Which Statin Will Lower Your Cholesterol?

How statins work
Statins lower cholesterol in two ways: They encourage the liver to clear LDL (bad cholesterol) from the blood, and they block an enzyme that the body needs to make new cholesterol.

At high doses, statins can nudge up your HDL (good cholesterol) while lowering your LDL (bad cholesterol) by 50% or more. Studies have shown that, for patients who already have heart disease, taking a statin can reduce the risk of fatal coronary events within five years by up to 40%. According to Thomas H. Lee, a cardiologist and editor in chief of the Harvard Heart Letter, even people who don't have high cholesterol can cut their risk of heart disease by a third simply by taking a statin.

Even given their wild popularity, "statins are still underprescribed," says Thomas Allison, PhD, a cardiovascular specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "The drugs could do much more good if more people took them to prevent heart disease, not just treat it," he says. "Most people aren't receiving cholesterol treatment until they've had a heart attack."

Joe Marzan, 32, a heart attack survivor in Prineville, Ore., was given a preventive prescription for statins because he had high cholesterol and a fatty diet, and because his father had had coronary bypass surgery. "I didn't take it regularly, though," he says, because he thought he was too young to worry about heart disease.

When a checkup showed that his total cholesterol had climbed to an incredible 400, his doctor urged him to come in for more aggressive treatment, including higher doses of Zocor or Lipitor. But Marzan, who has two kids, was in the process of moving to a new town and put off the appointment. His heart attack struck seven months later. Now he counsels other heart disease patients on the importance of compliance. "If I had listened to my doctor, I might have dodged this bullet," he says.