia, began taking rosuvastatin to lower her cholesterol. After a lifetime of living with high cholesterol, she is finally seeing her numbers come down.
When she first learned she had high cholesterol, it came as a shock to her family. Liz was 9 years old.
Her pediatrician said her total cholesterol level was 380 mg/dL — almost four times the ideal level for an adult. Liz was active and seemingly healthy in every other way. She didn’t learn until years later that she had a genetic condition that made her cholesterol climb.
Throughout her childhood and teens, Liz had her cholesterol checked every year. It always hovered around 300 mg/dL. She tried vegetarian and vegan diets, hoping she could lower that number naturally. She took a different cholesterol medication for a short time. Nothing worked.
But there was a good reason.
“When I was about to turn 30, I became more serious about finding out why nothing I had done changed my cholesterol level,” Liz says. She knew that such high levels of cholesterol put her at a much higher risk for an eventual stroke or heart attack.
During her many Google searches, Liz came across the term familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), a genetic condition in which the body cannot process cholesterol properly. The condition is found most often in people who are of French Canadian, Ashkenazi Jewish, Lebanese, or South African descent. Liz’s paternal grandmother was French Canadian.
“I immediately thought ‘That’s what I have,’” she says. She was right.
The Family Heart Foundation helped connect her with a cardiologist in Richmond who specializes in FH. “It was really helpful finally to find someone who understood the differences between just high cholesterol and genetically high cholesterol,” she says.
Today, Liz’s LDL — which stands for low-density lipoprotein, or “bad cholesterol” level — is right around 100. It’s not as low as she’d like, but it’s headed in the right direction. Along with rosuvastatin, she takes another cholesterol medication, Zetia (ezetimibe).
Now, she says, she focuses on spreading awareness “because so many people who have high cholesterol go undiagnosed.”
Lowering cholesterol key to living the good life
Art Dobrucki of Simi Valley, California, believes in the phrase “carpe diem” — or “seize the day.” It’s been the guiding principle of his life since having what he calls “a significant heart event” at age 47.
After experiencing chest tightness that came on suddenly followed by difficulty climbing stairs at work, Art saw his doctor.
“The next thing I knew, I was checked into the hospital,” he says.
Within 12 hours, his care team discovered a 99% blockage in a main artery and put in a stent to keep the artery open.
“That also was my entry into the world of statins,” Art says.
Although Art had followed a vegetarian diet for more than 15 years and exercised regularly, there had been signs that something wasn’t right. Annual blood work showed a higher-than-normal LDL level. Still, he says no doctor ever suggested that was something to be concerned about.
Since his stent surgery, Art’s doctors have prescribed several different statins plus a daily aspirin. His LDL levels had come down. But he says it wasn’t as low as it needed to be.
About a year ago, Art switched to a new cardiologist who prescribed rosuvastatin.
It’s brought his total cholesterol down, and he’s had no negative side effects.
Now 59 and recently retired from his corporate job, Art and his wife devote their time to grandchildren, traveling, and blogging and podcasting about their experiences.
Art says one of the most helpful parts of maintaining his good health has been sharing his story. “I came out of this whole experience feeling that I had to live life fully every day,” he says.
Statins aren’t always the answer
For some people, taking statins means dealing with side effects. That’s what happened to Laurinda Dixon.
Laurinda, a 74-year-old retired art history professor from Syracuse University, is no different than most Baby Boomers. She wants to be as healthy and fit as possible so she can travel, visit friends, and enjoy the many artistic offerings Cincinnati (where she now lives) has to offer. She continues to work part time as an art historian, teaching classes online, and reviewing art publications.
For more than 20 years, a big part of following that healthy lifestyle has meant controlling her high cholesterol.
Just before she turned 50, Laurinda learned that her LDL level was more than 200. Laurinda knew that such a number put her at greater risk of a heart attack or stroke.
At the time, Laurinda’s physician prescribed rosuvastatin. Within a month, Laurinda began to suffer one of the most commonly reported side effects: muscle aches.
“I would wake up in the morning and ache all over,” she says.
Laurinda didn’t immediately make the connection between the start of her body aches and taking rosuvastatin. She tried aspirin and other over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers. She used a heating pad on her aching body. She even tried exercising out the aches. Then, she quit exercising altogether. Nothing worked.
After about 6 months, Laurinda returned to her doctor, who confirmed that the cause of her body aches was the rosuvastatin. The doctor thought that switching to another statin would likely solve the problem. It didn’t.
Although Laurinda’s cholesterol came down, the body aches continued despite trying several other statin medications over the next 3 years.
“It took quite a while to confirm that I just couldn’t tolerate any statin medication,” Laurinda says.
Finally, Laurinda’s physician prescribed a fibrate medication, another classification of drugs used to treat high cholesterol. Since then, she’s taken fenofibrate (Fibricor, Trilipix). It has been successful in lowering her cholesterol. The body aches caused by the statins have also disappeared.
What does a pharmacist say?
Amy Gragnolati, PharmD
Pharmacy editor
Rosuvastatin is part of a well-studied group of medications called statins. It’s FDA-approved to treat various medical conditions related to high cholesterol. This includes hyperlipidemia and familial hypercholesterolemia. It’s also approved to prevent heart disease in some people who have a greater risk.
Rosuvastatin is considered a moderate-to-high intensity statin. This means that at certain doses, it can lower your cholesterol levels by over 50%. If you need a statin, it’s likely you’ll need it for many years.
When you first start taking rosuvastatin, you may experience common side effects like muscle pain, joint pain, and headache. For many people, these side effects fade over time.
Though muscle symptoms are the most commonly reported symptom of statins, recent research shows that in most cases, the statin isn’t actually the cause of these symptoms. Still, muscle pain may be more likely if you’re female, thin, or have other medical conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure.
If you’re taking a statin and having muscle aches, talk to your healthcare provider. They can help you figure out if your statin is the cause.
If you think your statin is causing muscle pain, your healthcare provider can talk you through your options. You could lower your dose, switch to every-other-day dosing, or even switch to another statin. Most people will be able to tolerate a statin after trying one of these options.
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