Should I Stop My Cholesterol Lowering Medication?

I always heard people asking: "Should I stop my cholesterol medication since my cholesterol is well controlled?" Well, it's all depends on your doctor's advice. There is always a risk of stopping a medication without doctor's advice; no matter what drugs you are taking. You should take your medication as prescribed by your doctor.

If you understand more about hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), you will might be able to answer yourself:

The are some diseases still cannot be cured by modern medicines like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and etc. When your doctor prescribed you medication for these conditions, they will never tell you that the medication will cure your condition. They are only able control it to target level. Which means that when you stopped the medication, your condition will become uncontrolled again, sooner or later.

Some anti-hypercholesterolemia medications not only lowers your cholesterol, is might provide you with cardiovascular protection benefits like plaque stabilisation, plaque regression and etc. By stopping your cholesterol lowering medication without doctor's advice, you might not only risk your cholesterol becoming uncontrolled, it might causes MI (Heart Attack) and stroke; which can caused by plaque formation and rupture of your unstable plaque core.

High cholesterol is a silent killer there are usually no symptoms. It is one of the leading causes of death from heart attack. Some patients might have higher risk especially diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). This is because the blood vessel of a diabetes patient might be damaged easier and high blood pressure can damage the wall of the blood vessel. This is the starting point of plaque formation. Thus, these high risk patients should lower their cholesterol much lower compared to patients without these risk factors. For further explanation, please consult your doctor.

So, by now I believe you should have your answer. DON'T STOP YOUR CHOLESTEROL LOWERING MEDICATION WITHOUT DOCTOR'S ADVICE.

Some people might use the excuse of experiencing adverse drug reaction as a reason to stop the medication. I agree that some medications might give you some adverse drug reactions (side effects). Please be informed that there are various types of cholesterol lower medications available in the market. If you inform your doctor that you are experiencing side effects with your current medication, they will prescribe you with another type of cholesterol lowering medication which might suite you better. Remember "There are no one wonder drug (medication) that is suitable for all patients".