In China, more and more people are taking statin lipid-lowering drugs in their daily life. So much so that statin is now the biggest “drug star”, and its halo even surpasses the famous aspirin. The reason behind this is the increase of two types of people: on the one hand, there are more and more patients with hyperlipidemia, and on the other hand, there are more and more patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. These two types of people need everyone to take statin lipid-lowering drugs to reduce blood lipids, thereby reducing the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Can statins cause diabetes? Listen to Dr. Zhang’s explanation
However, in the process of taking statin lipid-lowering drugs, many people have heard from different sources that taking statins may lead to increased blood sugar and the occurrence of diabetes. Therefore, many people are still very worried that statins will raise blood sugar and lead to diabetes. How to look at this problem correctly. Today, Dr. Zhang Zhiying will explain this issue to you in detail.
First, the origin of statin lipid-lowering drugs
The widespread application of statin lipid-lowering drugs, strictly speaking, was after 2000, especially in the first decade of the new millennium, many people needed to lower blood lipids because of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Start taking these drugs. However, some people developed diabetes-related problems after eating for a while. Therefore, slowly and careful clinicians will feel that some patients have high blood sugar due to long-term use of statin lipid-lowering drugs. This was recognized by the authoritative medical community in 2012.
In 2012, the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) issued a statement on its official website that statin lipid-lowering drugs may lead to increased blood sugar and the possibility of new-onset diabetes .
The same year, the European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Task Force required all statin-containing drug labels marketed in Europe to include a warning that statins may cause diabetes.
In 2013, China’s CFDA (Food and Drug Administration) also required that all statin lipid-lowering drugs must add a description of adverse reactions that statins may cause blood sugar elevation in their instructions. (The picture below is the description of this part in the instruction manual of statins listed in China)
These are these changes. For a time, there was a lot of talk that statin lipid-lowering drugs would cause diabetes. Many people even refused to take statin lipid-lowering drugs because of fear of diabetes.
In China, this is an instruction manual for statin lipid-lowering drugs
Second, the research data of statin lipid-lowering drugs to increase blood sugar
Long-term consumption of statin lipid-lowering drugs can increase blood sugar, and different studies have different conclusions. A comprehensive analysis of 13 studies before 2014 showed that more than 90,000 patients using statins were comprehensively analyzed, and the results found that five commonly used statins are atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin. Both statin and lovastatin have adverse reactions that increase blood sugar, especially new-onset diabetes, with an incidence rate of 9%.
In 2011, a related meta-study published in the authoritative medical journal “Annuals of Internal Medicine” JAMA, comprehensively analyzed more than 30,000 statin patients without diabetes, and finally found that high-intensity statin treatment, 12% increased chance of new-onset diabetes.
Subsequent medical studies have refined the screening of study subjects, finding that those who are older, obese, prediabetic, physically inactive, and on a high-sugar diet, take statins Lipid-lowering drugs, more prone to diabetes.
American Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Magazine
3. Why do statin lipid-lowering drugs increase blood sugar?
1. Statins cause mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle cells, fat cells, beta islet cells and other cells, leading to insulin secretion disorders, which in turn lead to insulin resistance;
2. Trigger the decreased sensitivity of fat cells to insulin, leading to insulin resistance;
3. Causes muscle damage and loss of muscle mass, reduces muscle activity, reduces energy expenditure, and causes insulin resistance.
fasting blood sugar is high
4. How to treat the problem of statin raising blood sugar in an objective and fair way?
After reading the above content, many people who should be taking statins may not be willing to take statin lipid-lowering drugs. So, how should we look at this issue? Dr. Zhang’s suggestion is: eat what you should eat. Why do you say that?
Because more in-depth medical research at this stage has found that the ratio of possible cardiovascular benefits from taking statin lipid-lowering drugs to the risk of new-onset diabetes is 9:1. Simply put, taking statin brings 9 benefits and only 1 risk. It can be said that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Seeing this, I guess everyone understands it. In fact, for patients with hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, as long as there are indications for taking statins and no contraindications, they can still be used under the guidance of professional doctors. We should not delay formal treatment for fear of hearing about the adverse reactions of statin lipid-lowering drugs. That way, your losses may be greater.
9 points of benefit, 1 point of risk
Actually, most of the statin doses Chinese people take at this stage are small and medium doses. This kind of small and medium doses of statins bring less risk of side effects such as blood sugar rise. . Especially those with a higher risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should take statins, or they should be taken under the guidance of a doctor.
5. How to deal with the adverse reaction of increasing blood sugar caused by statin?
1. Before taking statin lipid-lowering drugs, pay attention to screening your blood sugar, such as preprandial blood sugar, 2-hour postprandial blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin. For those with elevated blood sugar For people with prediabetes, pay attention to choosing statin lipid-lowering drugs that have less impact on blood sugar.
2. In the process of taking statin lipid-lowering drugs, pay attention to improving your lifestyle, pay attention to scientific diet and moderate physical exercise, so as to further reduce the incidence of diabetes.
3. For patients who have already developed diabetes, professional hypoglycemic treatment can be carried out under the guidance of professional doctors, so as to control blood sugar as soon as possible and reduce the damage to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular.
The above is Dr. Zhang Zhiying’s answer to the question that statin will raise blood sugar. I hope everyone can help after reading it. If you think this article is not bad, you can also forward it to relatives and friends who are taking statin, so that more people can benefit.