The Latest Guidelines on Statins for High Cholesterol

The FDA’s advice to patients and healthcare professionals include:

• a warning that statins may cause cognitive impairment. These issues include memory loss, confusion, and forgetfulness.
• a notice that routine liver enzyme monitoring is no longer necessary. Liver enzyme tests were used for decades as a way to catch potential liver damage. However, the FDA has found that these checks are not effective. The new recommendation: doctors should perform a liver enzyme test before statin use begins. Then patients should be checked again if symptoms of liver damage appear.
• a warning that people taking statins may experience increased blood sugar levels and may develop type 2 diabetes. People taking statins should have their blood-sugar levels checked regularly.
• a warning that patients taking lovastatin, a type of statin medication, are at risk for muscle damage. Patients taking this type of medicine should be aware of this possible drug interaction.