Statin Use Linked with Onset of Diabetes Type -2

Statins may be the most popular medication against heart problems, but their use can increase the risk of developing diabetes, a new study says. The risk of diabetes is higher for people who use atorvastatin and simvastatin.

Statins are known to help against heart disease and stroke by lowering the levels of LDL or bad cholesterol in the body.  In the U.S., some 30 million people use the drug and it has made over $19 billion in domestic sales.

The present study is based on data available from 1.5 million people living in Ontario, Canada, where researchers tried to find the association between statin use and onset of diabetes type-2. All the participants were aged 66 years or above and were on statin therapy between 1997 and 2010.

Study results showed that patients treated with atorvastatin had a 22 percent increased risk of diabetes type-2 while those on rosuvastatin had 18 percent risk and those on simvastatin had a ten percent risk of developing the condition when compared with pravastatin.

However, patients on other drugs such as fluvastatin were at a 5 percent decreased risk and those on lovastatin were at a 1 percent decreased risk of developing the condition.

"Compared with pravastatin, treatment with higher potency statins, especially atorvastatin and simvastatin, might be associated with an increased risk of new onset diabetes," researchers concluded.

In a related editorial, doctors from the University of Turku in Finland said that the benefits of using statins outweigh the risk of developing diabetes.

The study is published in the journal bmj.                              

Statin use has been known to result in muscle-related problems in 10 to 15 percent of all users. A recent study showed that statin lowered glaucoma risk - a common form of eye disease.