Treatment and Prevention
Lowering cholesterol levels with treatment reduces the risk of developing
coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke, and other disorders.
A healthy lifestyle is the best defense against high cholesterol. This also
helps against other risk factors linked to coronary artery disease. The following
lifestyle changes are good first steps in treating high cholesterol:
- Follow a diet low in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol.
- Eat a wide variety of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
- Boost your level of physical activity.
- Maintain a healthy body weight.
- Reduce or moderate alcohol consumption.
If you quit smoking and keep your blood pressure down, it will help lower
your risk of angina, heart attack, or stroke.
For people who are at a very high risk for coronary artery disease, drug therapy
is started immediately along with lifestyle changes. For those at moderate or
low risk for coronary artery disease, medication therapy is started if lifestyle
changes don't lower cholesterol to target levels within three to six months.
Medications used to treat high cholesterol include the "statins"
(e.g., atorvastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin*), resins (e.g., cholestyramine,
colestipol), fibrates (e.g., fenofibrate, gemfibrozil), and niacin. Drugs have
been shown to lower the chance of further clogging of the arteries and treat
cholesterol problems by lowering levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol or raising
the levels of HDL (good) cholesterol.
Some people think that it's too late to change your habits if you've already
had a heart attack, but this is not true. It's vital to reduce your cholesterol
to help prevent a second heart attack. Some patients with heart disease are
now treated with a "statin" even if their cholesterol is normal. Your
body is constantly producing cholesterol, so you must take your medication as
recommended by your doctor to prevent levels from rising.
*All medications have both common (generic) and brand names. The brand name
is what a specific manufacturer calls the product (e.g., Tylenol®).
The common name is the medical name for the medication (e.g., acetaminophen).
A medication may have many brand names, but only one common name. This article
lists medications by their common names. For more information on brand names,
speak with your doctor or pharmacist.