Zocor is a cholesterol-lowering medication doctors prescribe in combination with dietary and lifestyle changes to help reduce your cholesterol levels and lower your risk of heart disease. As with any medication, side effects accompany Zocor, some more serious than others. Liver damage from increased liver enzymes is one such side effect.
Zocor
Zocor belongs to a class of drugs known as statins. These drugs are the primary choice for lowering your low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol. For most people, these drugs are highly effective and produce few, if any, side effects. This drug works by blocking a liver enzyme responsible for producing cholesterol, ultimately slowing its production. Drugs.com recommends telling your doctor if you have liver disease or drink more than two alcoholic beverages per day. This may increase the risk of the drug increasing your liver enzymes and causing permanent liver damage.
Liver Enzymes
Liver enzymes are special protein cells in the liver that trigger activity within your body's cells while maintaining certain metabolic processes in your liver. This includes the breakdown of protein, which your body needs to fight infection. When liver enzymes are high, which is a sign of possible liver damage, the enzymes leak into your bloodstream and are then able to be detected by a liver function test.
Detecting and Preventing
When taking a statin like Zocor, your doctor will perform a liver function blood test six weeks after starting the medication. If all is well, tests are performed annually following the first. However, your doctor may continue to test regularly depending on how high your enzymes are. If they remain elevated, your physician may try lowering your dose, or place you on another cholesterol medication. Arthur Schoenstadt, M.D., of eMedTV, explains that increased liver enzymes is a rare side effect of Zocor, occurring in approximately 1 percent of patients who take it. Your risk may increase if you take a gemofibrozil -- a fibrate -- in combination with your statin.
Possible Symptoms
In most cases, liver damage develops without any symptoms. If you take Zocor or any other statin and experience the following, tell your doctor immediately: nausea, vomiting, brown or dark urine, feeling more tired than usual, stomach pain, and yellow skin or yellowing of the white area of your eyes.
