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| Statins, Diabetes - and Metabolic Syndrome |
| Richard N. Fogoros, M.D. - About.com |
| 3/16/2010 |
| You may have read reports in the press that statin drugs have been linked to the development of type II diabetes. Do statin drugs really make diabetes more likely? And if they do, how big is this risk? These questions seem particularly important in view of the fact that, recently, FDA-approved indications for using statin drugs have been greatly expanded. Statins are now recommended not only in people with elevated cholesterol levels whether or not they have known heart disease, but also in certain people who don't even have an elevation in cholesterol levels. This broadened usage of statin drugs is based on well-conducted, randomized clinical trials showing that, in appropriately selected patients, statins can produce a significant reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and the need for coronary artery revascularization procedures (i.e., stents or bypass surgery). One potentially disturbing "signal" that has been seen in some of these clinical trials, however, is the finding that patients randomized to statin drugs may have had a somewhat higher risk of developing type II diabetes. In particular, this finding was noted in the well-known JUPITER trial, the trial that recently led the FDA to approve the statin drug Crestor for patients with elevated CRP levels. To try to assess the magnitude and importance of an increase in diabetes in statin-treated individuals, investigators from Glasgow, Scotland, performed a meta-analysis that considered 13 statin studies that had each enrolled at least 1000 patients, and had followed them for at least one year. They concluded that there was indeed an increase in diabetes among statin-treated patients. However, they further concluded that the increase was small (one additional case of diabetes for every 250 people treated for four years), and that the benefits of statins (which include reduced mortality, reduced strokes, reduced heart attacks, and reduced need for stents or bypass surgery) considerably outweighed the increase in diabetes. The authors state that the small increase in diabetes should not change present indications for statin therapy. ... Click here for full article |
| Additional Information: http://heartdisease.about.com/od/statindrugs/a/statins_diabetes.htm |