High Cholesterol Medications

If lifestyle changes do not lower the cholesterol level within about three months, the doctor may consider prescribing a cholesterol lowering medication. If the patient has heart disease or many risk factors for heart diseases, the doctor may prescribe cholesterol lowering medications in addition to lifestyle changes immediately after diagnosis, rather than waiting for three months for the effect of lifestyle changes alone.

Cholesterol lowering medications
Some of the common Cholesterol Medication available in the marker are

• statins,


• bile acid sequestrants,


• cholesterol absorption inhibitors,


• nicotinic acid agents, and


• fibrates.

If the patient's doctor prescribes one of these medications, he or she must still follow a cholesterol lowering diet, be more physically active, try to lose weight (if overweight), and control or stop all of the other risk factors for heart disease (including high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking).

Taking all these steps together may lessen the amount of medication an individual needs or make the medication more effective, which reduces the risks associated with high cholesterol.

How cholesterol medication lower cholesterol ?
Statins | Simvastatin | Pravastatin - Statins medication inhibits an enzyme HMG- CoA reductase that controls the rate of cholesterol production in the body.

Bile Acid Sequestrants | Cholestyramine - Liver uses cholesterol to make bile acids needed for digestion. Bile acid sequestrant binds to pile acid and eliminated in the stool. So liver uses more cholesterol to make bile acid, instead of re-circulating the available pile acid.

Cholesterol absorption inhibitor | Zetia - Small intestine absorbs cholesterol from diet; Cholesterol absorption inhibitor medication reduces the cholesterol by inhibiting absorption of dietary cholesterol.

Fibrates | Tricor | Fenofibrate - Fibrates medication decreases triglycerides by reducing liver's production of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and by speed up the removal of triglycerides from blood.

Niacin | Niaspan - Niacin is a B vitamin that should be taken only under physician supervision. It improves all lipoproteins - total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, and HDL.