Hey, all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. I'm your host, Eric Christensen.

Always want to remind you guys, go check out real life pharmacology.com. Go ahead and subscribe to our

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signing up for our email list and when we have new podcasts and products and things of that nature.

So definitely go check that out. And let's get into the drug of the day. And we are talking

cholesterol. Brand name of this medication is colestid,

and this medication is classified as a drug that can lower cholesterol levels.

More specifically, its classification is a bile acid sequestrant.

Now, I have talked about colostyramine, I believe, in a previous podcast,

and that mechanism is similar.

So cholesterol binds bile acid in the gut.

And if you remember cholesterol, more specifically LDL and bile acid can essentially

bind up each other or bound together in the gut. So when cholesterol binds up bile acid,

it also can take with it cholesterol and LDL and things of that nature.

And that's ultimately eliminated through the feces and then reabsorption isn't possible back into systemic circulation.

So that's the main mechanism by which it lowers cholesterol there.

Now, in clinical practice, do I see this medication used for cholesterol?

Not very often.

We've got so much better evidence, data, with statin therapy, effectiveness as well.

So in most situations, you're probably going to see a statin first.

You're probably going to see a Zetabib and maybe our higher risk patients, secondary prevention, things like that.

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