Statins work by blocking a substance that the liver needs to make cholesterol. The treatment can help to reduce your stroke and heart disease risk and improve your cardiovascular health. If you have high cholesterol levels on your blood tests, your doctor may prescribe statins to lower your cholesterol. What are statins? How do they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease? Doctors can do a cholesterol test (also called a lipid panel or lipid profile) to check your cholesterol levels. Too little HDL cholesterol or too much LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in the blood increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other serious health problems. Another type of lipid (fat) found in the blood is called triglycerides. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is called "good" cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is called "bad" cholesterol. This can lead to high cholesterol levels in the blood, which, as noted above, is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Foods with high saturated fat cause the liver to make more cholesterol. You also get it from certain foods that contain saturated fat. What are HDL and LDL cholesterol?Ĭholesterol is a waxy substance made by the liver it is essential for healthy cells and organs. This cardiovascular event is called a heart attack. When the arteries become narrow, blood flow to the heart muscle is reduced or blocked. In people with high cholesterol, the cholesterol builds up in the walls of the blood vessels, causing them to become narrow. Too much cholesterol in the blood increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Other risk factors include smoking, an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and familial hypercholesterolemia, among others. High cholesterol is a well-known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. What are the risk factors of heart disease? Why is lowering cholesterol important? Also, find out which statin is least likely to cause side effects and how you can reduce side effects from these medications. Please continue reading to learn more about the rare but few serious side effects of statin medications. While statins are the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, they can cause side effects just like all medications. Over 90% of adults on a cholesterol-lowering medication in the United States are on a statin. They can help reduce the risk of illness and death from cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and strokes). Systematic reviews and clinical guidelines suggest that the cardiovascular benefits of statins by far out-weight non-cardiovascular harms in patients with cardiovascular risk.Statins or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors are a group of prescription drugs that lower cholesterol levels in the blood. Early concerns about cognitive dysfunction and memory loss associated with statins use could not be proven and most recent data even suggest a possible beneficial effect of statins in the prevention of dementia. On the contrary, several studies have indicated a possible benefit of these drugs in patients with different types of cancer. Concerns that statins might increase cancer have not been proven. acute renal failure, but recent data suggest even a possible protective effect of these drugs on renal dysfunction. Statin therapy has also been associated with some adverse renal effects, eg. It is beyond any doubt that statins do slightly increase the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in people with two or more components of metabolic syndrome but the cardiovascular benefits of such a treatment by far exceed this risk. However, recent studies even suggest that statin therapy can improve hepatic steatosis. Another side effect is increased activity of liver tests which occurs occasionally and is reversible. The most important side effects include myopathy and rhabdomyolysis. Therefore this article reviews all the data and provides an evidence- based insight what are the proven adverse effects of statins and what are the "myths" about them. Although they are considered to be drugs with a very good safety profile, because of their wide use there are many concerns that their adverse effects might compromise their proven beneficial effects. Statins reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity as well as cardiovascular events in patients with a very high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and also in subjects with high or moderate risk by reducing the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).
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