In some cases, you may need to take a cholesterol-lowering medicine in addition to making the life habit changes already mentioned to reach the LDL cholesterol goal recommended by your doctor.

Cholesterol-Lowering Medications and You

If following a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diet, increasing your physical activity, and losing weight have not lowered your risk for developing CHD after about 3 months, your doctor may consider prescribing a cholesterol-lowering medication. If your doctor prescribes medicine, you also will need to:

• Continue to follow your cholesterol-lowering diet
• Be more physically active
• Lose weight if overweight
• Control all of your other heart disease risk factors, including smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes

Taking all these steps together may lessen the amount of medicine you need or make the medicine work better--and that reduces your risk for developing heart disease. The following is a description of cholesterol-lowering medicines.

• Statins
• Bile Acid Sequestrants
• Nicotinic Acid
• Fibrates

Other Drugs

• Hormone Replacement Therapy

Also see the Tipsheets How to Stay on Your Cholesterol-Lowering Medication and Next Steps

Go to the Lifestyle Changes Section

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