80 mg lipitor??

[FeelingLucky]

7 months ago I had a stent placed because of 95% blockage. I was told i needed to take plavix and 40mg Lipitor along with a specific diet. After 7 months of doing as instructed I'm now told I need to go to 80 mg Lipitor because my cholesterol is rising high. Now I'm concerned about liver damage and why they can't give me a reason for the rise.

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum! You don't day what your cholesterol levels are so I am unclear what you mean by high; for someone with CVD they could be referring to 5, 8 or even 12! Unfortunately response to statins is not linear so double the dose does not mean double the effect. Also a higher dose of statin does not mean liver damage - your GP should be monitoring this with regular LFT tests.

[gifford7]

Life style changes can help control cholesterol. see:

mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...

"Top 5 lifestyle changes to improve your cholesterol

Lifestyle changes can help improve your cholesterol — and boost the cholesterol-lowering power of medications.

By Mayo Clinic Staff"

I had a stroke and was prescribed 80mg Lipitor. I found reducing to 40mg controlled my bad cholesterol [LDL] to the desired level[70mg/dL] per fasting cholesterol test, using diet and exercise.

[Pitt12345]

My husband is on 80 mg after his ha. Don’t bother his liver. They put me on 20 and it raised my liver enzymes. I am now going to see lipid specialist. I was surprised talking to my sister yesterday that she is on 80 mg Atorvastatin and has never had heart attack or heart issue. Thinking ours might be familiaral.

[stevejb1810]

Firstly, high doses of statin do not necessarily mean liver damage. It is an undesirable outcome in some cases, but not all. I have been taking Atorvastatin (Lipitor) 80mg for nearly 2 years without issue. Secondly, it’s possible that you have a genetic predisposition for high cholesterol. If that is the case then diet alone is unlikely to ‘fix’ the issue. This might (stress ‘ might’) explain your predicament.

[gbtbag]

I've been on Lipitor for 18 months and so far haven't had any problems. At least, not so far, fingers crossed. My cholesterol had gone down the last time I had it tested about three months ago.