Diseases of the cardiovascular system, pathologies of the circulatory system occupy a leading position in medical statistics around the world. Every year the proportion of people suffering from heart disease is growing. The high mortality rate is due to many factors - unbalanced nutrition, lack of resistance to stress, polluted environment, genetic aspect.
Among cardiovascular diseases, the main ones are coronary heart disease and arterial hypertension (high blood pressure). The main prerequisite for the development of these ailments is hypercholesterolemia, which is also called hyperlipoproteinemia. Such a factor in the development of diseases is often detected with the progressive development of these.
Cholesterol - good or bad?
Very many medical luminaries ten years ago the sole cause of heart diseaseconsidered an imbalance of cholesterol in the body. Today, after numerous studies and evidence, it has become clear that in the body of sick people and predisposed to the development of heart ailments, it is necessary to monitor not only the specific indicator of cholesterol, but also triglycerides, and phospholipids, and lipoproteins, which play an important role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the cardiovascular system. vascular system.
The main carriers of these elements in the human body are still lipoproteins. They are divided into LDL - low density lipoproteins that transport cholesterol into cells; VLDL - very low density lipoproteins that transport triglycerides; HDL - lipoproteins that transport cholesterol and phospholipids.
LDL and VLDL move cholesterol into tissue cells and deposit it on the walls of blood vessels to a greater extent, while HDL does not allow it to settle there.
Thus, the former are a harmful factor, and the latter are beneficial. Therefore, the cause of cardiovascular disease does not lie in the cholesterol index. To some extent, it is useful for the human body as a component of the correct metabolic processes. You should know that just the same, our body produces cholesterol itself, and in larger quantities than a person absorbs with food.
In connection with this discovery, in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, doctors began to reduce not the cholesterol level in the blood itself, but to regulate the imbalance between LDL, VLDL and HDL, thenis to inhibit the first and increase the second.
Imbalance is called in medical language a violation of lipid metabolism. It can be regulated with the help of drugs included in the lipid-lowering group.
Lipipidemic drugs - what is it?
There are many lipid-lowering drugs on the domestic pharmaceutical market. Lipid-lowering drugs are drugs that normalize lipid metabolism. How? How lipid-lowering drugs work, namely, what is the mechanism of their effect on the body of a sick person, is discussed below.
Features of lipid-lowering drugs
This group includes drugs of varying degrees of effectiveness. They primarily affect the total cholesterol, reduce it, but at the same time they make sure that the proportions of LDL and HDL are adjusted in the body.
Studying lipid-lowering drugs, the mechanism of action of them, in particular, it becomes clear that cholesterol reduction is achieved by inhibiting the processes responsible for its absorption in the intestine, creating a barrier for the release of fatty acids from adipose tissue, activating the processes of cholesterol catabolism and inhibition of lipid synthesis in the liver.
Different mechanisms of action on the level of good and bad cholesterol are the main feature of drugs, depending on which they are included in certain subgroups of lipid-lowering drugs. This will be discussed below.
The choice of a specific drug for treatment depends on the typediagnosed hyperlipoproteinemia. So, five types are distinguished: the first is an increase in blood cholesterol, the second is an increase in LDL, the third is the appearance of pathological lipoproteins, the fourth is an increase in VLDL, and the fifth is an increase in cholesterol and VLDL.
In each case, a certain complex therapy is provided.
Lipipidemic drugs are also applicable for the prevention of complex cardiovascular diseases, in particular, heart attacks and atherosclerosis. The use of these drugs in practice has helped to reduce the death rate among people suffering from cardiovascular diseases. A large evidence base of medical luminaries confirms the fact that lipid-lowering agents are effective in the treatment of hypertension of various origins.
Drugs of this group have long been used in European countries for the elimination of cardiovascular diseases, while they appeared on the domestic market relatively recently, and a large number of them is doubtful.
Today you can buy lipid-lowering drugs, both domestic and foreign. Since not all sick people have the same diagnosis picture, everyone receives individual recommendations on the use of one or another medication from this group.
Main classification
If we consider lipid-lowering drugs in general, their mechanism of action is clear. However, each specific drug has its own characteristics. Before describing them, let's see howdistributed lipid-lowering drugs classification compiled by experienced specialists.
Thus, drugs sold in modern pharmacies that affect the level of cholesterol in the body can be divided into three types:
- depleting cholesterol stores in the liver, inhibiting the process of its absorption in the intestine;
- inhibiting the synthesis of lipoproteins;
- accelerating metabolic processes and removing lipids from the body.
The first type includes bile acid sequestrants. To the second - statins, fibrates, nicotinic acid. To the third - "Probucol", choleretic drugs.
As noted above, lipid-lowering drugs are a special group of drugs that can increase the presence of good cholesterol and inhibit bad cholesterol.
Bile acid sequestrants: characteristics, examples
Lipipidemic drugs of this subgroup, according to pharmacological characteristics, belong to anion-exchange resins. They contain in their composition such an element as the chlorine ion. Not absorbed in the intestines, they absorb bile acids instead of chlorine and excrete them naturally.
Since there is a shortage of bile acids in the intestines, fats are poorly absorbed, including inhibition of the absorption of cholesterol by the intestines. Thus, the body begins to respond to its lack and reproduces HDL, which transport cholesterol from the blood vessels to the liver.
An example of sequestrants are medicines such as "Cholestyramine"and "Cholestipol", as well as "Cholesteed".
Statins: characteristics, examples
These are lipid-lowering drugs, the mechanism of action of which is to block the work of an enzyme involved in the synthesis of cholesterol. They create conditions for a significant reduction in the reproduction of cholesterol in the liver, due to which its concentration in the blood decreases.
It is generally accepted that statins are able to prevent heart attacks and strokes. These drugs not only lower cholesterol levels, but also effectively relieve vascular inflammation. By thinning the blood, they inhibit the development of atherosclerosis, dilate blood vessels at elevated pressure, contributing to its rapid normalization. Do not allow atherosclerotic plaques to grow.
In turn, statins are lipid-lowering drugs, which are divided into four generations according to their effectiveness.
First-generation statins have less effect on blood cholesterol levels than newer drugs. Medicines "Lovastatin", "Simvastatin", "Pravastatin" belong to this group of drugs. They are made from penicillin mushrooms and are considered natural in origin.
Second generation statins are drugs that have a prolonged mechanism of action on the body of a sick person due to an increased concentration of the active component in the blood. These include a drug such as Fluvastatin.
Statinsthe third generation is an improved version of the first and second generations, which regulates the balance of bad and good cholesterol in the body, and also reduces the level of triglycerides. The most common example is Atorvastatin.
Fourth-generation statins are innovative developments that cause virtually no side effects and are characterized by increased efficiency. The main drug of this subgroup is Rosuvastatin.
2nd, 3rd and 4th generation statins are synthetic drugs.
Which lipid-lowering drug from the statin group is the most effective and does not cause any side effects? There are none among them. All statins are capable of causing some harm to the human body with side effects, along with their high ability to relieve vascular inflammation and remove bad cholesterol from the body.
The fourth-generation statins are still the most popular and acceptable. But if we take into account the fact that each core and hypertensive patient has its own, individual picture of the disease and predisposition to complications, then the drugs are prescribed exclusively by the attending doctor, and not just taken because the patient wants it.
Fibrates: characteristics, examples
These lipid-lowering drugs (the classification refers them to the fourth group), which effectively cope with the task of reducing LDL and triglycerides in the blood. They activate lipoprotein lipases in blood plasmaand liver. Due to this, TG is split off from LDL and HDL is reproduced, which remove cholesterol from the vessels.
Despite the fact that these are effective lipid-lowering drugs, comparative characteristics with other groups of such drugs showed that they are significantly inferior in terms of usefulness to statins.
An example of fibrates are drugs such as Clofibrate, Gemfibrozil, Bezafibrate, Fenofibrate.
Nicotinic acid, its properties
Very often cores and hypertensive patients pay special attention to vitamins. Let's find out the preparation of which vitamin belongs to lipid-lowering drugs. This is exactly what nicotinic acid is. In the medical field, it is called vitamin PP, or B3.
Nicotinic acid exhibits its lipid-lowering properties in the case of taking a dose greater than that required by the human body as a vitamin. This drug inhibits the synthesis of VLDL in the liver, thereby reducing the concentration of LDL and TG, and TG to a greater extent than cholesterol.
Patients take this drug in a dose strictly determined by a specialist, nicotinic acid cannot be prescribed independently. Each missed dose is fraught with deterioration in the treatment of heart disease.
