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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...