Statin use is linked to a ‘significantly higher risk’ of Type-2 diabetes, decreased insulin sensitivity, and an increase in weight even in a very healthy population.
Many ‘experts’ argue that everyone over 50 should take statins even if that person is healthy. Two research studies suggest that this is dangerous advice.
The first study (1) suggests that even healthy people increase their risk of diabetes, diabetic complications and becoming overweight/obese if given a statin.
Indeed, healthy people almost doubled their risk of diabetes from taking statins. Research from the VA North Texas Health System and the University of Texas Southwestern is very clear.
Researchers followed almost 26,000 people in the military. “In our study, statin use was associated with a significantly higher risk of new-onset diabetes, even in a very healthy population,” said lead author Ishak Mansi. “The risk of diabetes with statins has been known, but up until now it was thought that this might be due to the fact that people who were prescribed statins had greater medical risks to begin with.”
Healthy people taking statins had an 87% increased risk of diabetes. More worrying was that the risk of it being a disease with complications grew 250%.
If you are healthy, you don’t need statins in your life!
Health centres such as the Mayo Clinic claim that the risk is small but even they acknowledge that the risk is ‘important enough’ for the FDA to issue a warning on statin packaging.
In a 2015 study (2) from the University of Eastern Finland, researchers followed 9,000 men aged 45-73, none with diabetes, over a six-year period. One in four of these men was tasking a statin at the start of the study. The health of the men was tracked and, even allowing for other factors, the men taking a statin were 46 per cent more likely to develop Type-2 Diabetes over the 6 years, than non-takers. The higher the statin dose, the more risk of developing diabetes.
Simvastatin and Atorvastatin were the two biggest culprits. High doses linked to a 44 per cent and 37 per cent increased risk respectively.
The researchers found that the statins decreased insulin sensitivity by 24 per cent and insulin secretion by 12 per cent.
Various ‘experts’ concluded that the solution to an individual’s health problems lay in self-management through diet and exercise rather than pills.
Go to: Statins can stimulate Cardiovascular issues!
References:
- Journal of General Internal Medicine; April 28, 2015, Statins and new-onset diabetes; Ishak Mansi et al.
- Diabetologia; 2015 May, 58(5), Henna Cederberg et al.
