Which medication is the best to lower your cholesterol?

Answer

Dear Chantal

Cholesterol is a substance that enters your body in two ways: on the one hand you absorb it from food (and that depends on what you eat) and on the other hand your body also produces cholesterol (this in turn depends more on a hereditary predisposition ).

If your cholesterol is clearly elevated, it is always best to start with an adapted diet (more fish, less animal fat, more vegetables, less charcuterie and cheeses, etc.). If it remains elevated, you should have it determined in consultation with your doctor to what extent this is elevated enough to start a medication. In many cases, a 51-year-old woman who does not smoke and does not have diabetes will have a very low risk of dying from cardiovascular disease in the next ten years (1-2%). You then have to take medication for ten years to reduce this to 0.5 to 1%, ie one hundred to two hundred people have to take that medication for 10 years to save one life. In view of the very low risk, the health insurance will in principle not reimburse any medication in this case.

If we did smoke, quitting smoking is the best way to lower your risk (at least as efficient as taking cholesterol-lowering drugs all your life). It is therefore best to opt for a healthy lifestyle with lots of exercise, avoiding overweight, healthy diet, etc. If your doctor should determine that the risk is very high, then a statin is usually prescribed (e.g. simvastatin, pravastatin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, with very different brand names). They are all sufficiently efficient to lower your cholesterol by a third, higher doses or choosing the more powerful products can be based on the result).