Zetia and liver
Common Questions and Answers about Zetia and liver
zetia
Statins work in the liver and every commercial I have seen advises not to take if you have liver problems. Zetia works in the intestines.
Was the Zetia working?
If my memory serves me correctly, MikeS is taking statins and he had a TP. He is far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am and hopefully he will see this post and give his input.
Zetia is part of a class of drugs called cholesterol absorption inhibitors.
The Fenofibrate can cause bloating indigestion, stomach pain, and increased liver enzymes or liver problems in addition to other side effects. The Zetia can cause some of these too. Have they tested your liver enzymes yet? If so were they normal? There are other drugs for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides that work as well. You can ask him to have you try Lipitor (generic) and there is now a generic Niaspan. I know because my husband is on it.
AST on upper end of normal at 40. The doctor said to stop the Lipitor...but stay on the Zetia...... and retest in 1-1/2 weeks which he did this past Sept. 30th. His ALP came down to normal at 91, his ALT stayed the same at 79, his AST stayed relatively the same at 42, but his GGTP went quite high at 240. The doctor's office called and told him to come in next week.
Statins work by controlling the production of cholesterol in your liver while Zetia works by preventing cholesterol to be absorbed in your digestive system.
Of the two, Crestor is the stronger of the two. In addition, recent trials have shown that adding Zetia does not improve the performance of Vytorin over Simvastatin alone.
If it were me I would give pravastatin a chance, but if I had the same side effects and I could not live with them, I would try something like Zetia. You could also add a fenofibrate like Tricor to lower your TGLs as well, very safe and no side effects. This will help lower your overall number but will not impact your LDL which is you main issue. You really need to get that under 130 with no other risk factors.
The pravastatin could be the reason, however which of his liver enzymes are elevated? Let us know and I may be able to help you out.
I had a bad reaction to the statins- ended up in the hospital with very high liver enzymes. Recently, I have been getting very lightheaded and experiencing pain in my upper arms. My doctor refered me to a cardiologist who performed the heart ultrasound and the holter which came back normal. The stress test however was abnormal- 1 millimeter st segment depression. My cardiologist would like to a heart cathetrization and possibly insert stents.
I’m a active 68 yr. old women, that has tried 3 different statins. Everyone gave me muscle problems. Then my GP put me on Zetia. Said it would be different. After two months on it, it was worst than the statins. Woke up one morning, couldn’t close my hand. My fingers were so swollen and my both thumb joints would not bend. When I tried to bend them they clicked and was very painful.
I finally went to a specialist in Baltimore who read my history which showed all the meds I was taking and he noticed that I was taking Zetia and told me that he believed Zetia caused chronic coughing in some people; so he looked it up on his computer and sure enough, that was one of the warnings. I stopped the Zetia and the coughing disappeared completely within a couple of weeks. The point here is that medicines, while helping one problem, frequently can cause another.
I just got off of zetia and welchol. I could not take statins. I tried them all. Used to take Niaspan and fenofibrate but they took me off cause both cause problems in some and had not 'reduced the incidence of cardiac events'. I think they have concluded that neither do Zetia, except when used with a statin, so it is the statin doing the work. I also think Welchol has been shown to not reduce cardiac events too. not sure. I am on Repatha. Third bi weekly shot.
The two enzyme panels are mildy high, and certainly can be from fatty liver. Fatty liver can be caused form everything from obesity to extended drug useage to hereditary factors. I have heard that long term useage of some antidepressants can produce hepatic manifestations - like elevated enzymes. Some show the effect promptly and others more insidiously.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
While current drugs are highly toxic and often cannot be tolerated by transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs, ezetimibe is quite safe and has been used long-term without harm by people to control their cholesterol, Uprichard said.
potential to increase liver enzymes and cause liver damage, patients must be monitored for normal liver function. At least, that's what the label used to say. Now the FDA has removed this long-standing warning and ruled that patients taking statins no longer need routine monitoring of liver enzymes, but instead can have liver enzymes tested before starting the drugs, and then only as clinically needed.
My understanding is that the statins with the greatest LDL reducing effect are Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor, and Pravachol, in that order. I don’t mention Leschol and Mevacor since they appear to be rarely used since recently due to the aforementioned being more powerful. Do we have any available solid data on the effects of the various individual statins other than LDL reduction? For example, do we know which ones raise HDL the most? What about effects on particle size or Lp(a), etc.
High cholesterol runs in my family so even with diet and exercise my numbers are still a little high. I started getting heart palpitations a few years ago and after a lot of testing was told they were harmless PVC's/PAC's. Well, I stoped taking my Tricor and Zocor for a few months and my heart palps were gone. The problem is that my cholesterol numbers went back up. I started back on the statins and low and behold the palps returned.
t find the right medicine...Lipitor caused severe muscle weakness, Zetia caused all kind of digestive problems and Pravachol zapped my energy...my count actually went up 30 points while taking WelChol! My doctor is telling me that I have no other choices of medicine to lower my count (total 285, HDL 106 VLDL 21, LDL 188, Triglycerids 106.) My sister is having the same problem so I guess this problem is a family thing. I am really troubled by my doctor's lack of concern.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
The study, Uprichard said, opens up a number of possibilities for therapeutics.
Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the U.S., but infected patients have problems after transplant because the virus attacks the new liver, Uprichard said.
also be aware that the big decline will be at 48-72 weeks with your hbv mutations and hbeag negative
the difference of fibroscan between 4 and 6 is meanless, you have nothing to worry
you may try to see if intf response can be increased by ezetimibe (zetia) or smvastatin.
Although there have been reports of liver failure and hepatitis associated with statins and elevated liver enzymes, these occurrences are rare. Current studies have not been able to establish a definite link between statin use and liver disease. If for some reason your liver enzymes do become elevated, they are restored back to normal once the statin is stopped.
How are you? Glomerular filtration rate or its approximation of the creatinine clearance are measured whenever renal disease is suspected or careful dosing of nephrotoxic drugs is required. The normal ranges of GFR, adjusted for body surface area for males is 70 ± 14 mL/min/m2 (56-84) . Risk factors for kidney disease include diabetes, high blood pressure, family history and older age.
Take care and keep us posted.
After electrograms, changes in cholestrol medication,( lipitor, crestor,), now on zetia my tests keep coming in high.Outside of my lower extremities aches, which I credit to arthritis, I feel fine. Both doctors, arthritis and cardiologist, keep drawing blood with these rates still climbing. After a year of this circle, and being a believer in preventive mediciene, my concern is should I be concerne?
I am 32 yrs old and weights 131 lbs at 5' 3 ". Despite controling my diet and doing karate 3 hrs per week I have high cholesterol (287) and high triclyceride (250). I am at a lost and don't know how best to control it. At these levels I feel dizzy and lethargic. Please advise.
Recommended
