Ways To Treat High Cholesterol

Having high cholesterol is a serious health risk – it can lead to heart disease or even heart attack, stroke, and death. Luckily, high cholesterol is treatable if you know what to do. Here is a look at the different things that you can do to treat your high cholesterol problem.

Diet and Exercise and Other Changes
Often, the first step towards treating high cholesterol is to improve your lifestyle. This is often the easiest and least invasive way to improve your high cholesterol. Regular physical activity can help. Changing your diet to include more fruits and vegetables and fewer saturated fats will also help. Quitting smoking is another way that you can reduce your high cholesterol.

Unfortunately, however, lifestyle changes are not always enough to bring down your high cholesterol levels. If this is the case, and in particular if you have abnormally high LDL cholesterol, you may have to consider taking a medication in addition to your new routines. There are several options for prescription medications, and your doctor will decide which one is best for you based on the potential side effects, your general health, and other factors.

Statins
Stains are one of the most commonly prescribed medications for high cholesterol problems. They help to block the ingredient that your liver needs to produce cholesterol. Basically, statins lower the amount of cholesterol that is in your liver, so your liver then removes more cholesterol from your blood. Less cholesterol in your bloodstream equals a lower coronary risk. Besides reducing the chances of new plaque deposits, for some patients statins will actually help remove buildup that has actually occurred. Prescription drugs that fall under the statin category include: Altoprev and Mevacor (lovastatin), Crestor (rosuvastatin), Lescol (fluvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), and Zocor (simvastatin).

Bile-Acid-Binding Resins
Another option for lowering your high cholesterol includes bile-acid-binding resins. Bile acids are produced in the liver to help with digestion, and one of the main ingredients is cholesterol. Bile-acid-binding resins work by binding bile acids. This forces your liver to have to make more of them, reducing the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream. Prescription drugs that fall under the bile-acid-binding resins include: Colestid (colestipol), Prevalite and Questran (cholestyramine), and WelChol (colesevelam).

Cholesterol Absorption Inhibitors
Cholesterol from your diet is absorbed by your small intestinal and then released into the bloodstream. Cholesterol absorption inhibitors work by preventing cholesterol from being absorbed. A prescription drug example is Zetia (ezetimibe). These drugs often can be used in conjunction with statins to improve your results. In fact, prescription drugs like Vytorin (ezetimibe-simvastatin) combine a statin and a cholesterol inhibitor to help fight all the causes of high cholesterol problems.

While most cholesterol-lowering medications are safe to use, the effectiveness will vary from person to person. Side effects will vary, though common ones include: diarrhea, nausea, and stomach pain. You may also need to have a liver test to make sure that your liver is tolerating the medication well.

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