Khayznikov M, Hemachrandra K, Pandit R, Kumar A, Wang P, Glueck CJ. Statin Intolerance Because of Myalgia, Myositis, Myopathy, or Myonecrosis Can in Most Cases be Safely Resolved by Vitamin D Supplementation. North American Journal of Medical Sciences. 2015;7(3):86-93. doi:10.4103/1947-2714.153919.
The authors studied 146 statin-intolerant patients with 25(OH)D levels below 32 ng/ml, which is important because every well-designed trial involving vitamin D supplementation should recruit patients who are vitamin D deficient to begin with. They treated the patients with either 50,000 IU/week or 100,000 IU/week depending on their baseline levels, but they didn’t specify if they were treated with vitamin D3 or D2. They adjusted the dose during the study to keep patients between healthy levels of 50 to 80 ng/ml, which was excellent because another feature of a well-designed trial is the administration of a large enough dose of vitamin D to bring levels into a range that will elicit a beneficial effect. After six months of treatment, average vitamin D levels rose from 22 ng/ml to 53 ng/ml.
On re-challenge with statins at six months while on vitamin D supplementation, 88% of the previously statin-intolerant patients were now free of statin-induced muscle side effects. As an aside, they found that median low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) fell with treatment from the study entry, 167 mg/dL to 90 mg/dL, (P < .0001) at six months.
While this is an uncontrolled study (all patients were treated), it is unlikely that a randomized controlled trial can be conducted as ethics committees would not allow a vitamin D-deficient placebo group to go untreated for the duration of the study. I still stand by the Vitamin D Council’s recommendation to take 5,000 IU/day of vitamin D3 per day with the largest meal of the day (fat helps to increase absorption of vitamin D). And, while you’re at it, spend some time getting safe, sensible sun exposure at solar noon.
Folks like me who have statin tolerance issues and a faulty D gene may have found the culprit! Though I haven't researched the faulty D gene evidence yet. Thanks rep!
Should not have been too hard to predict as Vitamin D is made directly from cholesterol. Cut the cholesterol and D will likely go down as will all other derivative chemicals that are important for your body. From Wikipedia:
Within cells, cholesterol is the precursor molecule in several biochemical pathways. In the liver, cholesterol is converted to bile, which is then stored in the gallbladder. Bile contains bile salts, which solubilize fats in the digestive tract and aid in the intestinal absorption of fat molecules as well as the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K. Cholesterol is an important precursor molecule for the synthesis of vitamin D and the steroid hormones, including the adrenal gland hormones cortisol and aldosterone, as well as the sex hormones progesterone, estrogens, and testosterone, and their derivatives.[5]
Of course also true of other non-derivative things on the same pathway that statins interrupt (e.g. CoQ10). I realize it's hard to decipher why 'cholesterol' might be elevated, but sure seems more sensible to me to think harder about causes than treat symptoms… especially if treating the symptom triggers other (somewhat predictable) problems. All a flaw in systematic scientific thinking in my view….
Russ
E3/4 Eat whole, real, flavorful food - fresh and in season... and mix it up once in a while.
It seems to be complex, interaction between vitamin D and statins. I dont think serum cholesterol concentration influences vitamin D synthesis significantly. I think its endocrinally driven
Its being investigated https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog/op ... -d-status/
