Drugs to Lower Cholesterol

If you have high cholesterol levels, you should try exercise, diet other forms of therapy before resorting to drugs. Lecithin, raw foods, garlic, and exercise are said to help the most. If you need them, there are cholesterol-lowering drugs available from your doctor.

Again, cholesterol lowering drugs should only last resort, after you try everything else, because natural methods are always safer and increase health in addition to correcting the problem. Most people don't know that cholesterol is essential to body cells, and that your body continually creates it. However, too much cholesterol, especially bad cholesterol, can increase the risk of heart disease. It's important to have a healthy lifestyle with good diet and exercise to control cholesterol levels.

Ask your doctor to do blood test to see if you might need cholesterol lowering drugs, which have been proven to help reduce cholesterol levels.

Be aware that these drugs are expensive and some have bad side effects. Before resorting to drugs, to keep your cholesterol levels down, you should exercise, eat a low fat diet, keep a healthy weight, and, if you smoke, stop! If you are taking cholesterol medication and experience side effects, consult your physician immediately.

Statin such as Lipitor®, Mevacor®, Zocor®, Caduet®, Vytorin®, Crestor®.
Statin is one of a variety of cholesterol lowering drugs that have been proven successful in lowering cholesterol.
However, statin has known side effects. Some experts recommend that you take Enzyme Q-10 if you are taking statin, because statin depletes the body of necessary enzymes.

Bile Sequestrates (Resins) - such as Colestid® or Questran®.
Bile sequestrates are another type of drug. Bile acids are released from the liver and gall bladder into the bile.

They then pass through the intestine to cut the amount of fat in the food, which helps with absorption. These bile acids are next absorbed in the intestine and return to the liver. Sometimes, this medication causes malabsorption.

Fibrates (fibric acid derivatives) - such as Atromid-S® or Tricor®.
Fibric acids lower levels of triglycerides and stop them from circulating and increase the amount of HDL, also known as good cholesterol.

Niocin or Nicotinic Acid - such as Niacor® or Slo-Niacin®, Advicor®, Niaspan®.
Nicotinic acids lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase the level of HDL (good) cholesterol, and in large doses can lower triglycerides.

A few of these cholesterol lowering drugs are safer to take than statin, but always be careful of interactions with other drugs. Some gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea and constipation can result as side effects of these drugs. Some symptoms vary from mild to severe, but settle as drug therapy continues.

Always talk to your doctore to make sure you are taking the right dosage of medication. Letting your doctor choose the drug that is best for you is important.

This article was written by Jim Krage of Healing Energy News .com.