Lipitor belongs to a group of medications called statins. These drugs reduce the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in your body. LDL cholesterol is also known as “bad” cholesterol, and too much of it in your body can lead to serious health problems.
Statins reduce LDL cholesterol by suppressing a certain enzyme in the liver that’s responsible for LDL production. This helps prevent heart problems, such as coronary heart disease, chest pain, stroke, and heart attack.
Lipitor stays in your system for about 3 days. This is based on Lipitor’s half-life, which is around 14 hours. The half-life of a drug is the average amount of time that it takes for the body to eliminate half of the initial dose from the system. It takes about five half-lives for a drug to leave your body completely.