They also increase the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as good cholesterol. Statins belong to the prescription drug class called hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase enzyme inhibitors. They work to reduce the production of cholesterol in the liver. This article will review the side effects of statin drugs and how to manage them. However, drinking a lot of alcohol regularly increases the chance of you having side effects and liver problems.
Interactions
If you want to stop taking your medicine, it’s important to find another way to lower your cholesterol. So grab a glass of … well, let’s go with water to be safe … and let’s talk this over. Characteristics of 14 studies evaluating the effect of alcohol on dyslipidemia. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
Liver Injury and Statins
The AAC list alcohol as a drug that can interact with the body to produce high levels of LDL or triglycerides. However, there is no proven cause-and-effect link showing any heart health-related benefits from drinking any form of alcohol. Having higher levels of HDL cholesterol may help protect against heart disease and related death. HDL protects heart health because it collects excess cholesterol and transports it to your liver, where it can be removed or recycled. The relationship between alcohol and health is complicated and depends on many factors, including how much and how often you drink. Niacin, a B vitamin, may be used to lower cholesterol in addition to diet.
The Effect of Alcohol on Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Is There New Information?
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you think you may have a medical emergency, immediately call your physician or dial 911. Alcohol is also well-known for causing liver problems, such as liver inflammation, scarring, and cirrhosis of the liver. Alcohol-related liver disease can be severe and irreversible, which can lead to an array of problems.
Talk to your care team if you experience memory loss or confusion while taking statins. However, researchers have found a « nocebo » effect when it comes to people thinking they have muscle pain from statins. A « nocebo » effect means people who have negative expectations about a medicine report experiencing the potential side effect at higher rates than the drug should cause. Having too much cholesterol in the blood increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
- HDL is sometimes known as “good” cholesterol because it collects LDL from the arteries and returns it to the liver, which breaks it down and removes it from the body.
- Due to the increased risk of side effects from Lipitor, doctors typically will not prescribe cyclosporine and Lipitor together.
- Taking CoQ10 supplements along with Lipitor may lower your risk of these side effects.
- When people do experience side effects from taking statins, they are typically minor and resolve once a person stops taking the statins or changes their dosage.
- This can raise your risk of side effects, including serious side effects such as myopathy (muscle pain), rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), and liver problems.
The result of high Lipitor levels in the blood could be an increased risk of side effects, including liver damage. People with acute liver disease should not be mixing alcohol and Lipitor at all. A healthcare professional can test your cholesterol levels to determine whether they’re currently within a healthy range, as well as assess other potential heart disease risk factors. Lipitor is the most commonly prescribed prescription medication worldwide.
However, stopping atorvastatin may cause your cholesterol to rise. There also has been evidence that statins may help with brain function — in people with dementia, for example. Don’t stop taking your statin medicine facts about moderate drinking before talking to your health care professional. While statins are highly effective and safe for most people, they have been linked to muscle pain, digestive problems and mental fuzziness in some people.
If your doctor prescribes both drugs, they’ll likely monitor you closely for side effects, especially muscle-related side effects, such as muscle pain. This interaction can raise your can adderall cause heart problems? risk of myopathy, which refers to certain muscle side effects, including muscle pain. Gemfibrozil (Lopid) is a drug prescribed for certain types of high cholesterol or heart disease.
Finally, Baliunas et al. published a meta-analysis of 20 cohort studies evaluating the relationship between alcohol consumption and T2D. They concluded that moderate alcohol consumption is protective for T2D in men and women [80]. Another cohort study following 1471 black South African individuals over a period of 5 years evaluated the association between alcohol intake, mortality, and the development of hypertension. They described that participants self-reporting alcohol intake had a 30% increased risk for developing hypertension (hazard ratio (HR) 1.30, 1.07–1.59) [16]. The protective effect of alcoholic beverages could be related to the type of drink and the amount of alcohol ingested, as well as their polyphenol content [6,42]. If you’re concerned about your cholesterol levels or alcohol intake, talk with a healthcare professional.
Niacin may lower total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides and raise HDL levels. But nearly all find that when they switch to a different statin, their symptoms resolve. Several years ago, the FDA recommended regular enzyme testing for statin patients. Several potentially adverse the twelve steps of alcoholics anonymous alcoholics anonymous side effects may be experienced when someone combines alcohol and medications. One medication that is sometimes taken at the same time as alcohol and may cause negative side effects is Lipitor. Lipitor is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs to treat high cholesterol.
That advice was considered and rejected when the federal recommendations came out in 2020. Moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for the heart, but better research methods have thrown cold water on that. It’s best not to have too much grapefruit juice when taking atorvastatin.
Alcohol is sold at virtually every restaurant and bar in the U.S. If you’re taking Lipitor, it can be easy to find yourself in a situation in which you might be offered a drink. While combining Lipitor and alcohol is potentially harmful to the liver, there is no solid research to confirm a higher risk of problems in those who take this medication and drink alcohol. Statins have made a big difference with regard to heart disease. They stabilize and reduce the size of the coronary artery plaques that can lead to heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the U.S. before cancer. It’s actually common for people to be prescribed both aspirin and Lipitor.
