Study on cholesterol lowering drugs shows risk for type 2 diabetes

West Hartford, Conn (WTNH) - If you're among the millions of Americans who are on statins to lower cholesterol, this latest study could prompt you to call your doctor.

Researchers analyzed a government study of more than a 153 thousand postmenopausal women and found that over a long period of time, there was a higher incidence of developing diabetes among statin users.
    
Patient Eileen Zetoff says,  "Anything that's going to keep my heart healthy is going to prolong my life so to me that outweighs the risk of possibly developing diabetes."
 
Her cardiologist, Dr. Thomas Knox at New England Integrative Health Associates, says the risk for diabetes is relatively small.

Dr. Knox says, "The study cited you have to basically treat almost 500 patients before you see someone develop diabetes. Whereas in that same population the beneficial affects of preventing a heart attack or another stent or another coronary problem is about one in 155 patients treated."
 
But pulmonologist Dr. Michael Teiger, also in the same practice, points out that 50 percent of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol.

Dr. Teiger says,  "There are studies that show it cuts down in cardiovascular disease, cuts down in stroke, but at the same time, the answer may be the inflammation of the vascular system and cholesterol just happens to deposit because of the inflammation. Therefore the proper way to go after the this is to go after the inflammation, and not necessarily lower cholesterol."   

Eileen adds,  "I have a very strong family history of diabetes so it's always something I would watch out for. So I would be just vigilant that I do get it checked out."

More than 20 million prescriptions for statins are written every year. Dr. Teiger says the take-home message is that doctors don't have all the answers but believe statins are the way to go. However with this latest study, they should make those recommendations with caution.