High-dose statins ‘increase Type 2 diabetes risk’

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Taking 80mg of two types of widely prescribed statin – simvastatin or atorvastatin – increases the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes 

by 12 per cent over five years, compared to taking moderate dose statins (20mg or 40mg), they found.

However, experts said patients should still take the cholesterol-lowering drugs as the benefits in terms of reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes outweighed the risks.

In England about 200,000 people, mainly those who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke, take 80mg daily doses of simvastatin or atorvastatin.

Today’s study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), looked at almost 33,000 people on moderate or high-dose statins in five separate studies. None had diabetes to start with.

The researchers calculated that for every 498 people who took high-dose statins for a year, an extra person would develop diabetes than if they had taken moderate-dose statins.