I have personal experience in  the effect of statins. I was presribed them in 2003, by 2005 I was so badly effected and toxic. This drug is insidious and whilst it does what it says on the bottle and reduces your cholesterol it ruined my health in the process.
I have been out of work for three years after working full time all my life with very little illness, I was prescribed statins and they slowly wrecked my health.
I started to lose strength and energy became confused, disorganised, forgetful. I could not put my finger on any one thing as I was feeling totally feeble. I was presenting all these symptoms to my GP but to no avail as he thought I was depressed. I started to find it difficult to move over in my bed and was getting cramps, I became weak and could not lift two plates together. I contracted shingles and cellulitus and could not walk at one stage. I could not get to the bottom of my condition as statin effects your whole body. I took myself off statins in September 2006 when I happened to reread the updated  (2005) insert and found I was presenting all the symptoms. I am slowly recovering but now have Polymalgia and have a heart murmour the doctors have put me on steroids to try to stop the pain I have in bones and muscles. I am angry and want this drug taken off the market. It scares me that they can give this toxic poison to our children and elderly. I want my life back and want to thank Dr Mercola for his website which helped me to realise that I was not going crazy and to look for alternative medication. I take lecithin and watch my diet. I want to join any campaign to redress this travesty. I only had high cholesterol and blood pressure in 2003. I had a full medical and there were no other health issues then I took statins and have been to hell and back.
How many of us are out there? we need to collate all of our experiences to present to the FDA and get the system changed. FIRST DO NO HARM!!

It is amazing how many people present the same problems with the statin drugs, and yet the Doctors refuse to see the connection.  My husband also had so many problems with the statins.  Loss of muscle, fatigue, anger, tendonitis, bursitis, and the list went on. My husband had a reaction after stopping the statins, and had a heart stent put it, and I now believe he just had unstable plaque, and probably did not need the stent. My husband also got shingles and I blamed that on the statins.  And, now he has had recurring eye problems and I am starting to think they are also related to the use of statins.  He has been off the statins for at least 2 years, but his good health has not returned, and I fear he will never be the same as he was before the statins.  To my mind these are some of the most dangerous drugs that are being prescribed.  It is too bad we can not get compensated for the damage these drugs can do to us. 

I work with patients  who take "statin" meds. In the past month, at least three had to be taken off a well known and widely used med due to muscle pain and extremely elevated CPK's. Please, if you experience muscle pain contact your physician and/or practitioner and request to have your CPK level checked!

I've known a few people who have had muscle issues from Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs. It was a very scary experience for them.

I just came accross this book called Selling Sickness: How the Worlds Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us All Into Patients.

Here's the link to it on Amazon.com  http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Sickness-Pharmaceutical-Companies-Patients/dp/156025856X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223050205&sr=1-1 

I think I'll be buying it as it looks very interesting and most of the ratings were fairly high.