[escapee]

The muscle problem is just one of the many side effects of statin, addtional SE include but not limited to

Damage to the lining of your stomach, prolonged bleeding time, wheezing, breathlessness, ringing in the ears, hearing loss, chronic catarrh & runny nose, headache, confusion, nausea, vomiting, GI upset, GI bleeding, ulcers, rash, allergic reactions, hives, DEATH

Is 2 million people ( 2% of the total users) with one particular side effect rare ? Personally, I would not rate it as rare . To me the word "rare" is something like 0.0001 % or even lower.

Just how many people with statin side effects?

Just how rare are the people with statin side effects? When a doctor says it can't possibly be the Lipitor because a particular adverse reaction is so rare, what he is saying is he can't imagine that you are one of the 2 MILLION people who have developed that reaction. (a very poor imagination if you ask me)

2%, for example, would be TWO MILLION PEOPLE+

However, that is just for ONE listed ADVERSE EFFECT. My understanding is that the Adverse Effects percentages are each counted individually and expressed in percentages (the percentages, of course, come from studies, not the total population of patients).

From the Adverse Reactions section of the Physician’s Insert (PI) on Lipitor, an FDA-approved document, available at http://www.lipitor.com/pi/default.asp

“Adverse experiences reported in > or =2% of patients in placebo-controlled clinical studies of atorvastatin, regardless of causality assessment, are shown in Table 6.”

NOTE THAT IS EACH.

Among the more serious in italics, i.e., Adverse Effects that Pfizer declares each as affecting TWO MILLION OR MORE PEOPLE are:

Chest pain, rhinitis, dizziness, Arthritis, Peripheral edema. That represents a total of 10 MILLION people, if some do not suffer more than one adverse effect at a time.

What about the other serious Adverse Effects, that Pfizer admits affect just under 2MILLION People? They include:

Some nasty digestive system reactions, including: gastroenteritis, liver function tests abnormal, colitis, rectal hemorrhage, esophagitis, eructation, stomatitis, biliary pain, cheilitis, duodenal ulcer, dysphagia, enteritis, melena, gum hemorrhage, stomach ulcer, tenesmus, ulcerative stomatitis, hepatitis, pancreatitis, cholestatic jaundice.

Some serious nervous system reactions, including: paresthesia, amnesia, libido decreased, emotional lability, incoordination, peripheral neuropathy*, torticollis, facial paralysis, hyperkinesia, depression, hypesthesia, hypertonia.

*NOTE that, while Pfizer includes peripheral neuropathy as under 2% (or just under 2 million people), Dr. Gaist’s study found that POLYNEUROPATHY, more serious than peripheral neuropathy, occurred in Statin users 14.2 times the normal rate of occurrence. However, people on statins for 2 or more years leapt to 26.4 times the normal rate of occurrence.