Some statin drugs do seem to raise users’ risk of diabetes, study suggests

TORONTO – A study suggests some cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may put new users at an elevated risk of developing diabetes.

The possible link between taking some statins and diabetes has been seen in the past.

In fact, Health Canada warned in January that statin users may have a small increased risk of developing the condition.

But previous studies have found conflicting results, so some Toronto researchers conducted another.

They looked at the records of more than 470,000 people in Ontario who did not have diabetes when they started taking a statin, and found three brands of the drugs seemed to increase their diabetes risk.

The three drugs were atorvastatin, rosuvastatin and simvastatin, which are sold as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor respectively.

The researchers said no increased risk was seen with fluvastatin (which is sold under the brand names Lescol, Canef and Vastin) or lovastatin (Mevacor). And the statin drug pravastatin — which is sold as Pravachol or Selektine — may even protect against the development of diabetes.

The study was published in BMJ, a journal of the British Medication Association. The work was done by researchers at Toronto General Hospital, the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Studies, Sunnybrook Research Institute and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital.