If someone on cholesterol medicine has muscle pain, doctors should check for other causes and try lowering the dose, switching meds, or taking it less often—so they can keep protecting their heart without stopping the drug completely.

If people on statins get muscle pain but are told it might not be the medicine causing it, they’re more likely to keep taking the pills. Talking to patients about this can help them stick with their treatment.

People on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs often complain of muscle pain, but studies show a lot of that might be because they expect side effects — their minds play a trick called the nocebo effect, not the drug itself.

Some people who say statins cause muscle pain might still feel worse on a low dose of atorvastatin, even if most don’t — it could mean a few are extra sensitive.

If you think statins give you muscle pain, taking 20 mg of atorvastatin every day probably won’t make those aches any worse than a sugar pill — it might just be your mind playing tricks.

Most muscle aches people get while on statins probably aren’t actually caused by the drug, since nearly the same number of people on sugar pills have them too.