What is the safest statin drug to take?

Simvastatin and pravastatin had the best safety profile, according to this review. Overall, the researchers found a 9 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people taking statins.
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Which cholesterol drug is safest?

Fortunately, most side effects are mild and disappear promptly when the statin is stopped. In some cases, the problems will resolve simply by reducing the dose or switching to another statin, but care is required. Still, all in all, the statins are the safest and best tolerated of all cholesterol-lowering medications.
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What is the best type of statin to take?

Statins lower cholesterol levels through inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase. The synthetic and natural statins have essentially equivalent efficacy at improving the lipid profile. However, in patients who do not achieve their LDL goals, atorvastatin and simvastatin may be the best choices for initial therapy.
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Which statin drug is best tolerated?

Among individual statins, simvastatin and pravastatin seem safer and more tolerable than other statins.
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Which statin is least likely to cause muscle pain?

Is muscle pain a side effect of all statins? Even though all statins are similar chemically, they have some minor differences that could impact how likely they are to cause muscle pain. Simvastatin is the most likely to cause muscle pain, and fluvastatin is the least likely.
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Study Confirms What Many Patients Taking Statins Have Said for Years | NBC Nightly News



What can I take instead of statins to lower cholesterol?

7 cholesterol-lowering alternatives to statins
  • Fibrates. Mostly used for lowering triglyceride levels in patients whose levels are very high and could cause pancreatitis. ...
  • Plant stanols and sterols. ...
  • Cholestyramine and other bile acid-binding resins. ...
  • Niacin. ...
  • Policosanol. ...
  • Red yeast rice extract (RYRE) ...
  • Natural products.
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Which statins have fewest side effects?

In the analysis of 135 previous studies, which included nearly 250,000 people combined, researchers found that the drugs simvastatin (Zocor) and pravastatin (Pravachol) had the fewest side effects in this class of medications. They also found that lower doses produced fewer side effects in general.
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What is the first drug of choice for cholesterol?

Statins. What they are: These are usually the first type of drug that doctors prescribe to lower LDL. They also lower triglycerides, which are another type of blood fat, and mildly raise your "good" (HDL) cholesterol.
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Which is safer atorvastatin or rosuvastatin?

Atorvastatin was the safest statin as it resulted in the least number of patients at the end of 2 years of treatment with the new onset of microalbuminuria (10.9%) followed by rosuvastatin (14.3%) and then pravastatin (26.6%). Number of patients with no microalbuminuria at baseline but developed it after 2 years.
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Is Crestor better than Lipitor?

Both Lipitor and Crestor are excellent medications to help improve high cholesterol and to decrease your risk of heart attacks and strokes. In studies, Crestor was more effective at lowering total cholesterol levels and raising HDL levels (Jones, 2003).
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Which statin is easiest on liver?

Low dose statins like atorvastatin (Lipitor) are safe in patients with mild liver disease (for example, patients with fatty liver and mildly abnormal liver tests in the blood such as ALT and AST).
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Is there an alternative to statins?

There are many non-statin medications your doctor might prescribe: Bile acid-binding resins, like cholestyramine (Locholest, Prevalite, Questran), colesevelam (WelChol), and colestipol (Colestid) stick to cholesterol-rich bile acids in your intestines and lower your LDL levels.
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Why do doctors push statins?

Statins are the go-to treatment option for lowering cholesterol levels and risk of cardiovascular complications, like heart attack and stroke. Statins work by slowing down cholesterol production and enabling the liver to remove low-density lipoproteins (LDL), or “bad cholesterol,” from the bloodstream.
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Why was CRESTOR taken off the market?

As you are aware, on March 4th of this year, we petitioned the FDA to ban the recently-marketed cholesterol-lowering drug rosuvastatin (Crestor/AstraZeneca) because of seven post-marketing cases of life-threatening rhabdomyolysis and nine cases of renal failure or renal insufficiency, both of which problems had also ...
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Which is better simvastatin or atorvastatin?

Is atorvastatin or simvastatin better? Atorvastatin and simvastatin are both effective statin drugs for lowering blood cholesterol. However, atorvastatin is considered a more potent statin. Atorvastatin lasts longer in the body and can be taken in the morning or at night.
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What is the most commonly prescribed statin?

Atorvastatin (Lipitor)

It is still one of the most commonly prescribed statins, and though not as inexpensive as simvastatin (Zocor), the generic price has continued to drop.
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Why is Crestor better than other statins?

The study concluded that Crestor lowered LDL cholesterol by 8.2% more than Lipitor, and Crestor lowered total cholesterol significantly more than all the other statins studied. Crestor also increased HDL cholesterol (the good kind of cholesterol) more than Lipitor did.
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Is rosuvastatin the best statin?

Conclusion: Rosuvastatin was more effective than other statins in reducing LDL, triglyceride (except vs atorvastatin), and total cholesterol levels. Significantly more patients taking rosuvastatin than patients taking other statins attained their LDL goals.
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Is Zocor safer than Crestor?

As mentioned earlier, rosuvastatin has far fewer harmful drug interactions that Zocor and other statins. Still, Crestor is not without dangers. Cyclosporine can exponentially increase rosuvastatin levels in the blood, increasing the chances of side effects.
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What are the top 5 cholesterol medications?

What is this medication?
  • Atorvastatin (Lipitor®)
  • Fluvastatin (Lescol. ®)
  • Lovastatin (Mevacor®)
  • Pravastatin (Pravachol®)
  • Rosuvastatin (Crestor®)
  • Simvastatin (Zocor®)
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What is the best supplement for lowering cholesterol?

Niacin. Niacin is a B vitamin. Doctors sometimes suggest it for patients with high cholesterol or heart concerns. It increases the level of good cholesterol and reduces triglycerides, another fat that can clog arteries.
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Can you stop taking statins Once you start?

Do not suddenly stop taking your prescribed medication without talking with your doctor first. If you have side effects from the medication, your doctor might adjust your dosage or recommend a different statin or other combination of medications.
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Which statin has the least amount of side effects 2021?

In the analysis of 135 previous studies, which included nearly 250,000 people combined, researchers found that the drugs simvastatin (Zocor) and pravastatin (Pravachol) had the fewest side effects in this class of medications.
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Is Lipitor better than lovastatin?

Atorvastatin is generally considered a more potent drug than lovastatin for lowering LDL-cholesterol levels. However, atorvastatin may carry a higher risk of myopathy in higher doses compared to lovastatin.
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What is better than a statin?

Statins are a group of medications that lower a specific type of cholesterol level in your blood. The best alternatives to statins are PCSK9 inhibitors, fibric acid derivatives or fibrates, bile acid sequestrants, selective absorption inhibitors, nicotinic acid or niacin, and omega-3 fatty acids and fatty-acid esters.
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