Simvastatin 40 mg belongs to a class of drugs called statins. These drugs are essentially known as the anti-cholesterol or hypolipidemic drugs in that they lower special kinds of cholesterol known for triggering cardiovascular disease and at the same time increasing the presence and effects of the healthy cholesterol.

Simvastatin comes in other dosages both higher and lower than 40 mg, and Simvastatin 40 mg is the highest regular dose that is generally prescribed, for doctors found that in most cases, going higher than 40 mg equals more side effects risk while only giving more anti-cholesterol controlling properties.

Simvastatin is known as the first statin drug that became available for use in treating high levels of unhealthy cholesterol, and being the first also meant that it was subjected to the most studies and trials ensuring its effectiveness and relative safety. Since only a physician or doctor can diagnose unhealthy cholesterol levels, Simvastatin and other statin drugs can only be bought with a prescription.

What side effects can occur as a result of taking Simvastatin?

The side effects of Simvastatin are similar to the other statin drugs and are directly caused to a negative reaction on the body with the properties of the statin drugs. There are a few people with known sensitivity to statins and they are prohibited from taking them, while others can take Simvastatin or any other statin and experience no allergic reaction or side effect in any way.

Side effects that are known to occur more often but considered less serious are tiredness and stomach problems such as constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and abdominal pain. These reactions and any other are better addressed to your doctor. Cramping muscles and aches around the joints might need immediate medical attention, and extremely rare side effects like seizures, fainting, persistent vomiting and irregular heartbeat will require emergency care.

Drug side effects can also take place when two medicines interact with each other. Simvastatin can affect they way regular painkillers function, change Coumadin levels in the blood, affect Lisinopril’s vessel-relaxing qualities or inadvertently mess with the use of Methotrexate in cancer or autoimmune diseases. This means

Simvastatin should not be carelessly handled, and consuming other drugs both special prescription or over the counter should not be attempted without consulting your doctor. Observing the Simvastatin dose assigned to you and not skipping or taking more of the drug will also help keep you in good health and more protected from side effects.

Fat is an essential food class that provides vital benefits to the body. It deserves a place in the food group, and removing it entirely from the diet is most emphatically not a good idea. Of course, this does not mean that we should eat all types of fat. Fat sources that contribute to high cholesterol are best avoided.

It’s important to know that there are a lot of alternative fat sources containing lesser bad cholesterol. Many of these good fat sources are listed below.

Olive oil

Olive oil is rich in unsaturated fats. It uses as ordinary cooking oil or as a regular side dish oil. Olive oils add well in your vegetable salads. They are great substitute to use for butter in cooking. If one can’t find olive oil in the grocery then go for canola oils.

Avocados, olives and coconuts

Certain fruits are good sources of unsaturated fat. Avocados, olives and coconuts are part of the list. One doesn’t have to worry about weight gain with these foods.

Fish

Fish are rich in unsaturated fats and are great sources of protein. It helps decrease your cholesterol level when one takes more fish than regular meat and poultry. More importantly, fish oils are rich in omega– 3 fatty acids, which supports a healthy heart and cardiac function.

Nuts

Nuts contain high amounts of monounsaturated fats that protect one against cardiovascular diseases. It is a better food choice for snacks and not eating potato chips or doughnuts. Peanut butter also has healthy fats, just watch for the added ingredients.

Notice that saturated, unsaturated, mono unsaturated, good cholesterol or bad cholesterol shows up a lot in this topic. To give you an idea of what these are, you simply categorize them as good and bad (read this to find out what is cholesterol exactly).

“Good kinds of fat” include high-density lipoprotein (HDL), unsaturated fat, and mono-unsaturated fat. While the not so healthy kinds of fat are the ones with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and saturated fat – these are commonly found in mayonnaise, butter, meat fat and oils, chicken skin, etc. It’s best to also lookout for these bad types of fat as they are the ones basically responsible for weight gain (which in turn leads to higher cholesterol).

A simple understanding of fats, its types, and the different fat sources, helps one meet fast weight loss – this along with the fat nutrients received.

The plain fact is that the two biggest reasons lifespans are cut short are heart disease and cancer. So logic suggests that cutting down the risk of these two diseases might help increase your lifespan a bit. There are at least a few supplements that might be beneficial for this.

Lowering your risk of heart disease can be done by avoiding foods high in saturated fat, such as red meat and fried foods, and increasing your physical activity. Both of these lower your cholesterol and improve the health of your cardiovascular system. Another way to do this is by taking fish oil supplements. Fish oil contain omega 3 fatty acids, which are proven to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

There has been some recent research into vitamin D as a possible way to lower your risk of cancer, although research is still ongoing and there are at least some conflicting studies. Vitamin D is created when you are exposed to sunlight, and studies have suggested that cancer is higher in countries with little direct sunlight. Although it still isn’t completely proven, vitamin D is safe to take and thus should probably be added to everyone’s diet anyway.

And finally, the supplement market is flooded with claims of anti-aging products, most of which frankly do not work. Some may even actually shorten lifespan! Some studies have suggested that human growth hormone for example shortens lifespans – in direct contradiction to most of the the claims hyped about it.

