A Cholesterol Lowering Drug – Crestor

Cholesterol occurs naturally in human body ant is needed by people to live a life. However, excessive cholesterol is bad for the human body as the body absorbs it, this leading to various heart ailments. High cholesterol has affected the life of many Americans and is considered as a common problem of the society. There are many causes of high cholesterol like hereditary, irregular exercise and choices of life style. Therefore, many drugs for lowering the cholesterol are easily available in the market.

Crestor is one of the new drugs used for treating cholesterol. Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi developed Crestor. In April 1998, an International pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca was given the license to manufacture Crestor. FDA approved the Crestor for market5 use in August 2003. Many clinical trials have conducted to prove the effectiveness of Crestor in raising HDL-C (‘good’ cholesterol) and decreasing LDL-C (‘bad’ cholesterol).

Crestor belongs to a class of drugs called Statins. Statin works by blocking an enzyme in the body that synthesizes cholesterol. Almost all statins carry a risk of a dangerous condition called Rhabdomyolysis including Crestor.

Rhabdomyolysis is a condition in which muscle fibers breakdown and releases the toxic cells intro the blood stream. Sometimes Rhabdomyolysis may lead to kidney failure and damage of other organs.

Following are the symptoms of Rhabdomyolysis:

• Nausea
• Fever
• Tenderness, weakness and muscle pain
• Dark urine
• Vomiting
• Malaise or a feeling of sickness.

Pain may occur either in particular muscles or in the entire body. Other side effects linked to the use of Crestor are pale colored stools, yellowing of the eyes or skin, fatigue and flu like symptoms. These are the early symptoms of kidney failure, liver damage or kidney damage.

Due to the severe side effects related with the use of Crestor and other statin drugs, FDA has issued new warnings for Crestor.