Does anyone take Zetia only for cholesterol?

I was still thinking about you and your side effects.
I have many friends on meds. Most are on a blood thinner.
NONE of my friends take aspirin with their blood thinners as aspirin act as thinners too.
When we were younger we could take the 81 mg. but now as our bodies change any aspirin can act as a blood thinner.
Please call your doctor about this. Perhaps the Eliquis and aspirin is making you have the effects that you are having.
Every one of my friends are told that for pain can only take Tylenol. Aspirin, Advil etc. all of the ones that are not an acetaminophen are a big no-no while on thinners.
I hope you feel much better soon, the smallest change in a med can help us feel better!
Have a Blessed night and weekend and hope you feel better soon.
Sincerely,
Betty

Hi, Zetia only lowered my LDL about 4% and my doctor put me on Repatha which I have been taking for about six months. It lowered my LDL all the way down to 20 way below the danger area. It did not cause any of the muscle pains or aches, and it is absolutely fantastic and worthwhile. It took some courage to self inject , but now it’s so easy! The only side effect I had was on week two I had some loose stools and a tiny bit of stomach cramping and then I was good to go! I think I had eaten a greasy fatty food which was the cause of that. I am so glad my doctor put me on it. Best wishes to you. There are consumer forms for this medication, and people complain about it but I don’t have any of the side effects that they are talking about and I could not tolerate statins, nor can I even take osteoporosis meds because of the muscle pain!

Thank you! My doc said it should lower it 20% so we’ll see. He said if I have any problems at all to tell him and we would stop and try Repatha.

Thanks for your added comments and continued concern. I haven't taken aspirin since I have been on Eliquis. I follow the protocols for these drugs to "the letter of the law" including taking only Tylenol when applicable and according to the limitations on taking Tylenol as well always with MD involvement and my pharmacist if any questions. Restrictions also are applicable for many OTC options including even cough meds for example.

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.

I currently take Zeytia by itself. The statins made me feel awful (tried them all), my doctor told me that Zeytia is more of a booster for the Statin and not that effective on its own. I have my labs coming up and I will have more definitive results in a couple of weeks. When I took atorvastatin and Zeytia my cholesterol dropped to 70 which may sound good but my memory got so bad and I just felt off balance a lot. I decided to feel better versus just looking good on paper and quit taking the atorvastatin and stayed with the Zeytia. Fingers crossed it is working. I exercise daily and watch my diet, staying away from any processed foods and try to limit sugar. Good luck to you!

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?

My internist prescribed Zeytia alone, to lower cholesterol and it worked well for years. However, I recently took a calcium heart test and plaque was discovered. Aggressive measures were needed. The cardiologist prescribed a very low dose statin, taken only twice a week, plus daily Zeytia. My cholesterol dropped to 70. So my experience is that Zeytia alone is effective in reducing cholesterol.

I couldn’t take statins because of side effects. I now take Zetia, Nexletol, and added Benecol. No side effects. I understand, by listening to Dr Thomas Dayspring, one should take a drug that attacks cholesterol from both the liver AND intestines, otherwise the one you are not taking the drug for, will add more receptors to take in more cholesterol. The last time my LDL was checked it was 60. We are trying to get it to 30 because I have high LP (a). Check out Dr Thomas Dayspring. He is very interesting and has lots of YouTube interviews. I like Dr Carvalho's interview with him.