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Overview
Pravachol is prescribed primarily to lower cholesterol.
Heart specialists recognize that coronary artery disease is associated with certain risk factors, including high serum cholesterol, bad LDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides and reduced levels of protective HDL cholesterol.
Diet, exercise and weight control are usually considered important first-line preventive approaches. When they are insufficient, drugs like Pravachol may be important in reducing the risk of heart disease.
This medication has been found to increase good HDL cholesterol while lowering triglycerides and certain other negative blood fats.
Side Effects and Interactions
Pravachol has relatively few side effects and most people tolerate it well.
Some adverse reactions that may occur include nausea, flatulence, constipation, diarrhea, stomachache, fatigue, headache and skin rash.
Less common complications include dizziness, muscle pain, change in the sense of taste, insomnia, and numbness or tingling of the hands or feet.
Muscle aches or weakness could be a sign of a serious reaction called rhabdomyolysis or myopathy, and call for a test of kidney function.
Kidney failure might be the outcome of untreated myopathy. Report any symptoms to your physician promptly.
The danger of rhabdomyolysis or myopathy is increased when Mevacor is combined with certain other drugs.
Troleandomycin or erythromycin antibiotics such as E.E.S., E-Mycin, Erythrocin or PCE have been involved in several cases.
The new antibiotics Biaxin and Zithromax belong to the same class of drugs, but it is not clear if they have a potential for such an interaction.
Because Pravachol is in the same class as Mevacor, this interaction may pose hazards with Pravachol as well.
When Pravachol is combined with other cholesterol-lowering medicines such as Lopid or niacin be alert for muscle pain, weakness, and kidney damage, as rhabdomyolysis may be more common in this situation.
The transplant drug Sandimmune might also increase the risk of this dangerous reaction.
Pravachol may also increase the action of the blood thinner Coumadin; prothrombin time should be closely monitored.
Questran or Colestid may reduce the absorption of Pravachol if they are given at the same time.
Tagamet also appears to interact with Pravachol.
Check with your physician and pharmacist to make sure Pravachol is safe in combination with any other drug you may take.
Special Precautions
Anyone with liver problems should probably not take Pravachol.
Liver enzyme changes have been reported in a small proportion of patients using this medicine, and may indicate serious problems.
Liver function should be tested before anyone starts taking Pravachol and every month or so for the first year. Periodic tests are needed thereafter.
Because cholesterol is essential for the developing fetus, pregnant women should not take Pravachol.
Research on animals has also shown stroke-like bleeding in dogs on Pravachol, but only at relatively high doses. Whether there is a risk for humans remains to be determined.
It is important to see an ophthalmologist before starting on Pravachol. An eye test should also be performed annually to make there is no damage to the lens.
Taking the Medicine
The manufacturer recommends that Pravachol be taken at bedtime.
It may be taken without or with meals.
Did this drug work? Average rating: 2.5/5 (15 votes)
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I took Pravastatin 40MG for 2 months.
The odd symptoms began slowly, which made them harder to recognize. General intense itching at night began. Sharp sudden pains began, often making me think I had been stung by an insect. Old fracture injuries suddenly would hurt. Lastly was a nerve in my lower right arm that began an intense itching and burning, that only ice packs would numb. Also there was a growing fatigue and exhaustion, similar to what you experience after involved surgery. I was having trouble moving, getting up from anything lower than my hips, required pulling or pushing myself up with weakened arms.
I stopped the Pravastatin at 2 months, but one month out am still bothered by weakness and fatigue. I want to know if this is permanent, is there any hidden damage I do not know about? My Doctor, who is not overly concerned about this, ran usual blood tests, (CBC, A1C, thyroid, Albumin, test for congestive heart failure), all came back fine. Where I can I get more information on this?
This truly has me frightened. I just turned 65, female, have been in good health and always strong.
I just read about the ALS connection & this has me alarmed.
Ann
Called for refill of Pravastatin 40mg and received Pravastatin Sodium 40 mg. Is this the same pill? I have been taking pravastatin for a few years with no side effects and am reluctant to take this new pill. Thanks.
Can't figure out how to edit my statement, but wish to add that the Prevatatin also effected my very good memory. Just suddenly could not recall ordinary things.
This has improved to some degree after being off drug for 6 weeks or so.
Ann
I am retired like others and hit the donut hole and by did that set us back financial...I take pravsatin and plavix since I had a stint put in 2 yrs ago....I get along fine on the Canadian medicine I receive....
