Well let me tell you about my experience with Lipitor....
Im 36, healthy, just a family history of elevated cholesterol. Before they lowered the standards, Id test around 220-230 with the good cholesterol being above 60 (a good thing). I made changes to my diet, exercised more but could never get below 200, which is where they'd prefer to have you these days.
So they put me on the minimal (10mg) dose of Liptor. Awesome results, cholesterol drops to 148-180 range over the next few months.
Over the course of the year, my neck is always tight, my pectoral muscle is sore as is my abdominal. Basically any muscle pain Id had is amlpified. Stretching, massage would help for a while, but it would never go away. Then one day after a trip to the gym, Im really sore and my mind just wanders away. Is it my heart? Why am I so sore? It was annoying to even have the seatbelt over my soulder/pec muscles. So I finally saw the Doc about it and its a known lipitor issue (muscle aches).
Ive been off the drug for over a month now. I see a massage therapist weekly and she knows her stuff. My neck and shoulders are back to normal and slowly my muscles are loosing that "ropey" feel and smoothing out to normal. I've gone from pain, to sore to now discomfort. I'm having more good days than bad.
As Toad's preached here and elsewhere, if you can lower it minus the statins, do so! I've taken up lots of the suggestions he made (fish oil, more fish intake, green tea, vegetables, etc etc...). I test my choelsterol in a month so with any luck, my diet mods will bring the cholesterol more in the normal range and avoid another issue with statins and side effects.