Some of the supplements that might prove beneficial though include resveratrol and rapamycin. Resveratrol is a chemical found in red wine that has been proven to help lower satured fat levels and possibly mortality from cardiovascular disease. And rapamycin, an immunosuppressant, has shown some early promise an actual anti-aging drug, although research is still ongoing.

However, there are a few nutritional supplements on the market that show good evidence of effectiveness at combating these diseases. Keep in mind that supplements are, as their name suggests, supplementary and are no replacement for a good diet and rigorous exercise.

1. Green Tea: Supported by many numerous studies and strong evidence, green tea is linked with reduced cholesterol and blood pressure. Both of these are important for cardiovascular health. It is also sometimes marketed as a weight loss aid, due to its ability to safely increase metabolism. However, it is probably too weak to be the best diet supplement for directly losing weight, although it might still be a valuable addition to a healthy weight loss diet.

2. Fish Oil: Also strongly supported by evidence from numerous scientific studies, fish oil benefits include improved blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and general cardiovascular health. Fish oil contains omega 3 fatty acids, which are necessary to balance the high degree of omega 6 fatty acids present in most diets. This imbalance leads to inflammation which in turn leads to cardiovascular illness.

3. Cocoa: Believe it or not, chocolate is high in a compound that is known for cardiovascular benefits. Known as flavanols, these chemicals help improve blood flow and general cardiovascular health, and are responsible for the well-known health benefits of red wine. The only drawback may be that most consumable chocolate is loaded with sugar and fat, which will offset the benefits of the flavanols. It must be consumed as dark, unsweetened chocolate, or in supplement form.

First things first. High cholesterol (or hypercholesterolemia to use its medical name) is usually considered to mean high levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood.

Cholesterol – A Tale Of Two Lipids

Cholesterol is a type of fat (known as lipid) and is regarded as being made up of 5 main components: chylomicrons, HDL (high density lipoprotein), IDL (intermediate density lipoprotein), LDL (low density lipoprotein) and VLDL (very low density lipoprotein). Of these, only HDL (often referred to as “good cholesterol”) and LDL (“bad cholesterol”) are considered for modern cholesterol tests.

Cholesterol cannot actually travel through the bloodstream on its own so it binds with proteins, hence the term “lipoprotein”. The “density” describes the ratio between lipids and proteins, so LDL is mostly lipids (fat) with a low amount of protein and HDL is the reverse and has “spare capacity” to absorb additional lipids.

Most cholesterol in your blood stream is LDL (the average ratio is about 75% LDL to 25% HDL or 3:1) and it is absolutely vital to maintaining health, but too much can cause deposits to form that progressively constrict and harden the main arteries, leading eventually to heart disease, strokes and other unwelcome outcomes. HDL absorbs excess cholesterol in the bloodstream (including LDL) and returns it to the liver where it is metabolized and reused or excreted.

What A Cholesterol Test Kit Can Tell You

For quite some time now, many if not most low-cost cholesterol tests have measured only the total cholesterol count, the amount of HDL and triglycerides (basically fat absorbed from food) present in the bloodstream and estimated the other constituents (working on the basis that VLDL accounts for about 45% of the triglyceride count, and LDL equates to total cholesterol minus HDL and VLDL). This is simply due to the cost of direct measurement of LDL and provides workable results, though it is important not to eat for 12 hours prior since triglyceride levels are obviously highly affected by food intake.

Quite a few home cholesterol test kits in fact only give a total cholesterol count, though there are home test kits that do provide additional data about HDL, and occasionally LDL, concentrations in the blood. Home cholesterol test kits sometimes provide accurate figures that map to standard units of measure (such as mmol/L or mg/dL) and sometimes just yield an indication such as a change of color which suggests whether the result is high, medium or low.

Understanding Cholesterol Levels

Before we dig much further into this, be aware that there are two basic units of measure in use for cholesterol. One is the traditional mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter i.e. weight of cholesterol in suspension) which is still widely used particularly in the United States. The more contemporary scale is the SI (Systems Internal) mmol/L (millimoles per liter which is a count of molecules in a given volume of blood) and this is gradually becoming the accepted standard.

To convert between the two simply multiply mmol/L by 39 and divide mg/dL by 39. But note that this conversion is specific to cholesterol – triglycerides for example have a different molecular weight and therefore require a conversion constant of 89 instead.

For total cholesterol, the medically accepted range is:

above 6.2 mmol/L = high; 5.0 to 6.2 mmol/L = medium; below 5.0 mmol/L = low.

The equivalent scale in milligrams per decilitre is:

above 240 mg/dL = high; 200 to 240 mg/dL = medium; below 200 mg/dL = low.

