The most prescribed triglyceride medication

In the market, there are many types of triglyceride medication, which can effectively lower your elevated serum triglycerides.

A triglyceride medication can be used solely or combined with another drugs. The AHA is not recommending a certain type of medication to lower triglycerides levels, only your cardiologist can decide the best drug or combination suitable for your case.

  • Statins

    • They are also well known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitorsStatins act mainly in the liver to stop formation of cholesterol.

    They are very effective in reducing bad or LDL cholesterol, but unfortunately, they have mild effect in lowering elevated triglycerides levels (fats in the blood) as well as raising good or HDL cholesterol levels.

    Side effects of statins are very minor and can be tolerated rapidly by your body systems. Hepatic and muscular problems are very uncommon.

    However, your physicians will advise you to make a regular liver function test.Pregnancy and liver impairment introduce the two main contraindications of using statins.

    Nowadays, statins found in the market are:

    Genericname

    Brand  name

    atorvastatin

    Lipitor®

    fluvastatin

    Lescol®

    lovastatin

    Mevacor®,Altoprev™

    pravastatin

    Pravachol®

    rosuvastatincalcuim

    Crestor®

    simvastatin

    Zocor®

    lovastatin +niacin

    Advicor®

    atorvastatin +amlodipine

    Caduet®

    simvastatin +ezetimibe

    Vytorin™

     

  • Fibrates

    (also known as fibric acid derivatives)

    Fibrates are the most potent triglyceride medication in the market today. They can markedly lower triglycerides (blood fats), elevate HDL cholesterol levels, and decrease LDL levels.

    Fibrates might be prescribed alone or in combination with statins.

    Fibrates found in pharmaceutical market are:

    Genericname

    Brandname

    gemfibrozil

    Lopid®

    fenofibrate

    Antara®,Lofibra®, Tricor®, Triglide™

    clofibrate

    Atromid-S

  • Niacin

    (nicotinic acid)

    Niacin has a great influence on the liver production of fats. Your doctor will prescribe niacin to reduce triglycerides and LDL “Bad” cholesterol and elevate HDL “Good” cholesterol levels in your blood.

    There are some serious side effects of niacin, including:

  • Flushing (redness of the skin)

  • Itching of the skin

  • Stomach disturbance

  • Toxicity (rarely)

    That is why your liver functions must be regularly checked.

    Niacin can be also prescribed as a food supplement. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate supplement niacin similarly as prescription niacin, so use food supplement niacin cautiously and avoid overdoses.

    In some cases, combination therapy is used also as a potent triglyceride medication. Patients suffering from mixed dyslipidemias need to reduce high LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and triglycerides levels all together and elevate the low HDL cholesterol level.

    These patients usually respond greatly to combination therapy, such as combination between statins and fibrates or nicotinic acid.

    If fibrates are used alone, they have a mild effect on lowering high LDL cholesterol compared with effect of statins.

    In fact, fibrates as monotherapy are not effective in most cases of hyperlipidemia, while combination therapy has proved great results in raising HDL-C, reducing LDL-C and VLDL-C, as well as indirectly reducing triglyceride levels.

    TriglycerideMedication

    Brand name

    Effect on bloodTriglycerides

    Statins(HMG-Coa reductase)

    Pravachol,Mevacor,  Lipitor,Lescol, Crestor, Zocor

    Mild effect onlowering triglycerides

    Niacin(nicotinic acid)

    Niacin,Niaspan, Slo-Niacin

    More effectivethan statins in lowering triglycerides

    Fibrates

    Tricor, Lopid

    The mosteffective in decreasing triglycerides levels

    Combinationnicotinic acid + statin

    Advicor

    (Mevacor+Niaspan)

    Effective inlowering LDL and triglycerides


    At the end, I want to remind you that medications cannot reduce your blood triglycerides levels alone. If combined with lifestyle and triglyceride diet changes, you will have more results.



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