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Cholesterol reducing drugs cause the development of diabetes mellitus

 
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Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
 
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13 June 2012, 13:06

Scientists say that cholesterol lowering drugs from the group of statins can cause the development of diabetes mellitus. The problem is relevant in the world due to the widespread in the present time the spread of statins for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and in patients with heart disease.

A study of Jupiter (justification of the use of rosuvastatin in the prevention of cardiovascular disease) was conducted with the participation of 17802 people, with a low level of LDL, but with a high level of C-reactive protein. Compared to the placebo group, the risk of developing diabetes increased by 25 percent. Despite this, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease decreased by 44 percent. Participants subjectively noticed an improvement in health over the next 2 years.

In other studies, in six meta-analyzes for more than 57,000 patients, the risk of developing diabetes by 13% was also determined. In 13 randomized studies with statins for 91140 patients, the chance of diagnosing diabetes was 1.09.

Summarizing the data, it can be noted that among the 255 patients taking the drug within 4 years, 1 case of diabetes mellitus may occur. At the same time, 5.4 participants out of 255 had no complications of cardiac pathology. This is most likely due to the presence of a group of people who are genetically prone to the onset of diabetes, taking the drug makes it possible to detect this disease. When prescribing treatment, it is necessary to take into account age, fasting sugar, and other features of the metabolic syndrome.

On the other hand, weights significantly outweigh the benefits of this group of drugs, such as a reduction in mortality of more than 20%, a decrease in heart attacks by 54%, strokes by 46%, a decrease in revascularization by 48%. Therefore, with a high risk of heart disease and vascular disease, statins should be applied necessarily and not even stop when diagnosing diabetes.

Further studies and data on the mechanism of the effect of cholesterol reducing drugs on the causes of the onset of endocrine disease are required.

trusted-source[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]

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