← All medications

Pravastatin

Medication statin heart & blood pressure
Aka: Pravachol
Brands seen in Singapore: Apo-Pravastatin
Not medical advice. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before you start, stop or change the timing of anything you take.
How to use
What it’s for
Prescribed for high cholesterol — a doctor decides
When to take
NHS: once a day, usually in the evening; food optional
Take with
Water · HealthHub: red yeast rice raises side-effect risk
Pros & cons
Pros
  • HealthHub: may reduce heart attack and stroke risk
  • NHS: once a day, with or without food
  • NHS: usually taken long term, sometimes for life
Cons
  • NHS: headache, dizziness, nausea, muscle aches
  • NHS: rare liver, pancreas or muscle damage
  • NHS: not recommended during pregnancy
Sources
  1. HSA — Listing of Registered Therapeutic Products (data.gov.sg open dataset, 5,511 rows, cached in full and filtered locally) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “All 3 registered pravastatin products carry Forensicclassification 'Prescription Only' — SIN12671P APO-PRAVASTATIN TABLET 10 mg · SIN12670P APO-PRAVASTATIN TABLET 20 mg · SIN14508P PRAVAFEN (fenofibrate 160mg + pravastatin 40mg). No PRAVACHOL row exists.”
  2. NHS Medicines A-Z — Pravastatin: what pravastatin is for · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Pravastatin is a medicine used to treat high cholesterol and prevent heart attacks and strokes. It's only available with a prescription … a type of cholesterol-lowering medicine called a statin.”
  3. NHS Medicines A-Z — Pravastatin: how to take pravastatin · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “try to take it at the same time each day – usually in the evening; you can take it with or without food … You usually need to take pravastatin for a long time, sometimes for life.”
  4. NHS Medicines A-Z — Pravastatin: side effects · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Common side effects of pravastatin include: headache; dizziness; feeling sick (nausea); digestive problems … muscle aches; sleep problems … Possible serious side effects … hepatitis … acute pancreatitis … damage to the muscles”
  5. NHS Medicines A-Z — Pravastatin: who can and cannot take it, and pregnancy · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “you have liver or kidney problems; you have an underactive thyroid … myasthenia gravis; you've had a bleed in the brain; you regularly drink a lot of alcohol … Pravastatin is not recommended during pregnancy”
  6. NHS Medicines A-Z — Taking pravastatin with other medicines, food and drink · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “fibrates such as bezafibrate; some antifungal medicines, such as itraconazole or fluconazole; some antibiotics such as fusidic acid, erythromycin or clarithromycin; medicines for viral infections including HIV and hepatitis C; ciclosporin … colchicine … rifampicin”
  7. NHS Medicines A-Z — Pravastatin: food, drink and alcohol · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “You can eat as normal while taking pravastatin. Try to limit how much alcohol you drink while taking pravastatin, as it can increase the risk of side effects like liver problems.”
  8. HealthHub (Singapore) — Pravastatin: what is this medication for · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Statins lower the amount of 'bad cholesterol' … High 'bad cholesterol' levels can cause your blood vessels to clog up … Hence, statins may reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke.”
  9. HealthHub — Pravastatin: what food or medication should I avoid · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Avoid taking a supplement called red yeast rice as this supplement may increase the risk of side-effects. Avoid or limit drinking alcohol to less than 3 drinks a day … Warfarin … clarithromycin, erythromycin … itraconazole, ketoconazole”
  10. US FDA label for pravastatin sodium tablets, section 2 Dosage and Administration, via openFDA (Preferred Pharmaceuticals, effective 2026-08-17) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “The recommended starting dosage is pravastatin sodium tablets 40 mg to 80 mg once daily … For patients … unable to achieve their LDL-C goal receiving pravastatin sodium tablets 80 mg daily, prescribe alternative LDL-C-lowering treatment.”
  11. US FDA label for pravastatin sodium tablets, sections 2.4 Renal Impairment and 2.5 Drug Interactions, via openFDA · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “The maximum recommended dosage of pravastatin sodium tablets in patients with severe renal impairment is 40 mg once daily … The maximum recommended dosage of pravastatin sodium tablets in patients taking cyclosporine is 20 mg once daily.”
Report a correction View as JSON

Updated 2026-08-29. Every line above traces to a numbered source. Kozen-X is not a medical device and does not give medical advice. It lists what published sources have written down — nothing more. A pair not listed is unrecorded, not cleared. Before you start, stop or re-time anything, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.