Drug Review: Lipitor

Cholesterol is a type of fat that's found in the body. LDL cholesterol is what many people refer to as "bad" cholesterol. When there is too much cholesterol in the blood, it can lead to heart attack or stroke. Unfortunately, there are no warning signs for high cholesterol. A person needs to have a blood test to find out what their cholesterol levels are.

To find out how simple it is to have your cholesterol levels checked, read my article on Cholesterol Screening.

Sometimes diet and exercise are enough to control cholesterol, but in 2 out of 3 cases, doctors prescribe medication. Lipitor is one drug that claims to lower bad cholesterol 39% - 60%, which can bring patients back into desirable levels.

Pfizer claims that Lipitor is the #1 prescribed branded medication in the world. There is no approved generic form of Lipitor. The FDA has approved this drug to significantly reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, certain types of surgeries, and chest pain if you have several common risk factors, including high blood pressure, low HDL "good" cholesterol, family history, smoking, and age.

How Lipitor works

We only gets about 20% of our cholesterol from food. The other 80% is produced by the body, or by enzymes in the liver, to be more exact. Lipitor blocks that enzyme in the liver. When less cholesterol is made, the liver uses more from the blood. This lowers the cholesterol levels in your blood.

Side effects of Lipitor

Some common side effects are headache, constipation, diarrhea, gas, upset stomach and stomach pain, rash, and muscle and joint pain.

A small number of people have had serious side effects involving liver problems and muscle problems which lead to kidney problems. Since Lipitor works on an enzyme in your liver, your doctor may do some blood tests to check your liver before and while you're taking it. These serious side effects usually go away if the dose is lowered or you stop taking Lipitor.

You should call your doctor right away if you have any of these symptoms:

• Muscle problems, like weakness, tenderness or pain that happens without a good reason, especially if you also have a fever or feel more tired than usual
• Nausea and vomiting
• Brown or dark-colored urine
• Feel more tired than usual
• The skin and whites of your eyes become yellow
• Stomach pain

Although the common side effects are quite common, the more serious side effects seem to be more common than not. Muscle weakness, tenderness and pain, especially in the legs, is a complaint doctors hear from many Lipitor patients who are now shuffling around like 90 year olds. In some cases, reduction of the dose helps, but doesn't totally cure the complaint.

Another complaint which isn't listed with the side effects, is loss of memory. In some cases, Lipitor users are affected by Trans Global Amnesia (TGA), which temporarily causes a person to lose decades worth of memories. It is a short term memory loss, but disturbing, nonetheless. Patients who don't suffer from TGA, but have memory loss, are reporting their concerns to their doctors, who have been assuring their patients that memory loss is not a side effect of this drug. The growing number of complaints might soon find memory loss added to the list of side affects that are attributed to Lipitor.

Sources:

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