HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE: Statin use is associated with an increased risk of type two diabetes, which increases with longer duration of use

The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Saturday 26 July 2014

Statin use is associated with an increased risk of type two diabetes, which increases with longer duration of use

2014 Jul 15;14(1):85

Study title and authors:

Statins and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: cohort study using the UK clinical practice pesearch datalink.

Macedo AF, Douglas I, Smeeth L, Forbes H, Ebrahim S.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25022519

This study aimed to assess the effect of statins on type two diabetes development. The study comprised of 2,016,094 individuals, including 430,890 people who received a statin, matched to 1,585,204 people not prescribed a statin.

The study found:
(a) Statin users had a 57% increased risk of developing diabetes compared to non-users.
(b) The risk of developing diabetes increased with longer duration of statin use:
(b1) Those who were followed for one to three years had a 22% increased risk of diabetes.
(b2) Those who were followed for 15 to 20 years had a 263% increased risk of diabetes.

Macedo concluded: "Statin use is associated with an increased risk of T2DM (type two diabetes), which increases with longer duration of use".