High cholesterol level has been a major problem for many people. Increasing level of bad cholesterol or LDL in the bloodstream will lower the level of the good cholesterol or the HDL, which increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In considerable level, cholesterol is a waxy substance which is important for the body in performing its entire performance. Our body produces required cholesterol in the liver. However, the diets we consume also contribute to our level of total cholesterol. High cholesterol level might cause heart attack, which has been causing numerous sudden deaths worldwide. This is the reason why lowering cholesterol level becomes crucial—it decreases the risk of this diseases, too.
Lowering cholesterol with medications
To lower the level of cholesterol inside the body, a person can do various attempts, such as:
- Dropping unhealthy lifestyle
- Avoid inactive daily lifestyle by doing some exercises.
- Reducing smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and take a sufficient overnight sleep.
- Adjusting the diets
- Reducing high saturated food intake and change it into low saturated fat foods or eliminate them at all.
- Add greens, fresh vegetables, and other healthier food choices into daily dietary plan.
- Taking medications
- Dropping medications which elevate cholesterol level, such as birth control pill.
- Consuming medications which lower cholesterol level, which are prescribed by practitioners.
Medications are often chosen as a method of controlling cholesterol level since despite its high price, those medicines are effective in reducing cholesterol level. Consuming these medicines and doing physical exercises will dramatically drop the level of LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in the blood stream. Statins are prescribed medications which is very common to use in lowering cholesterol, but numerous other medications are also easy to find.
How cholesterol-lowering medications work?
Since there are some variations of cholesterol-lowering medications, how they work is also divided into several different methods. Below is the illustration:
- By stopping the production of cholesterol by blocking the enzyme used in producing cholesterol.
- By absorbing existing cholesterol to promote the body in reabsorbing cholesterol which has been some plaques around the artery walls.
- By binding itself to bile acids, triggering excessed cholesterol in the blood stream to make bile acids, which is required in digestion. As the excessed cholesterol is bind, the level of cholesterol in the blood stream will lower and hence, the risk of heart diseases is also lowered.
- By inhibiting the amount of cholesterol which is to be absorbed in the intestines, so that it cannot be released into the blood stream, resulting in a lower level of total blood cholesterol.
- By increasing the level of triglycerides from the blood. The substances makes up cholesterol, so that removing it will respectfully lower cholesterol level.
When should cholesterol medicine be taken?
Cholesterol-lowering medications are often professionally prescribed. Hence, the doctor will let you know when you should take the medicines to make it work effectively. However, most cholesterol-lowering medications—statins are prescribed to be taken at night. Why is that?
- The liver works to produce cholesterol required for the body. Yet, this organ does not work non-stop. This organ is going to an idle station once you get your cholesterol supply from the diets you take. It will go back to work when you stop eating and there is no more cholesterol taken from any consumed foods.
- When your stomach stops digesting consumed foods—commonly at night, your liver is going to produce cholesterol needed for the body whole digestion process. Hence, cholesterol is commonly actively produced at night compared to the morning.
- Statins—and some common cholesterol-lowering medications work by inhibiting cholesterol production by the liver. Hence, it works effectively when the liver works; that is at night. When the liver is inhibited in producing cholesterol, its level in the blood will significantly decrease.
- When taken at night, statins work effectively and reduce the level of blood cholesterol by 40-60%, so that these medicines are recommended to be taken by them with severely high cholesterol level. However, stop taking the medicines will restore cholesterol level within 2 months. Hence, statins should be taken for life.
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