Medical Conditions ExplainedMedical Conditions Explained, Reviewed, and Debated

Over the years there have been many different types of cholesterol lowering drugs, the most recent of which are Vytorin and Zetia. However, it appears that these two cholesterol lowering drugs are not very effective therefore a lot of doctors are going back to prescribing statins. The problem with statins though, is that although they are very good at reducing high cholesterol, they also bring with them some side effects which can have quite severe health consequences.

One of the first areas that is susceptible to damage is your liver. The reason for this is because statins can increase the amount of enzymes produced by the liver, and if this is a significant increase and is not caught it can go on to cause severe liver damage. Interestingly the drug that we mentioned earlier in the form of Zetia has also been found to cause damage to the liver, as well as cause other health concerns such as pancreatitis.The worry with liver conditions though is that they can develop without any warning symptoms, so if you are on cholesterol lowering drugs be sure you get your liver checked periodically.

Possibly the number one side effect and complaint about statins is in the way that it leaves the user with severe muscle pain and also muscle weakness. There are a host of reasons behind this but the most important one that you need to know about is because that when the statins suppress the enzyme that creates the bad cholesterol, at the same time it also suppresses an enzyme that powers all of the cells in your body. The long-term effect of this can be severe health implications for you, because when you take into consideration that your heart is a muscle then ultimately you may experience severe pain here and with it being a weak muscle possibly also experienced failure.

A further well documented side effect of statins is in the effect that it has on the brain. You see, ultimately we do need this LDL cholesterol within our bodies as it does several important functions, and one of them is carrying fats to our brain which are needed for them to function properly. Therefore when we have high cholesterol levels we are not looking to totally in eliminate LDL, just reduce the amount that there is to a safe level. Unfortunately cholesterol lowering drugs such as statins can take this too far and therefore there is not enough LDL being produced which means our brains will not function properly. The net effect of this can be poor memory and concentration, but more worryingly a lot of researchers are now starting to link the lack of LDL with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

So really, unless there is some other underlying cause for you to have high cholesterol, such as having inherited the genes through your family that cause it, then it may be an idea to try alternative methods to lower your cholesterol levels before resorting to cholesterol lowering drugs. Some ideas to get you started could be to reduce the amount of trans fats you consume, stop smoking, lose weight and exercise more.

If you would like to find out more about natural ways to lower your cholesterol levels that are as effective as cholesterol lowering drugs, then make sure you visit http://www.clobbercholesterol.comto find out about the safest way to lower bad cholesterol