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October 4 (UPI) – Adults with type 2 diabetes on statin therapy may need to adjust their diabetes treatment to avoid worsening symptoms, according to a study released Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine.
That’s because those who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs may be more likely to experience worsening diabetes symptoms than those who don’t, the researchers said.
Statin users had a 37% higher risk of diabetes progression, including extremely high blood sugar levels and high rates of disease complications, compared to those who did not take prescription drugs, showed the data.
In the study, 56% of statin users showed signs of progression to diabetes and needed to start treatment with insulin and other hypoglycemic therapies, compared to 48% of those who were not taking medication.
“The association does not prove causality, [so] no patient should stop taking their statins based on our study, ”co-author Dr Ishak Mansi told UPI in an email.
However, “patients on statins may need to step up their diabetes treatment when they start treatment,” said Mansi, professor of medicine and population and data science at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas.
Adjusting medications – whether it’s changing doses or medications – is standard practice in diabetes management anyway, he added.
About 28 million adults in the United States – just over a third of those with high cholesterol – take statins such as atorvastatin, sold under the brand name Lipitor, or rosuvastatin, or Crestor, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly half of adults with type 2 diabetes also have high cholesterol, the New York State Department of Health reported. Many of them stop taking statins because of worsening diabetes symptoms, including increased insulin resistance and blood sugar levels, research shows.
This can increase their risk for a heart attack or stroke, Mansi and colleagues said.
For this study, researchers compared the rates of diabetes progression in more than 83,000 adults with type 2 diabetes on statin therapy with those in a similar population not taking medication.
All study participants were being treated within the Veterans Affairs health system, the researchers said.
Study participants were considered to have a progression of diabetes if they were to start treatments to maintain healthy insulin levels – the hormone produced by the pancreas that processes sugars – or other hypoglycemic therapies.
Those who developed diabetes-related complications such as ketoacidosis, when the body produces high amounts of blood acids, which can lead to severe dehydration, and hyperglycemia, or dangerously high blood sugar, were also defined as having a progression of diabetes.
“This study may alert clinicians that they may need to pay special attention” to statin patients with type 2 diabetes, Mansi said.
“It is also important to stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle – weight control, physical activity, smoking cessation, etc. – to decrease the risk of developing these. [complications],” he said.
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