Pravachol Dosing

The dose of Pravachol® (pravastatin sodium) your healthcare provider recommends will vary, depending on a number of factors, including:
* Your age
* The medical condition you are being treated for
* Other medical conditions you may have
* Other medications you may be currently taking (see Pravachol Drug Interactions)
* Your cholesterol goal.

As is always the case, do not adjust your dosage unless your healthcare provider specifically tells you to do so.]

Dosage of Pravachol for High Cholesterol

The recommended starting Pravachol dose for most people with
high cholesterol is Pravachol 40 mg once a day, taken at any time during the day.
After several weeks, your healthcare provider will recommend that you return to recheck your cholesterol levels. If you have not reached your cholesterol goal at this time, your healthcare provider may choose to increase your Pravachol dosage. The dosage can also be decreased if Pravachol side effects occur. The maximum recommended daily dose of is 80 mg.
If you take cyclosporine (Gengraf®, Neoral®, Sandimmune®) or have significant kidney or liver disease, your healthcare provider may choose to start you on a lower dose, such as Pravachol 10 mg daily.

Pravachol Medicine Side Effects

Pravachol is a cholesterol-lowering drug. The doctor may prescribe it along with a cholesterol-lowering diet if your blood cholesterol level is dangerously high and you have not been able to lower it by diet alone.

High cholesterol can lead to heart problems. By lowering your cholesterol, Pravachol improves your chances of avoiding a heart attack, heart surgery, and death from heart disease. In people who already have hardening of the arteries, it slows progression of the disease and cuts the risk of acute attacks.

The drug works by helping to clear harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol out of the blood and by limiting the body's ability to form new LDL cholesterol. For people at high risk of heart disease, current guidelines call for considering drug therapy when LDL levels reach 130. For people at lower risk, the cut-off is 160. For those at little or no risk, it's 190.

Pravachol can also be prescribed for children ages 8 and older when diet alone fails to lower their cholesterol levels.

Pravachol is usually prescribed only if diet, exercise, and weight-loss fail to bring your cholesterol levels under control. It's important to remember that Pravachol is a supplement—not a substitute—for those other measures. To get the full benefit of the medicine, you need to stick to the diet and exercise program prescribed by your doctor. All these efforts to keep your cholesterol levels normal are important because together they may lower your risk of heart disease.

For an even greater cholesterol-lowering effect, your doctor may prescribe Pravachol along with a different kind of lipid-lowering drug such as Questran or Colestid. However, you must not take Pravachol at the same time of day as the other cholesterol-lowering drug. Take Pravachol at least 1 hour before or 4 hours after taking the other drug.

Pravachol should be taken once daily. You may take it anytime, with or without food.

Your doctor will probably do blood tests for cholesterol levels every 4 weeks to determine the effectiveness of the dose.

• If you miss a dose...
  Take the forgotten dose as soon as you remember. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the one you missed and go back to your regular schedule. Do not take a double dose.

• Storage instructions...
  Store at room temperature, in a tightly closed container, away from moisture and light.

Do not take Pravachol if you are sensitive or have ever had an allergic reaction to it.

Do not take Pravachol if you have liver disease