Diseases that affect your liver can also change how your body responds to different medications. Gilbert's syndrome is a genetic problem with the liver that can cause problems if you take certain medications, but it does not appear to interact with any cholesterol lowering drugs. However, be sure to let your doctor know about any health problems before taking cholesterol lowering medications.
Gilbert's Syndrome
Gilbert's syndrome is a congenital disorder that affects the liver. If you have Gilbert's syndrome, your liver has a hard time breaking down the protein bilirubin. Bilirubin is a protein that is found in red blood cells and is released when these cells die. Patients with Gilbert's syndrome have elevated bilirubin levels in their blood, resulting in yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes, also known as jaundice.
Cholesterol Lowering Medications
Your liver is responsible for making cholesterol and it also plays a key role in regulating the levels of the fats in your blood. Because of this, many drugs that lower cholesterol target the liver. For example, one class of cholesterol-lowering medications, known as statins, inhibit the liver's ability to make cholesterol. Niacin or nicotinic acid, which increases HDL cholesterol, also affects the liver. One danger of these medications is that they can cause liver damage.
Gilbert's and Drug Interactions
If you have Gilbert's disease, some medications may not be safe for you to take. For example, irinotecan and indinavir, medications used for chemotherapy and HIV, respectively, are not safe for people with Gilbert's disease. Gilbert's disease can also be dangerous if you consume certain combinations of cholesterol-lowering medications. Statins are a commonly used cholesterol-lowering medication. Gilbert's disease does not significantly increase the toxicity of statins when these drugs are taken alone. However, if statins are taken with the medication gemfibrozil, the effects of statins increases significantly, resulting in an increased risk of toxicity.
Considerations
Although Gilbert's syndrome does not directly affect cholesterol lowering medications, it can be dangerous to take medications that are potentially toxic to the liver if you have Gilbert's syndrome. One of the earliest signs of liver damage due to statins or niacin is jaundice. Since people with Gilbert's syndrome are chronically jaundiced, they may not notice this early sign of liver damage, potentially resulting in more advanced liver disease.
