Adding Lipofen to Simvastatin

[Ruthiejb]

I'm a 60-year old woman, non smoker, 5'2", 109 lbs; occasionally drink a glass of white wine; exercise 3-4 days per week.  My medications are Lotrel 5/20, Spironolactone 25 mg. (I was on HCTZ, however, it caused me to have a skin reaction from the sun so my doctor switched to Spironolactone), Simvastatin 10 mg. and Synthroid 50 mcg.  My latest blood test showed my cholesterol has gone up to 209, LDL-C 101, HDL-C 72,Triglycerides 115.  My doctor also did a another test that showed my LDL-P to be 1206,  My doctor wants to add 150 mg Lipofen to my regimen.  I'm hesitant to add another drug at this point especially since my triglycerides and HDL are in the optimal range.  Do you feel adding Lipofen is the best course of treatment?  I would like to trying increasing my Simvastatin dose to 20 mg instead to see if that helps.  Thank you.

[Ruthiejb]

Thank you, Jesus.  I do appreciate the information and I will definitely discuss it with my doctor.

[jrbon]

I am not an expert, and the whole issue of LDLP is still under discussion basically due to the many different methods of measuring  it (NMR seems to be the more accepted).

It seams that if you has been treated with post menopause hormone therapy then LDLP can signal risks not determined by normal LDL levels.

However after what I have read, I tend to agree with your position of increasing the Simvastatin, not because avoiding a new med, but because it seems more effective to reduce LDLP. See this article:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6904/8/10/abstract

I think it is worthwhile to re discuss it with your doctor.

Jesus