I have coarseness in my voice sense taking the drug, also tired. Has anyone else had this problem? I would like to hear.
I took the medicine pravastatin and it was slowly paralyzing my whole right side of my body. I still have trouble with my right side and I have reported it to my doctor and one of his training interns at the time, and the intern gave me a little test, by pushing against her hands to try my strength and she told me she could see a difference from my right from my left in strength.
And I do know medicines do people differently, it works for some and others it doesn't. It has done the same with my father after he was put on this same medicine, but we didn't know it what it was doing to him until weeks later when he was falling, we thought it was his old age getting to him. After all, he was 91 years old and didn't talk much at at all, which at the time I didn't know he was even on the pravastatin until all this started to up with the falling and we took him off as soon as we found out. And I asked if he had been put on anything new and yes, he was taking pravastain.
But this scared me and I hope people watch what they take, when things tat to change for them with their bodies. It may be your medicine you are taking. And please watch your parents with the drugs they are given because it could be the problem. Especially if you have family in a nursing home or assisted living keep a check on them with changes.
Well to make a long story short, I found out I can't take anything with a statin in it, my body can't deal with the drug. But the sad thing is it has done it's damage to my body on my right side still at times I have no strength at all. All I will say is please watch out when taking medicines.
Hope this helps somebody who may need to know, and for the ones it is helping I am glad.
WSP
Pravastatin affected an old injury received over 40 years ago. My eye has become very swollen, painful, developed a sore that continuously drains and now I’m unable to see clearly out of that eye. I still have these problems after 2 years.
Has anyone experienced continuing diarrhea since taking pravachol?
I took pravastatin for two weeks when I found myself so sore all over I could not get out of bed. It was a combination of extreme weakness, severe muscle and joint pain. My prescribing primary doctor poo-pooed my symptoms and insisted I stay in the drug. She ran no liver or kidney blood tests, which are generally recommended for all these statin drugs, and I finally had to find another doctor to start over.
The new one had no trouble believing me and took these effects very seriously. She now has me on a natural diet and nutrition based regimen for my high cholesterol, which I was already pursuing on my own, and is much more sensitive to my feedback and input on all aspects of my case. I learned how crucial that mutual trust factor is to the doctor-patient relationship and now trust my own instincts when something feels wrong.
Took Pravastatin for about 45 days. It made me so tired, I could barely function during the day. My sense of smell has been affected. I smell "cigarette smoke" or the sense of intense heat, kind of like the smell a newly fired furnace puts out in the fall.
It worked on my cholesterol problem very well - put the numbers right where the doctor wanted to see them. I think there were some memory affects, as well. Upon reading some suspected connection to memory loss on the internet, combined with the other unacceptable side effects I was suffering, I made the decision to discontinue and do my best to manage my cholesterol with diet, as I have for years.
I have been off Pravastatin for about 3 weeks and my sense of smell is still adversely affected. I would say absolutely no change since quitting. I am very concerned because I cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke. It is quite annoying. My fatigue problem has waned somewhat but I have been trying to get more sleep and napping at lunch to counteract the problem.
I would be very interested in any assurance that this sense of smell and fatigue issues will go away eventually.
To anyone considering taking a statin, I would strongly urge you to consider the risks and whether it is truly worth it.
I would also be interested if anyone has done a correlation study comparing the introduction and/or use of statins and the spike in incidence of dementia and/or Alzheimer's Disease? I would think this would be something that the drug companies would certainly want to keep out of the spotlight, considering the huge income potential of both statin drugs and the drugs used to stave off the evolution of dementia, such as Namenda and Aricept.
FROM THE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION MARCH 2011 FACTSHEET
Deaths from Alzheimer’s increased 66 percent between 2000 and 2008, while deaths from other major diseases, including the number one cause of death (heart disease), decreased.
Then I find information such as the 2/21/08 Seattle Times article that say rates of dementia are declining. Excerpt:
The downward trend, reported online Wednesday in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia, found 8.7 percent of participants age 70 and older had cognitive impairment — from significant memory loss to full-blown Alzheimer's disease — compared to 12.2 percent in 1993.
WHAT IS ONE TO BELIEVE!
I have an 85-year old mother in middle dementia, probably Alzheimer's. I don't want that to be me. If there is any connection of a drug to memory loss, I sure want to know about it and I don't want to take it!