Results After the Latest Addition to My Combined-Drug Therapy

I wanted to follow up on a couple of blog posts that I have published recently. In June, my cardiologist thought it would be a good idea to add one more drug to my cholesterol lowering regimen. I talk about that decision in this entry (https://livingwithfh.blogspot.com/2020/06/how-hard-is-it-to-manage-my-hofh.html). Up to that point, I had been on 80 mg/ day of Lipitor, 10 mg/ day of Zetia and 150 ml/ twice a month of Praluent (injectable).

Since June, he added 180 mg/ day of Nexletol (or Bempedoic Acid). This month, he repeated the lipid panel and the results are listed below.

As you can see, the drop in LDL cholesterol is fairly dramatic, for me. I have not had my appointment with my cardiologist yet, I have just gotten the results for the tests, so we have not discussed in detail what it all means. The appointment is in a couple of weeks yet. However, I do know that although my LDL and total cholesterol levels are within limits that are considered normal for healthy people, because of my history and my underlying disease, my targets are much lower. Ideally, several specialists I have seen and whose school of thought I have followed over the years, consider that my target level for LDL cholesterol should be 70 at the most. They say that a level around 30-40 mg/dl would be ideal. So, as you can see, I have a long way to go. Honestly, I don’t have too much hope that with what I know is on the market now I will be able to reach those lowest levels.

I am, however, happy with this new result, as lower can only mean better for cholesterol and less disease for my arteries, in general.

If you are curious to see if Nexletol added any side effects to my life, I have talked about them in this entry (https://livingwithfh.blogspot.com/2020/07/personal-side-effects-of-bempedoic-acid.html).

The “lesson”, if you will, of the journey with Homozygous FH, and sometimes with Heterozygous FH, too, is that at times one drug might not be the silver bullet for lowering and managing the cholesterol numbers. You might need to explore a combination of drugs and that combination is always as unique as every one of us. What I have found is that I tried different drugs and only this very combination of these four drugs in these dosages seem to do the most work to lower my numbers.

Good luck in finding that sweet spot to all of you. I hope it happens quickly and with minimal side effects and inconveniences.

Much health to all!