Drugs – Sub Topics

Some people on the Plan will need cholesterol-lowering medication if they don’t respond to lifestyle changes after 12 weeks. Some people will need to start on cholesterol-lowering drugs even as they start the Plan. Refer back to the quiz begin see which category you likely fit. Most people on the Plan will benietit from taking a baby day. Check with your doctor >...

As of early 2003 the FDA had approved five statin drugs for the treatment of high cholesterol. Although the drugs are similar, there are some differences in their mechanisms and effectiveness. So talk to your doctor about which statin is best for you. Here’s how they break out: Average LDL reduction (percent) Average HDL increase (percent) Average HDL triglycerides (percent) Effect on cardiovascular disease and deaths their effects Drug Lescol 33 11-25 19-23 Not determined. FDA-approverl as treatment to lower apolipoprotein B Requires the least amourit of liver function testing, Lipitor 54 5-9 19-37 Not determined. Also reduces levels of remnant lipoprotein cholesterol levels and C-reactive protein, both signs of increased risk of heart disease. Mevacor 35 6 21 after 12 weeks No benefit seen in decreasing attack or death from heart attack. Pravachol 40 5 14 Reduced risk of having attack by 31 percent and reduce risk of overall death about 22 percent A study published in the journal...

If medication combined with the Live, It Down Plan doesn’t enable you to reach your LDL goal within three months, your doctor may consider starting you on a second drug to boost results. Combination therapy can help reverse or slow the advance of atherosclerosis and further decrease your risk of a heart attack or death. Also, since both drugs may be prescribed in lower doses than if you were taking either alone, your risk of side effects may decrease...

If you’re taking niacin and Mevacor, now you can get them both in one pill. The drug is called Advisor, the timed-release niacin drug Niaspan  with 20 milligrams of the statin Mevacor. Its risks and benefits mimic those of taking both drugs separately. But convenience has its price. When the Washington Post compared the cost of Advisor to buying separate bottles of Niaspan and generic lovastatin, buying the drug  cost less. Still, for some people the convenience of a single hemoglobin pill might be worth the extra expense...

In 2001 the media filled with headlines warning that taking antioxidant vitamins E and C could reduce statins’ effectiveness. They were referring toa study published that year in Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. In that study 153 heart patients with especially low HDL levels were broken into four groups. The first group received a statin and niacin; the second got a combination of the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium; the third received placebos; and the fourth got both the drugs and the antioxidants. After a year the group taking the drugs and the niacin had a 34 percent drop in LDL and a 25 percent rise in HDL. Those receiving antioxidants and the drugs had the same LDL drop but only an 18 percent increase in HDL. And their piaque increasedpercent, compared with a 4 percent decrease in the drug-only group. (In case you’re wondering, the vitaminonly group and the placebo group showed almost no change.) So should you avoid taking...

For years rumors have circulated on the Internet that statins might cause cancer. The rumors trace their start to a 1996 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that suggested a link between cancer, statins, and fibrates, another class of drug that lowers cholesterol. Researchers examining animal studies in which the two drugs were given to rats found that the rodents developed cancer more often than usual. In some cases the cancer occurred with drug doses close to two later studies examining large populations of people taking statins found no connection between this class of drug and cancer...

Taking certain drugs while you’re also taking statins might increase your risk of muscle damage. These drugs include: fibrates; nicotinic acid; the antifungals Sporonox (itraconazole), Nizoral (ketoconazole), and anything in the azole class of drug; antibiotics such as erythromycin and clarithromycin; the immunosuppressant Sandimmune (cyclosporine); HIV protease inhibitors; antidepressants such as Serzone (nefazodone); the beta-blockers Calan (verapamil) and |soptin (verapamil); and the anti-arrhythmia drug Cordarone IV (amiodarone)...

So you’re brushing your teeth before sliding into bed when it suddenly hits you: You forgot to take your cholesterol drug today. Forgetfulness is one of the most common reasons people say they don’t take their medications. To avoid forgetting, use prompts like the following:  Coordinate taking your medication with a daily activity. For instance, when you brush your teeth in the morning, you take your pill. When you eat dinner, you take your pill.  Use alarms on clocks, watches, cell phones, and computers to remind you when to take your medication. You can even buy an electronic medicine organizer that beeps at a programmed time. You can find them in drugstores or online at www.domorehealthcare.com.  Use pillboxes or other special medication holders to organize your medications by hour, day, and week. Then you can easily see if you’ve forgotten a dose.  Keep your medication in an obvious place (for instance, on the bathroom counter) so that you see it first thing...

The next 30 years will see the graying of America as the Te boomers move into their senior years. The number of people 65 and older will double, growing — to 70 million, And, since coronary heart disease (CHD) accounts for 70 to 80 percent of deaths in this age group, reducing CHD risk factors will become an even more critical agenda. Unfortunately, clinical trials find that many ole patients with confirmed CHD don’t receive therapies shown to help. And tw ~ studies conducted in the mid 1990s found that many older patients who were: candidates for cholesterol-lowering drugs weren’t prescribed them.This despite the fact that four major studies suggest treatment with cholesterollowering drugs can have a significant effect in reducing death and heart disease incidence in people 65 and older...