You have been prescribed Crestor because:

• You have a high cholesterol level. This means you are at risk from a heart attack or stroke. Crestor is used in adults, adolescents and children 6 years or older to treat high cholesterol.
• You have been advised to take a statin, because changing your diet and doing more exercise were not enough to correct your cholesterol levels. You should continue with your cholesterol-lowering diet and exercise while you are taking Crestor.

Or

• You have other factors that increase your risk of having a heart attack, stroke or related health problems.

Heart attack, stroke and other problems can be caused by a disease called atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is due to build-up of fatty deposits in your arteries.

Why it is important to keep taking Crestor

Crestor is used to correct the levels of fatty substances in the blood called lipids, the most common of which is cholesterol.

There are different types of cholesterol found in the blood – ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL-C) and ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL-C).

• Crestor can reduce the ‘bad’ cholesterol and increase the ‘good’ cholesterol.
• It works by helping to block your body’s production of ‘bad’ cholesterol. It also improves your body’s ability to remove it from your blood.

For most people, high cholesterol does not affect the way they feel because it does not produce any symptoms. However, if it is left untreated, fatty deposits can build up in the walls of your blood vessels causing them to narrow.

Sometimes, these narrowed blood vessels can get blocked which can cut off the blood supply to the heart or brain leading to a heart attack or a stroke. By lowering your cholesterol levels, you can reduce your risk of having a heart attack, a stroke or related health problems.

You need to keep taking Crestor, even if it has got your cholesterol to the right level, because it prevents your cholesterol levels from creeping up again and causing build-up of fatty deposits. However, you should stop if your doctor tells you to do so, or you have become pregnant.