Colesevelam
Colesevelam is used in adults along with diet, weight loss, and exercise to reduce the amount of cholesterol and certain fatty substances in the blood alone or in combination with other cholesterol-lowering medications known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins). Colesevelam is also used alone or in combination with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors in certain boys and in girls, ages 10 to 17, with familial heterozygous hypercholesterolemia (an inherited condition in which cholesterol cannot be removed from the body normally) to decrease the amount of cholesterol and other fatty substances in the blood. Colesevelam is also used along with diet and exercise to control blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes (condition in which the body does not use insulin normally and therefore cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood). Colesevelam is in a class of medications called bile acid sequestrants. It works by binding bile acids in your intestines to form a product that is removed from the body.
Bile acids are made when cholesterol is broken down in your body. Removing these bile acids helps to lower your blood cholesterol. Accumulation of cholesterol and fats along the walls of your arteries (a process known as atherosclerosis) decreases blood flow and, therefore, the oxygen supply to your heart, brain, and other parts of your body. Lowering your blood level of cholesterol and fats may help prevent heart disease, angina (chest pain), strokes, and heart attacks.
🔔 How should this medicine be used?
Colesevelam comes as a tablet, in a chewable bar, and as a powder to be mixed with a liquid to take by mouth. The tablets are usually taken once or twice a day with meals and a beverage. The chewable bars and the powder are usually taken once a day with a meal. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Take colesevelam exactly as directed. Do not take more or less of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor.
If you are taking the powder for oral suspension, empty the entire contents of 1 packet into a glass. Add 8 ounces of water, fruit juice, or a diet soft drink. Stir well and drink the entire contents of the glass. It is normal for the contents to appear cloudy and not fully dissolve. Do not take the powder in its dry form.
If you are taking the chewable bars, you should know that the chewable bars contain 80 calories per bar.
Colesevelam controls your condition but does not cure it. Continue to take colesevelam even if you feel well. Do not stop taking colesevelam without talking to your doctor.
Despite the arguments of political opponents to the contrary, premium increases had been going on for decades before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In fact, the average rate of yearly premium increases decreased after the law was passed in 2010, according to Forbes.