Probucol. Properties
This drug is an antioxidant. It moderately affects the levels of good and bad cholesterol in the blood. In particular, thisthe lipid-lowering drug works in a slightly different way compared to the above. It does not increase the concentration of HDL, but reduces it. Activation of non-receptor pathways for the removal of LDL from the blood when taking Probucol is thus a hypolipidemic property.
This drug is more experimental than curative, but it still has its place in medical practice. Many properties of "Probucol" have not yet been studied. It is well tolerated by patients, but, without a solid evidence base for its benefits, doctors still prefer to prescribe other lipid-lowering drugs for their patients for long-term and safe therapy.
Which lipid-lowering drugs are more effective?
This article discusses lipid-lowering agents. What it is is now clear. We repeat once again that these drugs help to remove harmful cholesterol from the body and increase the concentration of useful cholesterol in the blood. If the proportion of these substances is violated, then the patient is at risk of developing heart attacks, strokes and atherosclerosis.
The main indications for the use of lipid-lowering drugs are a genetic predisposition for the development of atherosclerosis, hyperlipoproteinemia.
You should know that complex therapy does not involve the simultaneous administration of several lipid-lowering drugs. The luminaries of medicine today do not single out the best lipid-lowering agents from the general mass. Their pharmacology varies greatly. In each specific case, a specificdrug.
If we take into account the quality before using the funds of this group, then foreign-made drugs still cause more confidence. But it is also worth noting that the domestic market today is filled with all kinds of foreign-made generics, which are also of no less quality than the original. A definite plus is that they are cheaper.
Not such a high quality is not in low efficiency, but in the delayed action of the drug as such.
Lipipidemic drugs are medicines that allow you to deal with a high mortality rate in a group of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, or predisposed to developing them.
Now you know what lipid-lowering drugs are, the indications for taking are discussed above. We do not report anything about the specific dosage of these drugs, since it is individual for each patient, it is prescribed only by the attending physician after a full diagnosis of the patient's body.
In search of lipid-lowering drugs, people are faced with a situation where pharmacists recommend purchasing hepatoprotective drugs. What do they have in common?
Hepatoprotective drugs are applicable in the treatment of the liver. Since the lipid-lowering effect is associated with metabolic processes in which cholesterol is involved and which occur in the liver, many hepatoprotective drugs are characterized by a lipid-lowering effect. And this, in turn, means that the UDC of hepatoprotective and lipid-lowering drugs can beidentical, often we are talking about one drug that is applicable in the treatment of both liver and cardiovascular diseases.
The theoretical description of the lipid-lowering properties of new generation drugs is not as complicated as the practice of taking them. Achieved positive effect does not mean that these drugs are safe for the general condition of patients.
Absolutely all groups and subgroups of drugs with lipid-lowering properties can cause serious side effects. The main one is an increase in the concentration of sugar in the blood. Therefore, they are contraindicated for most diabetics. But still, a certain group of patients with diabetes mellitus undergoes therapy with the appointment of these. At the same time, the attending physician assesses the possible risks of worsening the patient's condition.
Each person is an individually acting organism with its own characteristics, which are both genetically incorporated and physically acquired. Lipid-lowering drugs of any group from the above classification are prescribed to patients after a thorough examination of the picture of deterioration in he alth.
Self-prescribing medication is not acceptable. Only an attending physician competent in matters of metabolic processes can give a specific recommendation on which drug is more acceptable at a certain stage of the disease.
You also need to understand that these drugs can be taken as the main therapy in the treatment of a progressive disease, as well as for prevention. In each case, a specific dose is prescribed, which actssparing on the body of a person who takes it for a specific purpose (to stabilize their well-being).
Description for each drug indicates that lipid-lowering drugs are not taken without a doctor's recommendation. However, in practice, buying any of them at a pharmacy is not difficult. So be careful about wanting to take them on your own. Prescribed lipid-lowering medications often require continuous use.
Original foreign-derived lipid-lowering drugs are not low-cost, so many people are willing to take cheaper drugs from domestic manufacturers. Only the attending physician should select a replacement and adjust the dose.
The effectiveness of the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and their treatment depends not only on the chosen drug, but also on its correct intake, in particular, on the prescribed dosage and the absence of gaps during therapy. Stay he althy!
