Who Is Vytorin: Helpful Or Harmful?

Vytorin is a prescription drug that helps with reducing the amount of “bad” cholesterol, known as low density lipoproteins, absorbed by your body with a combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin (Vytorin). The advertisement has pictures of food on the left side and then a picture of a person who looks like the food on the right side which is supposed to represent people in your family (G). They do this in order to show the two main causes of increased cholesterol. By the end of the commercial you don’t really remember anything about the drug except that it is supposed to lower cholesterol and they used strange pictures. While they are saying things such as “from that pie, creamy banana, and your mom Julliana”, they speak extremely slowly, but while they are talking about the possible side effects and who wouldn’t take this prescription they speak a lot faster. It does let you know that you should inform your …show more content…
They failed to mention the common adverse reactions which include headache, upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, and that you can’t drink grapefruit juice while on this medication which people with bad cholesterol tend to drink (Vytorin). The only negative thing that the ad informs you of is that it isn’t for people with liver problems or for people who are nursing, pregnant, or trying to become pregnant (G). The visual message doesn’t at all match the reality of the medication because all that it shows is pictures of food and pictures of people who look like the food. They failed to mention that it can increase the risk of rhabdomyolysis especially within the first year of taking this prescription and the fact that women 65 or older are more predisposed to it (Vytorin). I feel as if this information will helpful in my role as a nurse because it will make me extra cautious to make sure that I tell my patients all of the risks that come with each prescription that they are prescribed or already