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Does anyone take Zetia only for cholesterol?
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jan 17 10:12am | Replies (55)Comment receiving replies
I have the familial hypercholesteremia gene that runs in my Father;s family. I now am taking 10 mg Zetia alone. I have tried all of the statins over 30+ years, Mevacor Zocor Lipitor Crestor Vytorin and all the generics. After I take a statin in about an hour I look like a major sunburn hot flashes fiery red blotches everywhere major itch. miserable. Sometimes it subsides overnight sometimes goes into the next day, does not make comfortable sleeping. Dr has declined to try to get insurance approval for any of the new non statin meds and finding another primary care in a rural area (one who also takes our insurance plus will take new patients) is nearly impossible. So my choices are have high cholesterol, without the high dose statin it has been over 300, or be a hot sweaty itchy rashy mess half my life. Can anyone answer dosage question - I now take 10 mg zetia generic daily and asked if I could maybe step up the dose but provider just says "that is as high as it goes" , what is the risk to take higher dose as the pills can be divided, My diet is not perfect but reasonably healthier than average and I am maybe 10 pounds overweight age 70 something plus also have thyroid issues. When I took 10 mg zetia with 40 mg crestor was at 190, will have it checked next appointment as I stopped the statins a couple months ago. Thanks.
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Hi @missanniem. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! It is nice to meet “family”. I am sorry statins have been so stinkin’ rough on you.
I have familial hypercholesterolemia as well and as best I know, have tried every possibility to lower my LDL cholesterol. It has only been the past couple of years that it has been well controlled and I am actually taking medications I have tried previously and said, ‘never again’. They are working! Ezetimibe is one of them. I actually take 1/2 of a pill daily and believe it works as well as a full pill would.
I have never heard of anyone taking more than 10mg ezetimibe. Here is a study that may help answer your question. It summarizes, “ The effects of ezetimibe 5 and 10 mg on all lipid parameters were similar. Ezetimibe 10 mg reduced LDL-C by 26.1%, whereas 5 mg reduced LDL-C by 25.8%. The percentages of patients achieving goal LDL-C were similar: 61.8% (5 mg) and 60.5% (10 mg).” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18837641/
Rosuvastatin is another I said I would never take again but have since tried and did ok taking 5mg twice a week. My understanding is it is one that stays in your body 3-4 days, longer than other statins so at this frequency you will always have some in your system. Since statins help inflammation in addition to lowering cholesterol, you would always have a small level of protection.
Have you been able to try different statin doses or frequencies? When is your next appointment when you find out how well ezetimibe is lowering your LDL?