Below you will find the entire list of cholesterol lowering drugs together with their brand names.
It’s easy for you to find them in any store, once you have your doctor’s prescription.
However, despite their effectiveness, take the list of cholesterol drugs below with a “grain of salt”. Mostly they come with side effects. That’s why after explaining about these drugs, you will find alternatives to these drugs, that lower cholesterol safely without side effects.
How to Interpret the List of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs Charts Below.
The charts below outline the effectiveness of each cholesterol-lowering drug in lowering:
LDL/Bad cholesterol
Total Cholesterol
Triglycerides
An effective cholesterol drug needs to lower these – you must see that the arrows point downwards – otherwise, the drug does not do a good job in lowering any of these.
However, you want to see that while a drug lowers LDL & total cholesterol, it either increases or at the least does not lower HDL/Good cholesterol – you want to have this high since HDL helps to cleanse the arteries from cholesterol build-up.
Here look for arrows to point upwards.
Statins are the most prescribed and considered the “most effective” among cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Statins
They are very good at stopping cholesterol production in your body and removing cholesterol build-up from your arteries.
Fibrates
They are known also as fabric acid derivatives too. They are good at decreasing triglycerides levels and increasing HDL [good cholesterol] levels. But they cannot lower LDL [bad cholesterol] levels.
Bile acid sequestrants
They are mostly known as Resins and are good at reducing your LDL cholesterol levels.
You will however notice that these drugs do also increase HDL cholesterol.
But, they do not lower Total Cholesterol and Triglycerides. So if your problem is only Low HDL or High LDL then you may use this drug, but not if you have high total cholesterol and triglycerides.
As you can see not all cholesterol-lowering drugs are created the same.
Depending on which cholesterol number is high or low, then you would want to use the corresponding drug.
Inhibitors of cholesterol absorption
They are good at inhibiting the amount of cholesterol that can be absorbed by your intestines. And they are often given together with statins.
Vitamin B3/Niconitic Acid
It’s commonly known as Niacin or nicotinic acid. It is prescribed in large doses to reduce LDL-cholesterol, Triglycerides and increase HDL cholesterol.
It is used under rigorous observations due to its severe side effects.
Alternatives to Cholesterol Drugs
- Let’s get right to the points. Drugs work, but they do have very undesirable side effects. The 2 most well-known drugs, Lipitor & Zocor have severe drug side effects in certain people.
There are many natural alternatives that help lower cholesterol. 3 Specific examples are:
| Garlic In a large study of 220 patients, the garlic group took 800 milligrams of powdered garlic for four months. This group experienced a 12 percent drop in cholesterol and a 17 percent drop in triglycerides. The placebo group had little change.  | Gugul Lipid Gugul is a thorny tree that grows in Northern India. In one study 205 patients reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol by an average of 26 percent and triglycerides by 22.6 percent. They used a supplement of 500 mg of guggulipid for 12 weeks with no change in diet or lifestyle.  | Plant Sterols One study identified that regular consumption of phytosterols can help you to reduce the risk of heart disease by 25%. Another study reveals excellent results in lowering cholesterol absorption by 33% to 42% with regular use of phytosterols.  |
Usually the above are found in specific cholesterol lowering supplements. A good cholesterol supplement that effectively lowers cholesterol can be found here.
Go to the homepage of All About Lowering Cholesterol
