Statins are a general term for a class of lipid-lowering drugs, which can be roughly divided into natural compounds and synthetic compounds, natural compounds including pravastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin, mevastatin and so on.
Synthetic compounds include atorvastatin, celivastatin, rovastatin, fluvastatin and the like. There are five main categories of statins commonly found in the market, including rosuvastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, and atorvastatin.
The main effect of this type of drug is to lower blood lipids, lower cholesterol, and is widely used in the clinic, but because each patient's situation is different, it is necessary to choose different statins for treatment, and the doctor will prescribe the right medicine according to the patient's condition, and will also instruct the patient to take some precautions in the process of taking the drug.
Pharmacological effect of statins
1. Blood lipid regulation: it has obvious blood lipid regulation effect, the effect of reducing LDL-cholesterol is the strongest, followed by total cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol is slightly elevated.
2. Non-lipid regulation: improve vascular endothelial function, inhibit blood clotting, inhibit the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells, antioxidants, etc.
Which situations require taking statins
Statins are a class of lipid-adjusting drugs, mainly suitable for patients with hypercholesterolemia, mixed hyperlipidemia and acute coronary syndrome, etc., and are also widely used in patients with atherosclerosis, which can significantly check the incidence and mortality rate of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Whether to take statin is not simply to see whether the blood lipids on the test sheet are normal, but according to the needs of the disease, in order to reduce the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, for the above-mentioned people with higher risks, such as high cholesterol, obesity, family history of heart disease, smoking people, need to use statins for treatment.
Tell your parents: When taking statins, eat less of these 5 things, don't worry about it
1. Grapefruit
Grapefruit is a fruit, also known as grapefruit, the appearance is similar to oranges, it contains the organic compound furan coumarin and flavonoids, which will affect the metabolism of statins, inhibit the enzyme reaction of liver metabolism, prolong the metabolic time for up to 2 to 3 days, so that the drug accumulates in the body, causing excessive concentration, further increasing the side effects of the drug.
The main ones affected are atorvastatin, simvastatin, and lovastatin, and grapefruit won't be a problem if you take other types of statins (rosuvastatin).
2. Red yeast products
Red yeast rice is a kind of Traditional Chinese medicine, which has the effect of strengthening the spleen and eliminating food, invigorating blood and dissolving stasis. Red yeast products include red yeast rice, red yeast pink, red yeast health products and so on.
Studies have found that red yeast is similar to the chemical structure of statins, with the same lipid-lowering effect, and the main component of lipid kang (lipid-lowering drugs) on the market is red yeast.
3. Animal liver
We know that taking statins is to reduce blood lipids and cholesterol, and liver foods contain extremely high cholesterol, and when the two conflict, they will inhibit the normal volatilization of the drug effect, thereby reducing the effect of medication.
4. Alcohol
Alcohol affects the concentration of blood lipids and is metabolized through the liver, and statins are also metabolized through the liver, and the use of the two together can easily cause liver damage.
And if statins are taken with alcohol, it will cause liver enzymes to rise to more than three times, you must stop the drug, in addition, drinking alcohol will also reduce the effect of the drug, or there will be side effects.
5. Oats
After taking statins, try to eat less coarse grain grains such as oats, which contain crude fiber, which will affect the absorption of statins, prolong their residence time in the blood, and aggravate various side effects.
Read more: When are statins best taken?
Generally speaking, at night, when our human cholesterol synthesis is relatively vigorous, in theory, taking lipid-lowering drugs at night may achieve better results.
However, with recent studies, many statin drugs are not affected by the time of taking, such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin, because of their long half-life, will not be because of the time of taking sooner or later, the blood lipid level of patients has a large impact on lipid level lowering effect.
So when these two drugs are taken, as long as they are taken regularly, they can achieve a better lipid-lowering effect, in addition, when taking it must be timed and quantitative, if you forget to take statins on the same day, you can make up for it within one day, if it is more than one day, the second day is not recommended to give double the dose, according to the normal way to take.