ask your pharmacist

What is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor?

Doctors often prescribe statins if diet, weight loss, and exercise don’t work to lower a person's cholesterol enough. Statins lower blood levels of LDL—also called "bad cholesterol"—as well decreasing blood fats called triglycerides. Statins also increase blood levels of HDL—known as "good cholesterol."

Statins are available as tablets or capsules and taken once daily, preferably in the evening or at bedtime. Your dose depends on your specific cholesterol and triglyceride levels. When used in equivalent doses, the various types of statins lower cholesterol to a similar degree.

While it is common knowledge that statins reduce cholesterol, several recent studies have highlighted new benefits. Researchers now believe that this class of medicines may lessen the risk for strokes and improve bone structure. These two effects could change how doctors prescribe these medicines and additional studies are currently underway to better understand these possible benefits.

Sources:
The Johns Hopkins Complete Home Encyclopedia of Drugs. Medletter Associates, Inc., 1998.
Drug Facts and Comparisons, Facts & Comparisons, 2007.
Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. Appleton & Lange, 1999.
White, H.D. “Pravastatin Therapy and the Risk of Stroke,” New England Journal of Medicine 343 (2000).
Wang, P.S. “HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors and the Risk of Hip Fractures in Elderly Patients,” Journal of the American Medical Association 283 (2000).
Cummings, S.R."Do Statins Prevent Both Cardiovascular disease and Fracture?" Journal of the American Medical Association (2000).
Micromedex® Healthcare Series. Thomson Micromedex, 2006.
"Bayer Voluntarily Withdraws Baycol," U.S. Food and Drug Administration Talk Paper: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2001/ANS01095.html. last accessed 8/8/01.

This answer prepared 8/10/2001.
This information updated 7/6/2007.