Ask the doctor: Are heart drugs causing my nighttime leg cramps?
Ask the doctor
Let's start with the medications you are taking. Muscle pain is the most common side effect of the cholesterol-lowering statins. Although it is usually a constant pain or ache, it may appear as nighttime cramps. Two reports in the past 20 years have described a half-dozen people who developed leg cramps after starting niacin, suggesting that this is an uncommon side effect but a possibility nonetheless. I don't know of any evidence linking aspirin or clopidogrel (Plavix) to leg cramps.
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