Statins and diabetes

As a cholesterol-lowering medication, statins have been proven to be effective at reducing cardiovascular risk, if it is significantly raised.  Rethinking Statins, a program on ABC Radio National's Health Report, discusses emerging suspicions that statins may actually increase the risk of developing diabetes.

Norman Swan interviewed Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow.  Sattar and his colleagues looked at a range of randomised clinical trials and related the risk of diabetes in those who were given a statin versus a placebo.  They found that if you take any statin your risk for diabetes increases about 10% to 12%. For those on a higher dose of statin, the risk increases another 10% to 15%.

But Sattar cautions against people stopping taking statins, "We can use this new evidence in a positive way. When patients are prescribed statins, we would suggest to them that the statin might protect their heart but that doesn't necessarily mean that they can forego lifestyle changes. And in fact, the fact the statins increase diabetes risk ever so slightly suggests that actually they have more reason to take lifestyle seriously and not less."

Listen online, or read the transcript, at the link above.