Part 3: Blood fat topic
In the continuation of the discussion of the treatment of high blood fat, we come to the medicine section:
Currently, the most commonly used drugs are drugs known as statins because the suffix of all of them is the word statin (atorostatin – fluvastatin – lovastatin – pitavastatin – pravastatin – rosovastatin – simvastatin).
Statins have six effects in the body:
1).They reduce cholesterol production in the body
2). They increase the removal of bad cholesterol or LDL by the liver
3). They increase good cholesterol or HDL
4). They reduce the amount of triglycerides in the body
5). They cause a 40% reduction in heart attacks and 20% in heart attacks
6). They reduce stroke and Alzheimer’s disease
Like any other drug, statins also have side effects, these side effects can be divided into two groups:
1). The first group includes important and dangerous side effects, which fortunately, the probability of their occurrence is less than 5% and includes muscle destruction (severe pains in the muscles of the arms or legs) and liver damage (nausea, vomiting, severe body weakness).
2). The second group includes common and unimportant side effects and includes: stomach pain, skin tingling, bloating, diarrhea, nausea, constipation, and weakness in the hands and feet.
In every patient, it is necessary to measure the amount of the enzyme related to the muscle called creatine kinase (CK) before starting statin use, and during the treatment, whenever there is evidence of muscle damage (dark urine, severe muscle pain, severe body weakness, and muscle sensitivity in touch) it was seen to measure this enzyme again.
In the case of the liver, it is necessary to measure liver enzymes called AST and ALT three months after starting statin, and then repeat the measurement annually or whenever evidence of liver damage (severe weakness, nausea with vomiting) is seen.
In the continuation of the topic of increasing blood fat, we will discuss the difference in the effect of statins:
Drug interaction, side effects and effectiveness are three important factors in choosing a statin among the available statins, for example
Atorvastatin and rosovastatin are more effective in reducing bad cholesterol or LDL than other statins.
It is better to use atorvastatin in those who have kidney disease.
If the patient uses different cardiac and non-cardiac drugs, it is recommended to use parvastatin and fluvastatin because they have less possibility of drug interaction.
If taking a statin once a day causes more than 50% reduction in the amount of bad cholesterol, we consider it as a strong medicine, and atorvastatin and rosovastatin are included in this group.
If the daily use of one low-dose vastatin causes less than 30% reduction in the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood, we consider it weak, which includes other vastatins (except atorvastatin and rosovastatin).
If weak statins are used with a double dose, they can reduce blood cholesterol by 30-50%, which puts them in the group with moderate effect.
Assignment In cases where the amount of bad cholesterol is very high, it is clear that strong statins should be used, and it is also clear that in mild cases, a low dose of weak statins is sufficient, but the question is, in which cases should statins with Should we use average effect? We will answer this question in the next posts
Dr. Seyed Reza Miri
@Hello_Bimarestan
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