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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Jun-26-19, 08:31
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
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Plan: mostly milkfat
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Default Statins and diabetes

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas...90625102434.htm


Quote:
Cholesterol medication could invite diabetes, study suggests

A study of thousands of patients' health records found that those who were prescribed cholesterol-lowering statins had at least double the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The detailed analysis of health records and other data from patients in a private insurance plan in the Midwest provides a real-world picture of how efforts to reduce heart disease may be contributing to another major medical concern, said Victoria Zigmont, who led the study as a graduate student in public health at The Ohio State University.

Statins are a class of drugs that can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke. More than a quarter of middle-aged adults use a cholesterol-lowering drug, according to recent federal estimates.

Researchers found that statin users had more than double the risk of a diabetes diagnosis compared to those who didn't take the drugs. Those who took the cholesterol-lowering drugs for more than two years had more than three times the risk of diabetes.

"The fact that increased duration of statin use was associated with an increased risk of diabetes -- something we call a dose-dependent relationship -- makes us think that this is likely a causal relationship," Zigmont said.

"That said, statins are very effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes. I would never recommend that people stop taking the statin they've been prescribed based on this study, but it should open up further discussions about diabetes prevention and patient and provider awareness of the issue."

Researchers also found that statin users were 6.5 percent more likely to have a troublingly high HbA1c value -- a routine blood test for diabetes that estimates average blood sugar over several months.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews, included 4,683 men and women who did not have diabetes, were candidates for statins based on heart disease risk and had not yet taken the drugs at the start of the study. About 16 percent of the group -- 755 patients -- were eventually prescribed statins during the study period, which ran from 2011 until 2014. Participants' average age was 46.

Randall Harris, a study co-author and professor of medicine and public health at Ohio State, said that the results suggest that individuals taking statins should be followed closely to detect changes in glucose metabolism and should receive special guidance on diet and exercise for prevention.

Although statins have clear benefits in appropriate patients, scientists and clinicians should further explore the impact of statins on human metabolism, in particular the interaction between lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, said co-author Steven Clinton, a professor of medicine and member of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"In addition, researchers conducting large prospective cohort studies should be considering how statins impact human health overall. They should consider both risks and benefits, not just the disease that is being treated by the specific drug," Clinton said.

The study was done retrospectively, meaning that the researchers looked back at existing records from a group of patients to determine if there were any possible connections between statin prescriptions and diabetes. Previous research has suggested a connection, but this study design allowed for a glimpse at what is happening naturally in the clinical setting, rather than what happens in a prospective trial that randomly assigns some people to statins and some people to placebo, said Zigmont, who is now an assistant professor at Southern Connecticut State University.

The study was enriched by the availability of a variety of details on the study population, including data from biometric screenings and a health survey that asked about education, health behaviors and ethnicity, Zigmont said. She also had access to medical claims data and pharmacy claims data.

Zigmont was careful to take a wide variety of confounding factors into account in an effort to better determine if the statins were likely to have caused the diabetes, she said. Those included gender, age, ethnicity, education level, cholesterol and triglyceride readings, body mass index, waist circumference and the number of visits to the doctor.

Programs that help patients improve their fitness and diets could be considered and discussed when doctors are prescribing statins, so that patients can be proactive about diabetes prevention, she said.

It would also be helpful for future research to better determine which statins and which doses might lead to the greatest risk, Zigmont said. Her study didn't allow for an analysis based on different types of statins.

Limitations of the research include the fact that the majority of statin users were white, and that the research team had no way of knowing how closely patients adhered to their doctors' prescriptions. There also was no way of determining who was at elevated risk of diabetes at the study's onset, Zigmont said.



This bit;


Quote:
"That said, statins are very effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes. I would never recommend that people stop taking the statin they've been prescribed based on this study, but it should open up further discussions about diabetes prevention and patient and provider awareness of the issue."


The study would clearly suggest avoiding statins for preventing heart attack and stroke, if the causual link between statins and diabetes turned out to be well-founded. Giving diabetes does not decrease the risk of these, it increases them. "My medication gave me diabetes, but at least it protects me from heart disease"--this is not a thing.

Who was at elevated risk at study onset--yes. If there were some sort of prescriber's bias--say, if doctors took elevated cholesterol much more seriously if central obesity or some other predictor of diabetes was present--that could affect the results.
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Jun-26-19, 17:53
GRB5111's Avatar
GRB5111 GRB5111 is offline
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Default

Being the golden egg of the pharmaceutical companies that sell them, the pressure on doctors to not say anything negative about the pills is very evident in this article. It's hard to take health recommendations seriously when there is reliance of healing only by taking a prescribed drug, particularly one which has resulted in massive revenues. In this case, relative risk is favored over actual risk, because the numbers can be distorted to make big claims that even the doctors believe. Unbelievable, but then, some of the strangest things are stranger than fiction.
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Jun-27-19, 04:59
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WereBear WereBear is online now
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Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GRB5111
Unbelievable, but then, some of the strangest things are stranger than fiction.


As Richard Pryor famously said, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

This is especially ludicrously ironic because the high carb rules for diabetics came from screwed up cholesterol research about fat causing cardiac disease. And diabetics are very prone to heart problems. So they must avoid all fat! And of course REDMEAT, the deadly deadly foodstuff our ancestors managed to survive.
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  #4   ^
Old Thu, Jun-27-19, 11:41
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Meme#1 Meme#1 is offline
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Plan: Atkins DANDR
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There is a man here who is very public, owning a large furniture store and doing lots of TV commercials. He is a wonderful man who opened his stores to people flooded out in the hurricane a couple of years ago. Every commercial the past few years he looks skinnier and weaker.
He just did another hospital stay with another stroke. His doctor is one of the cities most well known at a major medical center.
I just know they have him on statins after reading about them here. He's ash grey and skinny, they're killing him with that stuff.
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