Do statin drugs do anything to keep cholesteral from building up?

Question

Isn't that even more important than just lowering it a few points?

Answer 1

Are you asking whether statins do anything to intervene directly with the process by which cholesterol build up in arteries? Not directly, no, but they do have an indirect effect through LDL. Their effect is based on lower levels of LDL in the blood, in response to their inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase in the liver, which interferes with cholesterol synthesis there. The slight rise in HDL they cause might help remove LDL from plaques, but that's less certain.

The details of how atherosclerosis develops are not entirely known. The process involves macrophages bringing LDL into the plaque. Starving the macrophages of LDL through use of statins is an effective therapy. To do something to the macrophages more directly might have a lot of side effects, since macrophages are involved in all sorts of immune responses fighting off microbes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atherosclerosis

There are lifestyles where atherosclerosis isn't much of a problem. The question is how many people can go that way early enough in life so we don't need any medicines for atherosclerosis.

Answer 2

First of all, let's be clear. High cholesterol is not what hurts people. What hurts people is damaged Arteriol walls (due to years of abuse from eating poorley, smoking, family history, etc). Once there is a small injury to the Arterial wall, the LDL (low density lipoproteins) penetrates the compromised wall and starts to form a "foamy cell". This is nothing more than the beginning of plaque. Plaque is where it starts to get dangerous, because if their is plaque in the Coronary Artery (Heart Artery) and the plaque flakes off and travels throught the vessel and gets stuck, you now have yourself a Myocardial Infarcation (A fancy way of saying Heart Attack). Statins lower the amount of LDL in the blood and thus help take some of the ingrediant away from Plaque formation. Your doctor weighs this benefit versus the possible side effects and makes a decision based on the patients profile. For the most part, statins are well-tolerated and side effects are mild and transient. Some side effects include muscle aches and pains, headache, nausea, etc. Pretty much all medications have some side effects, but if a high risk patient can tolerate the statin, it is most likely better than having a heart attack and can save your life. There is substantial data out on Lipitor, and Zocor to support this.