Anyway, here is the latest story about statins:
“High doses of statins could increase risk of diabetes,” the Daily Mail reported. The newspaper said that people taking intensive courses of statins, the cholesterol-lowering medicines, are 12% more likely to get the disease.
These findings come from a review that combined the results of previous trials to compare the effects of intensive-dose statins with moderate-dose statins. It found that the risk of diabetes was higher in people given the intensive dose, with one extra case of diabetes expected for each 498 people treated in this way for one year. However, they claim, the intensive regime would also be expected to prevent an additional three people from having a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke.
This research provides an illustration of the balance of benefits and risks that exists with any drug. In this case, doctors need to weigh the circumstances of each patient, assessing whether the reduced risk of cardiovascular events with intensive statin therapy is worth the additional risk of diabetes. Unfortunately doctors only look to drugs for answers. If they looked at real food and exercise they would learn that much better results can be obtained without the dangerous side effects of drugs.
As the Mail importantly noted, people should not stop taking their statins because of this research.
But it would be a good idea to talk to your doctor about it, and make sure that he is up to speed on cholesterol research. Cholesterol does not cause heart problems. But statin drugs can cause all kinds of problems.
Remember that cholesterol doesn't cause problems in the body unless it becomes oxidized. Whether your cholesterol levels are high or low makes no difference. The best way to make sure that the cholesterol in your body doesn't get oxidized is to exercise, eat whole natural foods and eliminate added sugars, sweeteners, and oils that easily go rancid. Also a whole apple a day has been shown to reduce the bodies need for producing cholesterol because it protects cholesterol from oxidation.
What the researchers failed to mention:
- General population increases in diabetes aprox. 10% in 20 years, statin users aprox. 8.4% in less than 5 years.
- General population heart attack and stroke aprox. 0.35% per year, statin users aprox 20.4% in 4.9 years.
- Statins are well known for causing long term muscle weakening.
- Diabetes is a major cause of heart attack and stroke.
High-dose statins 'increase Type 2 diabetes risk'. The Daily Telegraph, June 22 2011
High doses of statins could increase risk of diabetes. Daily Mail, June 22 2011
Cheaper statins on NHS can put patients in danger. Daily Express, June 22 2011
Links To Science
Preiss D, Kondapally Seshasai SR, Welsh P et al. Risk of Incident Diabetes With Intensive-Dose Compared With Moderate-Dose Statin Therapy. A Meta-analysis. JAMA. 2011;305(24):2556-2564
