Statins. What they are: These are usually the first type of drug that doctors prescribe to lower LDL. They also lower triglycerides, which are another type of blood fat, and mildly raise your "good" (HDL) cholesterol.
According to a research review people who take simvastatin (Zocor) or pravastatin (Pravachol) may experience fewer side effects.
Statins — Statins are one of the best-studied classes of medications and the most commonly used drugs for lowering LDL cholesterol. They are the most effective drugs for prevention of coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and death.
Diet and exercise are the best initial treatment for children age 2 and older who have high cholesterol or who are obese. Children age 10 and older who have extremely high cholesterol levels might be prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins.
If you're taking a statin medication to lower your cholesterol, you will need to keep taking your prescription, or your cholesterol will likely go back up. Stopping your statin can put you at risk of having heart disease and other preventable health problems like stroke and heart attack from high cholesterol.
It turns out that some statins may be better at preventing liver cancer than others. Specifically, lipophilic statins (those that dissolve more readily in lipids such as oils and fats) may be more effective for preventing liver cancer than hydrophilic statins (those that dissolve more readily in water).
In studies, Nexletol also appears to reduce the risk of muscle pain, a common complaint of people on statins. Nexletol (bempedoic acid) is a new cholesterol-lowering drug.
You can choose to take it at any time, as long as you stick to the same time every day. This prevents your blood levels from becoming too high or too low. Sometimes doctors may recommend taking it in the evening. This is because your body makes most cholesterol at night.
Oatmeal, oat bran and high-fiber foods
Soluble fiber is also found in such foods as kidney beans, Brussels sprouts, apples and pears. Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. Five to 10 grams or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your LDL cholesterol.
Statins are the most common medication for high cholesterol.
Rosuvastatin and atorvastatin are the best at lowering LDL cholesterol.
Ezetimibe. Ezetimibe (Zetia) is a medication that's often prescribed in cases where a statin alone isn't enough. If you've hit the maximum recommended dose of your statin but your cholesterol levels are still high, your healthcare provider might recommend it.
Very rarely, statins can cause life-threatening muscle damage called rhabdomyolysis (rab-doe-my-OL-ih-sis). Rhabdomyolysis can cause severe muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. The risk of very serious side effects is extremely low, and calculated in a few cases per million people taking statins.
A person is considered at high risk for developing heart disease if their total cholesterol level is higher than 240 mg/dL, LDL levels are higher than 160 mg/dL (190 mg/dL is even higher risk), and if the HDL level is below 40 mg/dL.
There are many non-statin medications your doctor might prescribe: Bile acid-binding resins, like cholestyramine (Locholest, Prevalite, Questran), colesevelam (WelChol), and colestipol (Colestid) stick to cholesterol-rich bile acids in your intestines and lower your LDL levels.
Statins should not be taken if you have liver disease or if blood tests suggest that your liver may not be working properly. This is because statins can affect your liver, and this is more likely to cause serious problems if you already have a damaged liver.
Overall, data suggesting that statins cause acute kidney injury in the absence of myopathy or rhabdomyolysis is weak. The increased risk of acute kidney injury may be associated with the use of high-potency statins (measured by dose or LDL-lowering ability).
Atorvastatin causes elevations in transaminases greater than 3-fold the ULN in approximately 0.5% of all cases, with an absolute risk of 1.2% with high-intensity therapy. Atorvastatin is the most common cause of clinically significant liver injury among statins with a reported incidence of 1/17 000 users.
Fifty patients met study criteria, and overall most (37/50; 74%) tolerated the once-a-week regimen (Table 1). Among those who experienced myalgias from previous statins, 71% (25/35) tolerated once-a-week rosuvastatin.
Conclusion: Statins lower blood pressure by cholesterol-independent mechanisms, and the reduction is larger in individuals with higher blood pressure and those with low HDL-C. Statins may be beneficial in preventing hypertension and may contribute to better blood pressure control in hypertensive patients.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends low- to moderate-dose statins in adults ages 40 to 75 who have one or more risk factors for heart and blood vessel disease and at least a 1 in 10 chance of having a cardiosvascular disease event in the next 10 years.