This question would likely get more responses if posted in the High Cholesterol forum here on Healthboards.

In response to your question, one of the most serious possible side effects of Tricor (which is in the class of drugs called fibrates) besides death, is rhabdomyolysis.

Here is a response to a similar question posted on the old Healthboards >>> [url="http://www.healthboards.com/high-cholesterol/2250.html"]http://www.healthboards.com/high-cholesterol/2250.html[/url]

Is he also taking a statin drug in combination with the Tricor? If so, this can have serious side effects. This is what I gathered from a prescription drug information page for Tricor: "Rhabdomyolysis has occurred when lovastatin was administered in combined therapy with gemfibrozil, a compound of the fibrate class related to fenofibrate. In most patients who have had an unsatisfactory lipid response to either drug alone, any possible benefit of combined therapy with an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor and TRICOR is not outweighed by the risks of severe myopathy, rhabdomyolysis, and acute renal failure. There is no assurance that periodic monitoring of creatine kinase will prevent the occurrence of severe myopathy and kidney damage."

Also note the following from that site regarding health warnings associated with Tricor: "Because of chemical, pharmacological and clinical similarities between TRICOR (fenofibrate capsules), micronized, Atromid-S (clofibrate), and Lopid (gemfibrozil), the adverse findings in 4 large randomized, placebo-controlled clinical studies with these other fibrate drugs may also apply to TRICOR. In a study, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), 5000 subjects without known coronary heart disease were treated with clofibrate for 5 years and followed 1 year beyond. There was a statistically significant, 44% higher age-adjusted total mortality in the clofibrate-treated than in a comparable placebo-treated control group during the trial period. The excess mortality was due to a 33% increase in non-cardiovascular causes, including malignancy, postcholecystectomy complications, and pancreatitis. The higher risk of clofibrate-treated subjects for gallbladder disease was confirmed."

This study shows that you are more likely to die if you take Tricor than a placebo, a 44% increase. 33% of the increase was due to other causes including cancer, but the remaining 11% was due to increased coronary events. So this shows that taking Tricor to reduce your cholesterol actually increases your likelihood of death from a coronary event, the very thing it is supposed to reduce. And that doesn't even address the additional deaths from other causes such as cancer. So what is the purpose of taking Tricor in the first place if not to reduce your risk of death?

All cholesterol lowering medications merely treat the symptom of high cholesterol and do nothing to address the root cause of why cholesterol levels are elevated in the first place, which is typically a diet poorly suited to that individual's genetics. This poor diet I am referring to most often involves excesses of sugars and other highly refined carbohydrates, not excesses of dietary cholesterol or saturated fat.

Read through some of the posts in the High Cholesterol forum for more info. By searching for the keywords "tricor rhabdomyolysis" (no quotes), I got over 100 hits on google.com.

Alan

Thanks for the reply and the insight. This was my first posting on this or any similar website so I inadvertantly put it in the general category.

I wish that I had known more about the Tricor prior to my father starting on it to inform him. It does not seem that the doctor conveyed near that level of risk to him in using it or else I feel he would have been more perceptive to side effects. Also, unfortunately one of the most frustrating aspects of the parent/doctor relationship that my dad has is that the doctor NEVER presses my father to alter his diet and exercise to address the problem. My father is 5'10" and about 240lbs. He will never listen to us (his kids and wife) when we harp on him. His comment when we ask him what the doctor told him is "He never mentioned my weight." or "Yeah, he said I need to drop a few pounds." There is definitely not enough dietary emphasis with a lot of the doctors that I have heard of in our area when dealing with cholestorol and BP concerns.

You had asked some more specific questions concerning my father's medicine. I am not sure what all else he is taking but I do know that he is diabetic and is taking medication for that as well. I read in one web page (I also read many of the hit pages on the Google search) that diabetic medicine along with statins and/or fenofibrates is an added risk factor. After reading all of these pages and especially your statistics on the Tricor I feel that my father was a walking time bomb while on the medicine. Thank God that right now he is not on the Tricor. However my concerns at this point are:

1. Is there residual effect of the damage incurred from taking the Tricor?
2. How can I get him to change his diet and lifestyle? I know this one you can not give me answers on but I need to get through to him.

Once again I thank you for the reply!

Not a tricor patient but was on Lipitor 20 mg for 14 months and Crestor 10mg for 3 days- when a doctor rechallenges a patient with a second statin the side effects are way worse and they have stayed with me now for 3 months since quitting Crestor around May 10 - some of the symptoms have lessened but each month there are new ones- increasingly bad headaches and diarrhea-

my doctor in Texas put me on Prenisone- specifically Medrol 6 day dose pac but he mestepped down too quick- no symptoms while on it and then headaches and diarrhea as soon as I was off of it- so he trying it again for 10 days- Prednisone has its side effects but they are better than statins any day- ask about it

P