Really don't ask again, make it clear once! Source Zhou Peng Heart Vision Core Tip: For most patients, for patients diagnosed with lipid metabolism disorder (mainly patients with elevated LDL-C level) and coronary heart disease, lipid-lowering therapy is long-term or even lifelong. 0 1 How long should cholesterol-lowering drugs be taken? People began the process of atherosclerosis from a very young age. If they are overweight in adolescence, they begin the process of lipid deposition in arteries and blood vessels. Therefore, dyslipidemia (abnormal low density lipoprotein cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglyceride in the body) is a lifelong disease. This means that once diagnosed with dyslipidemia, patients need to pay attention to changing their "lipid metabolism" for the rest of their lives to prevent atherosclerosis and downstream events. Of course, the best way to ensure the health of blood vessels also includes ensuring that you don't smoke, overeat, or eat too much fat and calories, and keep proper exercise. For most people, diet and physical exercise alone are not enough to correct their lipid metabolism disorder. They need to take lipid-lowering drugs. Some drugs take effect quickly, while others may take some time to show their efficacy. At first, the main function of lipid-regulating drugs (mainly statins) was to stabilize atherosclerotic plaques. After a long time, lipid-regulating drugs will prevent cholesterol from accumulating further in the arteries. In some cases, lipid-regulating drugs even reduce the deposited cholesterol, so that atherosclerotic plaques gradually shrink on a stable basis. This result will accumulate for many years, so the longer you take the medicine, the better the effect. Can I stop taking medicine after the blood lipid value is improved? Generally speaking, if the patient's cholesterol level is improved by drugs, but his lifestyle (such as diet, exercise and smoking habits) has not changed, then the patient's blood lipid value will soon return to the previous level after stopping the drug. For this kind of patients, drugs are just a simple control problem, and can't cure hyperlipidemia. Lifestyle changes have a good effect on reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (bad) and triglycerides, and increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (good) and other lipid parameters. If these values are adjusted to the doctor's expectation, it should be comprehensively considered according to the patient's overall health status, age and other risk factors, especially the general lifestyle and diet-lipid-regulating drugs can be gradually reduced. Lifestyle changes can even make a few patients finally stop taking medicine. This possibility should encourage patients to change their diet and increase their overall exercise level with real effectiveness, thus expanding the effect of drug treatment and achieving ideal healthy blood lipid values. Before reaching the ideal blood lipid level, patients should remember that statins and most lipid-lowering drugs are one of the safest drugs at present. As long as the blood lipid does not reach a healthy level, patients should insist on taking medicine. If the patient has familial hyperlipidemia, he needs to take medicine even if his lifestyle is healthy. For most patients diagnosed with dyslipidemia (mainly patients with elevated LDL-C level) and patients with coronary heart disease, lipid-lowering therapy is long-term or even lifelong. A friend of a patient asked me, "doctor, this means I need to take medicine for life, right?" Isn't it addictive? "I replied," yes, it needs to be taken for a long time, even for life. You live to be 120 and 150 years old, and you have to eat three meals a day, sunshine, air and water. Three meals a day, sunshine, air, water, and then one or two medicines covered by medical insurance can be bought in the global village. Is addiction so difficult? For patients in need, long-term use of lipid-lowering drugs with the best cost-benefit ratio and risk-benefit ratio is the best health investment with the greatest return. It enables us to live a healthy and disability-free life (living in a wheelchair) to the greatest extent and die without disease ... Expert profile Zhou Peng, male, doctor of clinical medicine, doctor of philosophy, deputy chief physician of cardiovascular medicine, postdoctoral fellow studying in the United States, and director of internal medicine of Beijing Mingde International Hospital. Dr. Zhou Peng is a special editorial board member of Journal of Southwest Medical University, a member of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Group of Emergency Medicine Branch of Chinese Medical Association, a member of expert group of Chronic Disease Prevention Committee of China Anti-aging Association, a member of American Heart Association, a member of American Physiological Society, a volunteer teacher of American Cardiac Arrest Foundation and a member of American Association for Scientific Research. Reviewer of papers in international professional journals such as Journal of Electrocardiology, the official magazine of the International Electrocardiology Society, and Cardiovascular Research, the official magazine of the European Heart Association, editor-in-chief of Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research (JCDR), chairman of the Academic/Educational Committee (CNAHA) of the American Chinese Heart Association (20 12-20 18), and Minister of Health and Education (20) ◆◆◆◆◆ ◆ Please click here to declare that the above content comes from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author. If there is any infringement of your original copyright, please let us know and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.