Cholesterol Medications, What You Need To Know.

If you are concerned about having unhealthy cholesterol levels then the first two things you should look at are your lifestyle and your diet. This is important even if your doctor prescribes you a course of cholesterol medications. For some people a simple diet and lifestyle change will not be quite enough to get their cholesterol levels under control. In this case a doctor will often prescribe some cholesterol lowering medication.

While you are working on dietary and lifestyle changes, if you have a rather high blood cholesterol level and any other circumstances that can lead to heart disease, your doctor may well decide that you need to start having drug therapy.

The levels of cholesterol in your blood can be lowered by various common medications that can be taken alone or in conjunction with other such drugs. Nicotinic acid, gemfibrozil, clofibrate and various resins are some of the many, comonly used cholesterol lowering drugs.

Nicotinic acid is a cholesterol medication that works to lower cholesterol by lowering the levels of triglyceride and raising the levels of HDL cholesterol also known as “Good” cholesterol.

Gemfibrozil is a drug that simply raises the levels of HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream having the effect of purging the “bad” or LDL cholesterol.

Clofibrate is a cholesterol medication that has the effect of lowering the levels of triglyceride in the body whilst raising the levels of HDL cholesterol.

Resins used as cholesterol medications are also known as bile acid binding drugs. They have the effect of lowering the levels of cholesterol by working in the intestines to aid the disposal of cholesterol. In this group of medications there are three main medications, these are: Colestipol (Colestid), Cholestyramine (Questran, Prevalite, Lo Cholest) and Colesevelam (WelChol).

Statins are a cholesterol lowering medication that can be very effective in lowering the LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the bloodstream but this group of medications has some rather unpleasant short term side effects. These include liver damage, impotency and some muscle aches. Prescribed statins are usually in the form of Atorvastatin (Lipitor), Fluvastatin (Lescol), Simvastatin (Zocor) and Pravastatin (Pravachol). The above medications may well treat the adverse symptoms of high cholesterol they do not offer a long term cure as they do not attack the root of the high cholesterol problem. Many of the above drugs and medication's carry various side effects so are best avoided unless there is no other option.

For lowering the levels of cholesterol it is important to look at ways to improve your diet first before seeking medication as the diet is the root cause of the problem and as such, can be the source of a cure. The first step is to try to limit foods that contain high levels of cholesterol, these are mainly foods with high levels of saturated fats.

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