DEAR DR. GOTT: I have arthritis in my feet and hands but never let it slow me down. I became semi-crippled after being put on simvastatin. I didn’t complain to the doctor. I cannot tolerate pain killers, so I spent hours each day off my feet on a large heating paid. I’m not young, of Scottish ancestry, and raised to be stoic. I’m the widow of a nuclear scientist who died in his mid 50s. He moved us 23 times and I had six children.

I never told my oldest PhD/MD/OB/GYN son but but after reading your column in the Journal Inquirer, I stopped using the statin of my own accord and that saved my life. Within a few days the excruciating pain that would have staggered a lesser person was gone. At age 92 ½ I have a lot of pain in my mid spine but I just soldier on. I am doing my own landscape cleanup, am an old-fashioned New England housekeeper and live alone. [Read more...]