Lipitor®

Lipitor is a tablet used to lower a type of lipid known as cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood. It’s a branded version of Atorvastatin, and they both contain the same active ingredient (atorvastatin) and work the same way.

It’s part of a group of medicines called statins. Statins are typically used to lower cholesterol levels, but they can also reduce the risk of heart disease, strokes, and heart attacks.

It lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol, and triglycerides (a type of fat found in your blood). It can also help raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, also known as “good” cholesterol. By rebalancing your cholesterol levels, Lipitor will help reduce the risk of complications from having high cholesterol, such as strokes and heart attacks.

It’s also routinely prescribed to people who have conditions like type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or rheumatoid arthritis. While it doesn’t treat these conditions directly, people living with them have a higher baseline risk of heart disease, and Lipitor is used to protect their blood vessels.

You should take Lipitor along with a low-cholesterol diet to get the best results from it.

The active ingredient in Lipitor is atorvastatin, a statin. Statins work in the liver to block an enzyme called HMG-CoA, which is responsible for making cholesterol. If you have too much LDL or “bad” cholesterol, it can cause plaque blockages in your arteries. A plaque buildup narrows your arteries, slowing or even blocking blood flow to your heart or brain. This can then result in a stroke or heart attack, which can be potentially fatal.

Reducing the amount of LDL cholesterol will decrease the chances of these risk factors. Atorvastatin can also slightly increase HDL or “good” cholesterol, and LDL receptors on the surface of liver cells. This allows your liver cells to pull more ‘bad’ cholesterol out of your bloodstream and safely break it down inside the liver.^[1]

There are four doses of Lipitor: 10mg, 20mg, 40mg, and 80 mg of atorvastatin. For adults, the usual starting dose is 10 mg, but it can be higher depending on how high your cholesterol levels are. This will all be determined by your clinician, who will make sure you’re on the right dose. This can then be lowered or increased depending on whether your cholesterol levels have changed or not; usually, after four weeks, a clinician will reassess. You shouldn’t take more than 80 mg a day.

Take Lipitor exactly as instructed by your prescriber to ensure it’s truly effective at lowering your cholesterol. Lipitor is taken once a day for as long as it’s useful for you, as it can be a long-term treatment.

• Lipitor tablets should be swallowed whole with water.
• You can take Lipitor at any time of day, with or without food. The most important thing is to choose a time that’s easy to remember and stick to it every day. Unlike some older statins, Lipitor has a long-lasting effect, so it doesn’t need to be taken at night to be effective.^[1]
• Refrain from drinking grapefruit juice as it can increase the levels of atorvastatin in your blood.

As Lipitor is a long-term treatment, you’ll likely be taking it for a long time. However, most people do see a difference in their cholesterol levels within two to four weeks, especially after taking it consistently.^[2]

Once you take Atorvastatin, it’s rapidly absorbed in your body — reaching ‘peak concentration’ within one to two hours and has a half-life (the time it takes for the active substance to reduce by half) of 14 hours.^[3]

If you accidentally take more Lipitor than you should, contact your clinician and seek urgent medical attention as soon as possible. If you forget to take your Lipitor dose, you can skip the missed dose and wait to take your next dose at the scheduled time. Don’t take a double dose to make up for the one you missed.