POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: tednlou2 on February 29, 2012, 02:11:47 am
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I know many here take statins, so thought I would post in this forum. If it should be in Research, please move. The new warnings will warn about memory loss/confusion and increased blood sugar, possibly leading to Type 2 Diabetes. This article specifically mentions HIV. The FDA says Mevacor/lovastatin should never be taken with certain HIV medications due to an increase in serious muscle disease. This article doesn't say which HIV medications.
I know many cardiologists believe everyone could benefit from a statin, regardless of risk factors. And, there's a lot of discussion about whether poz folks should take them to reduce inflammation and increased cardiac risks. The findings still say statin benefits far outweigh any of these side effects. Nothing has changed about how effective they are. And, the memory loss issue was anecdotal, and not part of a formal study. However, users have reported memory/confusion issues for years, and the FDA said the numbers are high enough to make a warning. One interesting finding is that regular liver monitoring for statins is not necessary, as liver injury is rare.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/us-fda-statins-idUSTRE81R1O220120228
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Lovastatin is not recommended for use at the same time as any protease inhibitor (Kaletra, Reyataz, Prezista, Norvir etc).
- matt
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HI Tednlou2,
I ran into this article... at first glance, it's scary... scientific... stick with it though and it may be helpful. However, what may be more helpful are some figures on the right hand side of the page. If you click on them, they get larger. Figure 2 are statins to use with NNRTI and Figure 4 is for PPI. Hopefully this is somewhat helpful.
http://depts.washington.edu/hivaids/drug/case5/discussion.html