The pharmaceutical industry has long been criticized for its supposed ineffectiveness and loyalty to powerful commercial interests in the medical field. These criticisms may or may not be deserved, but the important thing to note is that all medications have side effects, no matter what they are designed to treat. Common side effects include symptoms like a headache, nausea, and other mild afflictions. Some side effects cross the border into the ridiculous; for example, a prescription drug designed to treat constipation had constipation as one of its potential side effects. Regardless of the relief prescription medication intends to bring, there is not a single drug that escapes the side effect problem.

Medication is prescribed for all manner of diseases and/or symptoms of diseases. Heart problems, for instance, are one of the biggest categories for which drugs are usually prescribed by a doctor. The prevailing wisdom in the medical community today is that high levels of cholesterol, a universal product of the body’s metabolism, contributes and in some cases directly causes heart disease, such as strokes and heart attacks. Many medications have been produced and marketed as lowering cholesterol. One example of this class is Lovastatin. Like all drugs, however, Lovastatin also has side effects.

Lovastatin works by artificially blocking the production of an enzyme needed for the liver to manufacture cholesterol. According to the medical community, there are two types of cholesterol: LDL (the