A study completed by doctors and researchers from the University of Texas suggests that the consumption of statins for cardiovascular conditions is linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and diabetic complications. The article was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in May 2015.
The study involved a large sample, 25,000, of healthy adults at the University of Texas, including a mix of people that were on statins and people that were not. Their health was tracked over a 10-year period. At the end of the 10 years, researchers found that people that used statins were twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes and two-and-a-half times as likely to develop diabetic complications, according to the Daily Mail.
The link between the use of statins for heart disease and an increased risk for developing diabetes has been noticed by other researchers and doctors in the past. However, this link was not proven conclusively and tended to be attributed to the fact that most people that are typically prescribed statins are people that are at a much higher health risk generally anyway, according to the Sunday Express.
One of the leaders of the study, Ishak Mansi, said: "I am skeptical about the prescribing guidelines for people at lower risk of heart disease. I am concerned about the long-term effect on the huge population of healthy people on these drugs for many years." However, he also cautioned that "no patient should stop taking their statins based on our study, since statin therapy is a cornerstone in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and have been clearly shown to lower mortality and disease progression. Knowing these risks may motivate a patient to quit smoking to lower risk rather than swallowing a tablet, or may motivate a patient to lose weight and exercise," according to Diabetes.co.uk.
