Last Updated on March 16, 2024
If you need to buy simvastatin, you will need to make an appointment with your GP or a specialist who can prescribe it for you. They will usually only prescribe simvastatin if other lifestyle changes, such as healthy eating and exercise, have not been effective enough in reducing your cholesterol levels.
Once you have a prescription for simvastatin, you can obtain it from any registered pharmacy in the UK. It’s important to take simvastatin exactly as prescribed by your doctor and to attend regular check-ups to monitor your cholesterol levels and any potential side effects. If you have any concerns or questions about simvastatin, don’t hesitate to discuss them with your doctor or pharmacist.
Ask your pharmacist any questions you might have relating to this medication, especially if it’s new to you. BuyOvertheCounterUK.net gives you the possibility to order affordable simvastatin online and learn more about simvastatin side effects, dosage information and drug interactions.
What is simvastatin?
Simvastatin is an important drug used to treat high cholesterol. It was launched in Germany by Merck Sharp & Dohme and is now found in many medicines. It is generally well tolerated, although muscle pain is a rare side effect of simvastatin. Here you can read all about Simvastatin, its side effects and how to use it.
How does imvastatin works?
The body needs cholesterol to transport fats in the blood. About two-thirds of the body’s cholesterol is produced in the liver, and the other third comes from food. If cholesterol levels are too high, the body’s natural production can be reduced, but it is often necessary to radically change one’s diet.
The production of cholesterol in the liver is a complex process, but effectively cholesterol is made from activated acetic acid, a widespread cell material, in many steps. An important and rate-limiting step in cholesterol biosynthesis depends on a specific enzyme called “HMG-CoA reductase”. It is precisely this step that statins such as simvastatin inhibit – in this way the self-production is reduced and the cholesterol levels in the blood fall (especially the “bad” LDL cholesterol, sometimes even raising the “good” HDL cholesterol).
Simvastatin is rapidly absorbed after oral administration and is converted into its active form by the liver. The maximum effect of simvastatin occurs about one to two hours after ingestion. Because the body produces most cholesterol at night, Simvastatin is usually taken in the evening.
Simvastatin is metabolized mainly in the faeces, with only a small proportion excreted in the urine.
When is simvastatin used?
Simvastatin is mainly used to treat high blood cholesterol (hypercholesterolaemia). Should always try to normalise cholesterol levels non-drug, such as a healthy diet, exercise and weight loss before starting treatment.
Simvastatin is also approved for the prevention of cardiovascular complications in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (such as patients with diabetes) – regardless of the amount of cholesterol in the blood.
In both cases, it is usually used long-term.
How simvastatin is used?
Simvastatin is taken as a tablet, usually once a day in the evening. The dose is set by the doctor but is usually between five and eighty milligrams.
Regular use is important for the success of the treatment because changes in blood cholesterol levels usually take place over a period of weeks. Patients “remember” the effect of cholesterol-lowering directly, although it can be measured in the blood. Unauthorised discontinuation of a cholesterol-lowering drug if an “effect” is noted is not recommended.
Simvastatin is often combined with other drugs, such as the anion exchanger cholestyramine – another cholesterol-lowering drug. Cholestyramine prevents the bile acids released in the intestines to aid digestion from being reabsorbed into the blood. This forces the liver to make new bile acids from cholesterol – lowering cholesterol levels.
What are the side effects of simvastatin?
Side effects from simvastatin are rare (affecting one in a thousand to one in ten thousand people). These include:
- anemia
- nausea, vomiting
- muscle weakness, pain, cramps (especially at high doses of simvastatin)
These are serious side effects and should be discussed immediately with your doctor.
What should I watch for while taking simvastatin?
The use of this medicine in children and adolescents (10 to 17 years of age) should be considered only in special cases and with certain restrictions to be discussed with your doctor. Use in children under ten years of age has not been studied.
Simvastatin should not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women. If breast-feeding is essential, it should be discontinued before starting simvastatin therapy.
As simvastatin is metabolised in part by the enzyme cytochrome 3A4, inhibitors of this enzyme lead to increased levels and thus increased side effects of simvastatin. For this reason, the following drugs should not be used in combination with simvastatin:
- Certain antibiotics: erythromycin, clarithromycin, fusidic
- Certain antifungal (antifungal): ketoconazole, itraconazole, fluconazole
- HIV protease inhibitors (nelfinavir)
Other drugs that should not be combined because of a possible increase in Simvastatin side effects are:
- cyclosporine (in autoimmune diseases and organ transplant)
- gemfibrozil and other fibrates (lipid-lowering)
- heart drugs and calcium channel blockers (amiodarone, verapamil, diltiazem, amlodipine)
You should also avoid drinking grapefruit juice while taking simvastatin. Just one glass of grapefruit juice in the morning will cause your simvastatin levels to be twice as high as usual the following night. This could lead to unexpected side effects.
How to get simvastatin?
Simvastatin is available only on prescription from a pharmacy.
How long has simvastatin been on the market?
After the biosynthesis of cholesterol was elucidated in the early 1950s, it soon became clear that inhibiting key enzymes could produce effective drugs for treating high cholesterol. The first inhibitor of the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, called mevastatin, was isolated from a fungus in Japan in 1976. It was never brought to market. In 1979, scientists at Merck & Co (now MSD Merck Sharp & Dohme) isolated lovastatin from a fungus. In the course of their research, they also developed synthetically modified variants of lovastatin, of which MK-733 (later simvastatin) proved to be therapeutically effective.
