Cholesterol Medicine Atorvastatin

Lowering blood cholesterol can reduce the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular health issues. Some lifestyle modifications can help bring back the normal range of blood cholesterol levels. Your health care specialist may ask you to follow a strict diet and exercise, along with medication. Atorvastatin is a medication that can lower your cholesterol, and your health care provider may recommend this statin therapy to lower your cholesterol. 

Path to Lower Cholesterol and Improve Health

Even if you have been taking your cholesterol-lowering drug daily, it is important to keep up with your lifestyle modifications. Eating a healthy diet and being physically active can make your statin therapy more effective. Your health care specialist can advise you on how to make healthy food choices and to which type of physical activity you can include in your daily routine.

Common Cholesterol-Lowering Medicines

Several types of cholesterol-lowering drugs are used to gain control over cholesterol levels. Your health care specialist will decide which medication is suitable for you. Stains are the commonly used cholesterol-lowering class of drugs that have been widely used to reduce blood cholesterol. These are recommended for most patients. Stains are the only cholesterol-lowering drug class that has been extremely beneficial in reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.  Statin therapy is not for adults with a history of cardiovascular disease, including stroke. It is not suitable for people with diabetes who are between the age of 40 to 75 years. It is very important to talk to a health care specialist about the risks associated with high cholesterol. He/she will assess your risk factors and work with you to choose the best treatment approach. All statin drugs, including Atorvastatin, works by stopping the production of cholesterol in the liver, and they do this by the activity of an enzyme called HMG-CoA that is responsible for making cholesterol. The medicine can reduce total cholesterol as well as LDL cholesterol in the blood.

Atorvastatin to control your Cholesterol Levels

For some people, lifestyle changes and diet may prevent unhealthy cholesterol levels. While other people need medicinal treatment to get normal blood cholesterol levels. Work with your health care specialist to develop a treatment plan that’s right for you. He/she will tell you if you require a medicinal treatment, so be sure to discuss with your health care specialist regarding your elevated cholesterol levels. As mentioned above, statins are the most commonly prescribed drugs when it comes to curing blood cholesterol problems. The medication has other beneficial effects that can prevent cardiovascular health issues in patients who have had a heart attack or are more likely to develop heart disease. Atorvastatin is one well known effective statin that lowers the levels of cholesterol in the blood. How does it work? Let’s first understand what cholesterol is. Cholesterol is present in the form of fat in the blood. It is majorly found in sources such as poultry, meat, and full-fat dairy products. There should be enough cholesterol in the body that can ensure proper body function and organ growth. However, too much of this type of fat in the blood can increase the likelihood of clogging the arteries, leading to serious health problems. There are two types of cholesterol low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). LDL is believed to be the bad cholesterol that is primarily responsible for the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). It can block the blood flow, which makes the heart work harder than it should. Those with raised levels of bad cholesterol are more likely to get heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. Therefore, it is very important to lower the amount of LDL in the blood.

On the other hand, HDL is considered the good type of cholesterol. It supports the removal of cholesterol from the blood vessels and carries it back to the liver, where it expels from the body via urine. Making healthy and increasing physical activity are usually the first initial steps in improving cholesterol. However, these improved lifestyle modifications alone may prove effective in some people. In such cases, health care specialists may recommend Atorvastatin that not only lowers LDL, but also lower triglycerides (Other fats) in the body and raising HDL cholesterol in the body. Statin therapy is extremely beneficial, treating high cholesterol.

Things to Consider

Like other medicines, statins can also cause side effects. However, these side effects usually are not severe and are not experienced very often. The common ones include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, muscle aches, sleep problems, drowsiness, headache, vomiting. Tell your health care specialist as soon as possible if your side effects become severe or don’t improve within a few days.