When unhealthy cholesterol hits very high levels, patients might take a statin medication to help reduce those levels. For those who don’t respond well to this treatment, a lower-intensity statin with another medication may help.

Osteoarthritis and high cholesterol may seem like totally unrelated conditions. But as it turns out, the same medicines that lower cholesterol may also help prevent osteoarthritis. 

Some medications used to treat high cholesterol, like Lipitor or Caduet , were linked to some cases of myopathy , a muscle wasting disease.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have announced they will no longer recommend regular liver enzyme testing for patients taking one of several popular cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor ( atorvastatin ).

Strokes are tough to predict, much less prevent. Cholesterol lowering drugs known as statins may be effective in preventing a second stroke among younger people.