If you also have access to your HDL reading then you can calculate your “risk factor” (how exposed you are to the possibility of developing cardiovascular problems). This is known as the cholesterol HDL ratio and is simply total cholesterol divided by HDL and the risk tables are as follows:

For men, above 4.6 = high; 3.6 to 4.5 = medium; at or below 3.5 = low;
For women, above 3.6 = high; 3.1 to 3.5 = medium; at or below 3.0 = low;

So for example, a man with total cholesterol of 6 mmol/L and HDL of 2 mmol/L has a risk ratio of 6:4 or 1.5 which is low, whereas a woman with total cholesterol of 4.5 mmol/L and HDL of 1.0 mmol/L has a very high risk ratio of 4.5:1 or 4.50. In this latter case, diet and in particular exercise might bring her HDL up to 1.5 mmol/L which brings the ratio back to a safe 4.5:1.5 or 3.0.

If your home cholesterol test kit provides (or at least estimates) LDL data then you can also monitor your HDL LDL ratio, where the goal is to keep this ratio above 0.3 and preferably above 0.4 (for example HDL 1.2 mmol/L and LDL 3.0 mmol/L). In other words 1 or more parts HDL to 3 or less parts LDL.

Although the ratios between these HDL and LDL and total cholesterol provide reasonable indicators of risk, medical advice also cautions against a standalone LDL value above 3.0 or or an HDL value below 1.0.

As you can see then, measuring your cholesterol levels can present a surprisingly sophisticated picture of your general state of health now and your chances of living out a full and healthy life in the future. In the modern world, where to be honest many of us take too little exercise and eat too much food (much of it high in fat), regular cholesterol testing is an important monitoring tool and one that is these days reasonably cheap and easily accessible, especially online.

The problem is that you cannot tell what your cholesterol levels (there are 2 main types of cholesterol) are by any means other than taking a blood test. A person with very a high level of cholesterol in their bloodstream will generally experience absolutely no adverse symptoms right up until their first cardiac arrest. Even if treated with cholesterol lowering drugs, they won’t actually feel any different at all.

Needless to say, waiting for a heart attack is not the best way of finding out whether your cholesterol levels are too high, because by then much of the damage has already been done. High cholesterol is a silent killer and the only way to detect it before it causes irreversible damage to your well-being is by periodic testing. Once you find out the hard way that your arteries have become clogged through years of unnoticed high cholesterol it is already too late – there may be few symptoms of high cholesterol per se, but the symptoms of resulting cardiovascular disease most definitely will intrude on your enjoyment of life.

So who should have their blood cholesterol levels checked? Pretty well everyone is the short answer, but obvious high priority candidates are those who are overweight or who take very little exercise, smokers, drinkers, anyone who favours a high fat diet, and most people over the age of 30. There is considerable evidence of a causal link between these specific factors and high cholesterol.

Young, fit and healthy people should also take a cholesterol test if there is a history of high cholesterol in their family, since although most of the cases seen these days are caused by environmental and lifestyle factors, there is also a genetic disorder commonly termed familial hypercholesterolemia (or FH) which is passed down through family lines. Certainly, if the incidence of premature cardiovascular disease features prominently in your family tree then FH could easily be the culprit.

What will a cholesterol test actually tell you? Most people and indeed medical practitioners refer to a single value, such as 5. This is in fact a summary of the 2 main types of cholesterol: HDL (often called “good cholesterol”) and LDL (characterized as “bad cholesterol”). HD stands for High Density, LD obviously for Low Density and the L prefix is short for Lipoprotein.

In general levels below 5 mmol/L are considered good, levels upto 6.2 are borderline (i.e. not good at all but not necessarily cause for alarm either), and values above 6.2 are treated as indicators of high risk for heart disease. There is an alternative scale which measures milligrams per decilitre and the boundaries are 200 and 240 mg/dL (corresponding to 5 and 6.2 mmol/L respectively).

If you have your cholesterol tested and the results fall in the low-risk bracket and there are no other factors weighing against you (i.e. you’re reasonably fit, maintain a healthy diet and haven’t noticed any trends towards sudden and untimely death among your biological relatives) then you really don’t need to be tested more than once every 5 years or so.

Those who fall somewhere in the borderline category should consider which of the known risk factors might be causing raised cholesterol levels and address them. It is well known that losing excess weight can correct a slightly high cholesterol reading without the need for further intervention. People who fit this borderline profile should also monitor their cholesterol levels much more frequently both in order to determine the effectiveness of measures to improve their levels and also to ensure that things aren’t deteriorating.

If you find yourself classified as high risk it’s important that you seek medical advice as to what may be the underlying cause of your condition and what treatment would be best. Obviously, if you find you have inherited FH then frankly there is no viable diet that can address this genetic disorder (though using this as an excuse to indulge in high fat food is akin to fighting fire with petrol).

In most cases, you will be prescribed a drug known as a statin. These vary in strength and your doctor will need to assess the amount of statin necessary to decrease and then maintain your cholesterol level below the approved limit (5.0 mmol/L). This is part educated guess and part trial and error – people react differently to different drugs and at the levels needed to treat cases of very high cholesterol the statins themselves can present a real risk of serious damage to muscle tissue and the liver.

Obviously, if this is you then the good news is that you should be able to easily reduce your cholesterol level well below 5.0 and keep it there quite effortlessly, simply by taking statins. The less thrilling news is that regular blood testing is going to be part of your life from now on – both to monitor cholesterol levels and check for any evidence of unwelcome side-effects from the statins.