Short-Term Side Effects

Users of Crestor may experience side effects like abdominal pain, drowsiness, dark urine, confusion, blurred vision, fever and headache. There is also a risk that users may suffer from memory problems, muscle aches, swelling, nausea, weakness, muscle pain and sudden weight gain.

Long-Term Side Effects

The chronic use of Crestor can result to long term side effects. Some users also profess having cough, dry or sore throat, headache, runny nose, tender glands in the neck, difficulty in swallowing and changes in voice quality. Others also say they had difficulties in sleeping or insomnia and nightmares.

How It Works

To better understand how Crestor works, it is important to know what bad cholesterol is. Low density lipoprotein or LDL is so-called the bad cholesterol. If the amount of LDL in the body is more than the cells can use, an accumulation of bad cholesterol occurs that can raise the chances of arterial disease. The human blood has about 70% LDL. Crestor prevents LDL production by working on the HMG-CoA reductase. This is an enzyme that plays an important role in cholesterol production. By doing so, Crestor helps lower the risks of coronary artery diseases and other cardiovascular ailments like stroke and heart attack. Likewise, Crestor helps in raising the levels of the good cholesterol or high density lipoprotein (HDL). This cholesterol safeguards the body against arterial disease as it removes cholesterol away from the cells and pushes it back to the liver.

Interactions

Certain drugs may decrease the effectiveness of Crestor such as cyclosporine and gemfibrozil. Drugs with niacin as well as anti-HIV properties like atazanavir and ritonavir may also interact negatively with Crestor.

Generic Alternatives

If Crestor is not available or is not appropriate for a user, other medications may be prescribed by the doctor like Lipitor, Lescol, Mevacor, Livalo, Pravachol and Zocor.