Atorvastatin
Known brand names include Lipitor and Atorvaliq.
A statin that lowers LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Taken once a day alongside diet changes, it lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Known brand names include Lipitor and Atorvaliq.
A statin that lowers LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Taken once a day alongside diet changes, it lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Atorvastatin blocks HMG-CoA reductase, the enzyme that controls the pace of cholesterol production in the liver. With less cholesterol being made, the liver puts more LDL receptors on its cells and pulls more LDL out of the blood. It also lowers how much LDL the liver releases and the number of LDL particles in the blood.
Lower LDL means less cholesterol building up in artery walls, which over time lowers the risk of the blockages that cause heart attacks and strokes. Some of its breakdown products also block the enzyme, so its blocking effect fades by half only after 20 to 30 hours. It can cause muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness, and rarely a severe breakdown of muscle that can damage the kidneys. That risk is higher with older age, kidney problems, higher doses, and other drugs that raise its blood levels, and it can also raise liver enzymes.
Atorvastatin lowers LDL, the bad cholesterol, a fatty substance that can collect in and block blood vessels. It also lowers the chance of a heart attack, stroke, chest pain, or needing a heart procedure, both in people who already have heart disease and in people at high risk of it. For people with heart disease, the benefit includes fewer hospital stays for heart failure. It is also used for some less common blood fat problems, such as high triglycerides.
It is used along with a healthy diet in adults with high cholesterol. Children 10 years and older can take it for familial hypercholesterolemia, a form of high cholesterol that is inherited. For another inherited form, it is added to other LDL-lowering treatments, or used alone if those are not available. The tablets are taken by mouth, with or without food, and are meant to be continued even when the person feels well.
Most people take it without trouble. The common complaints are cold-like symptoms, joint or limb pain, diarrhea, and urinary infections, and it can nudge blood sugar up. The label treats muscle damage that can harm the kidneys as dangerous, along with rare liver failure, a rare immune attack on muscle, and stroke from bleeding in people who recently had that kind of stroke.