The treatment of high cholesterol level is very important and this is because it was discovered to be responsible for many heart diseases and especially hear attacks. There are several methods of treatment and the majority of them are oral medications because these medications should be taken for the rest of lifetime of the patient.
There are general modifications in the attitude and diet for cholesterol patient. These modifications include stop smoking, decrease the consumed amount of alcohol, and decrease the weight of the body especially if you are highly obese. The presence of these risk factors increases the incidence of cholesterol complications. If you are diabetic then this is a high risk factor for heart diseases when contributed with high level of LDL cholesterol. If you suffer from diabetes then you need to monitor your cholesterol level carefully.
Deciding when to start using medication differs according whether you suffer from one or more of these risk factors or not. For example if you do not suffer from any risk factors then you doctor will start to think about medications when your cholesterol is over 200mg. but if you suffer from one risk factor then the threshold will decrease to 160 mg, two risk factors will decrease the threshold number to 130mg. in case you are a diabetic patient then your doctor will probably think about a medication once your cholesterol is over 100mg.
The most popular medication is the statin, it is very potent on decreasing the cholesterol level regardless of the initial cholesterol level or the risk factors present there before the treatment. In the past, scientists believed that steady decrease of LDL is the best solution but now, they think that steep decrease in LDL through the usage of high dosage of statin medications could be the best solution.
Till now the best thing the statin can do is to decrease the LDL as much as it can but it does not affect the condition of the heart that it is already on. The researches are trying to reverse the defect that already occurred in the heart to get it back into its normal status.
One thing you need to know more, even though statin is very potent and very effective in lowering the cholesterol level through lowering the LDL but it is not considered a replacement for the new lifestyle that you have to follow. If you are cholesterol patient then whether you are taking a medication or not, you need to change your lifestyle into a healthier one.