The Best Deal: The Lipitor and Atkins Diet Combination

One of the modern miracles in medicine is the development of the statin variety of drugs. Lipitor is the brand name for atorvastatin calcium, which is one of these statin varieties of drugs. Lipitor is one of the more heavily prescribed brands of cholesterol lowering medications today. It is, therefore, not surprising that the combination of Lipitor and the Atkins diet is being considered by many dieticians. For the vast majority of patients on these kinds of medicines, high counts of the unwanted type of cholesterol are a thing of the past. This is important for those who find that their cholesterol numbers increase when they are on the Atkins diet.

One of the more interesting facts about the low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet is that the combination of Lipitor and the Atkins diet is not often needed to keep your cholesterol count under control. It turns out that in many people, the body's own engine seems to take care of the unwanted form of cholesterol, making the use of Lipitor with the Atkins diet perhaps unnecessary. Even so, the efficiency of the combination of Lipitor and an Atkins diet is hard to beat if the Atkins diet is successful in the first place, and the Lipitor is used in a preventative manner.

Cholesterol and Lipitor

There are two types of cholesterol in the body. There is HDL, which is known as "good" cholesterol and LDL which is called the "bad" cholesterol. There has been much conjecture that the Atkins diet promotes formation of LDL, as some dieters tend to consume large amounts of the wrong kinds of fat. The combination of Lipitor and the Atkins diet may help these people. What is important is that your HDL count be strong, as HDL actually works to get rid of LDL. LDL is the form of cholesterol that blocks your arteries and results in strokes. Lipitor actually works to increase the HDL count and decrease the LDL count by modifying the development of certain enzymes in the liver.

There are many who are now considering the use of Lipitor and other similar medicines in a preventive manner, rather than as a cure for high cholesterol. Given the use of Lipitor with the Atkins diet, this preventative approach would make a great deal of sense. In fact, it is hard to see how cholesterol could be a problem at all as long as you can lose weight on the Atkins diet in the first place.

Losing Weight on Atkins

There are hundreds of books that now describe the body's chemical reaction to a diet of fats, proteins and grains. It is clear that most people who faithfully adopt the diet will lose weight and become healthier in general. However, as low cholesterol does not appear to cause any health problems, the combination of Lipitor and the Atkins diet even for successful dieters sounds like common sense.