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Home arrow Endocrine arrow Diabetes arrow Can Statins Cause Diabetes?
Can Statins Cause Diabetes?

 Statins (also known as ‘HMG CoA reductase inhibitors’) work by helping to prevent cholesterol from being made in the body.  By doing so, statins may lower your risk of heart attack and possibly even stroke. Statins are currently the mainstay for cholesterol management in people with high cholesterol. Statins work so well at lowering cholesterol, at one point it was even wondered by some if statins should be taken by those without cholesterol problems, like a vitamin, to prevent future cholesterol problems.


Given the enthusiasm over statins, the findings of a new trial were much unexpected.  The new trial called the JUPITER trial suggests that patients taking statins develop diabetes more often than patients who do not. What does this mean? Experts are not yet sure. Other data has shown that statins do not increase the risk of diabetes and may even lower it.


Until more study on the matter is complete, experts say not to worry about the findings of this one trial because there is plenty of data to show that taking statins do not increase the risk of diabetes and can lower the risk of cardiovascular events by as much as 50%. With numbers like this, the benefits far-outweigh the risks for taking the medication in most people.

 

Author: Christi Larson, Pharm. D.

Dr. Larson is a Clinical Infusion Pharmacist, author of Empowered Medicine; A Guide for Consumers and creator of www.empoweredmedicine.com. You can read more about her by visiting www.EmpoweredMedicine.com and clicking on the 'About Us' tab.  EmpoweredMedicine.com is committed to providing evidence-based medical information.