[flatfoot]

I have high cholesterol and currently take 1200mgs of Fish Oil and 40mgs of Lipitor. Bloodwork came back that even though cholesterol has come down 40pts. and needs to come down more, my triglycerides are very high.
She said she wants to up my Lipitor or put me on Tricor.

Will I need to keep taking Lipitor and/or fish oil if taking Tricor?
Or would one be eliminated?

Thank you

[pharmstud(ent)]

I assume your doctor already know this but while lipitor 40 mg drops your LDL about 50% (and drop triglycerides 7-30%), fish oil will drop your triglycerides 40-50% BUT CAN increase your LDL by as much as 30-40% offsetting a lot of your lipitor effects. SO the question is what levels are high, if it is just LDL then you should not be on fish oil. If triglycerides and LDL are high then it somewhat depends how high each one is. It would be POSSIBLE to be only on tricor if your LDL is not too terribly high. I would not really recommend fish oil unless very specific cases where you need a big drop in triglycerides and can afford sacrificing your LDL levels and other alternatives are not possible. Lipitor 80 mg will drop your LDL levels 60%. You would have to do a calculation to figure out your LDL % reduction and from that you can know what strength of lipitor. Your question is very hard to give exact answer without knowing more information and what your doctor's personal opinion is on the matter.

[flatfoot]

Good Morning and Thank you for your reply.

When first diagnosed with high cholesterol it was 383.
All of my siblings and some nieces and nephews have high cholesterol.
We inherited from my father who at age 44, passed away. That was in 1971
Okay, my last lipid panel(just last week)came back as follows
Total Cholesterol,,,,,,,244
Triglycerides,,,,,,,,,,,,,274
HDL Cholesterol,,,,,,,,,,47
VLDL Cholesterol Cal,,,,55
LDL Cholesterol Calc,,,142

Obviously everything is high, especially my Triglycerides. I know the range and where it SHOULD be.
Do I drink alcohol? Yes. Daily? No. Weekend drinker and not every weekend.

Does this information help you?
I like being able to speak to someone daily instead of having to make an appointment to go over these numbers.
Her note to me on front page is just.........Lipitor to 80mgs and consider Tricor tor triglycerides. Let me know what you want to do.

Again, Thank you so much