Health Articles

Statins Increase Risk of Diabetes

by Heidi Stevenson

17 February 2010

A Glasgow metastudy has documented that statins increase the risk of diabetes by 8.5 percent. Then, in a conclusion based on magical thinking, the authors state that that "it isn't a worrying increase" and recommend that no changes be made in statin prescriptions.

The study, "Statins and risk of incident diabetes: a collaborative meta-analysis of randomised statin trials", was published in The Lancet today. It's a meta analysis of 13 statin studies, each with at least 1,000 patients involved and at least one year of follow up. Of 91,140 patients, 4,278 developed diabetes. Of these, 2,226 took statins and 2,052 did not. That's 8.5% more cases of diabetes in statin takers. The study did not address whether longer term statin use equates with greater risk of diabetes.

In a statement minimizing the diabetes risk and drastically overstating the benefits of statins, the study's co-lead, Dr. David Preiss of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, stated:

We found that there was indeed a risk of diabetes, about 9%, but it isn't a worrying increase as had been suggested by other studies. Then again, it wasn't a completely flat result. We did see something.

Our message would be that people on statins should be those we think are at moderate to high cardiovascular risk in the future. If you look at that group of patients, then what we really want to see come out of the study is a reassuring message, because there is little question that the protective effects in reducing heart attacks, strokes, and so on heavily outweigh this risk of developing diabetes.

The overall situation regarding modern medicine's aggressive use of statins in people who can't be helped by them—even in people who are healthy and merely defined as being at risk—is inadvertently demonstrated by the study's own comments. It acknowledged that potential risk of diabetes has been documented before, though inconsistently.

That being the case, one would think that diabetes would be listed as a potential adverse effect. So, I checked Medscape, a usually reliable source of information on adverse effects from pharmaceuticals, for the most commonly prescribed statins: rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, fluvastatin, and lovastatin. Not one of them included diabetes as a potentially adverse effect!

Anyone who takes statins is at increased risk of diabetes, and therefore is also increasing their risk of heart disease, not to mention the other problems they may develop from diabetes. It's obvious, yet the authors of the study are being lauded for the "responsible" conclusion that patients should not stop taking statins, and that doctors should not change their statin prescribing practices. Just how bad do the results need to be before doctors back off on prescribing statins so routinely?

The study concludes:

Clinical practice in patients with moderate or high cardiovascular risk or existing cardiovascular disease should not change.

...if you give high dose statins to half the population and this prevents death from CV disease……so what, if all you have done is to change what is written on the death certificate, not the date.

With the exception of men—never women—who have already had heart attacks, there is no benefit in taking statins. Life is not extended. Yet, in the face of studies documenting a significant risk of diabetes, with its resultant increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the medical profession continues to promote statins. Even in the face of evidence of harm, as inThe Lancet study published today, not one whit of consideration is given to even slowing their use.

Who benefits? Obviously, not most of the people who are taking them. How many doctors keep patients coming back to their offices? How much are they making from the prescription of statins? And then consider Big Pharma. Statins are a blockbuster drug, bringing literally billions of dollars into their pockets.