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Type 2 diabetes and statins

Enclave

Enclave

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
2,602
Location
Scotland
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
An investigative look into the relationship between type 2 diabetes and statins
I am a thousand % sure my T2 was caused by Statins ... but my Dr refuses to listen to me .. I have now stopped taking them, in-fact I never needed them in the first place, as my cholesterol was low to start with .. just was told I had to take them from my HFN.
Anyone else think their Diabetes was caused by statin ?
 
I really have wondered.... the two overlap horribly... don't have any DB in my family tree... evidence is difficult thought.
 
Yes I agree @hankjam no sign of diabetes in my family either ... only heart problems .. The Stains robbed me of several years of my life and I regret the day I allowed myself to be talked into taking them.
 
Enclave said:
Yes I agree @hankjam no sign of diabetes in my family either ... only heart problems .. The Stains robbed me of several years of my life and I regret the day I allowed myself to be talked into taking them.
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@Enclave so much is taken on trust with Docs. We tried three types of statins and all trashed my liver function outputs... given them up and now have pretty high lipids, they are what they are....
 
@Pastor Pete .. no this is not the case, but I did stop them under the supervision of my heart failure nurse.. The were reduced over 6 months .. My diabetes nurse is very unhappy that they were stopped .. and went off to 'report me' to the Dr. Not heard anything from him so guess it was non of her business (diabetes nurse) as they were for my heart condition.
 
@Pastor Pete , that's a no to that. As I mentioned before they seem to adversely affect my liver and so alternatives were tried without success. Between each I stopped and liver function went back to fine, so we tried the next one... we've now run out of statins so it was decided to see if I can alter them by changes to diet... not that my lipids are controlled by what I eat.
A number of folk round here find the side effects so bad they have to come off, mainly muscle cramps in the legs.
 
My mother is in a wheelchair because of statins, severely damaged her muscles, my partner had panic attacks on them. Read Dr Kendricks view on statins if you need more evidence. Unless you have had a heart problem they would seem to be the panacea (not).
 
dawnmc said:
My mother is in a wheelchair because of statins, severely damaged her muscles, my partner had panic attacks on them. Read Dr Kendricks view on statins if you need more evidence. Unless you have had a heart problem they would seem to be the panacea (not).
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Where is the info in Dr Kendricks and statins? I suffer from leg cramps of a night, wonder if it's caused by statins. My cholesterol has always been low, but was put on statins 'as it's what we do for diabetics'. Will ask for liver function test to be done when I go back to DN on 3rd June.
 
@berylc , I don't know what article @dawnmc is referring to .. but it could be this one link .. My problem when taking statin was muscle weakness, fatigue & overweight caused by inactivity due to the feeling of weakness. Every time I questioned my health problems being linked to statins I was firmly told it was nothing to do with taking statins .. well now I have stopped them I feel a lot better.
 
Statins are apparently implicated in causing/aggrevating type 2 diabetes (and cataracts - both of which I'm suffering from); this was one of the first things I learned when I was researching diabetes after I was first diagnosed. (And asking my diabetes nurse about this during my first appointment I was told "Oh yes - they're good for you" :wideyed:...) I actually stopped taking mine last autumn due to concerns over some previously very low cholesterol levels. Shortly after stopping them my glucose levels dropped from highish but stable 6s and 7s to mid 5s and 6s. Unfortunately during the same time period I was also taken off long term corticosteroid eye drops, and these steroids I also discovered can also raise glucose levels, so I believe - but can't be 100% sure - that coming off statins has been beneficial for me both diabetes wise, and in other areas, namely increasingly bad pins and needles in both my arms and hands which has now greatly diminished.

I stopped without my GP's permission, although my ex and short term diabetes doctor at our practice was willing to accept my request to halve the dose a couple of months prior to my deciding to stop taking them. My GP is now aware that I've done so and there was a note on my recent blood test to this effect.

There was a very long ongoing poll about the effects of statins when I first joined the forum in early 2014. It might be worth having a search for as it made for rather worrying reading, although at the time I wasn't aware of any of those effects for me!

Robbity
 
Robbity referred to "a very long ongoing poll about the effects of statins." Here it is :

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/poll-side-effects-from-statins.58409/

65% had adverse side effects that had them stop taking them, or wanting to.

One of my go-to websites for statin articles is spacedoc.com. In an interview on that website Dr Malcolm Kendrick states
"In my opinion the likely damage/side-effects of statins outweigh benefits in all but a small minority of people ... men who already have diagnosed CVD. I can see no benefit in women, or in men without pre-existing diagnosed CVD."
https://www.spacedoc.com/articles/malcolm-kendrick-heart-health

The more you read up about statins, the better informed you'll be. A good starter is Dr Kendrick's The Great Cholesterol Con.

Geoff
 
I think statins might have been a contributory factor to my diabetes diagnosis, but I was in most high risk groups, so I might have become diabetic anyway. I don't have any side effects, apart from a bit of muscle pain in my upper arms and shoulders for the first few weeks when I started.
I am stopping them from today as I will be having my 12 monthly HbAiC test in 3 moths time. I want to see how that effects my bs and cholesterol levels. If the 'bad' cholesterol goes up I can always start taking them again.
 
Thanks for that. The thing is my cholesterol is only 2.6 when last tested three months ago. Not sure what to do.
 
Prem51 said:
I don't have any side effects, apart from a bit of muscle pain in my upper arms and shoulders for the first few weeks when I started.
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Hi @Prem51 :)

They can take a long while for the effects to wear off (that's my experience anyway) and though I have no direct evidence of the correlation between the muscle pain and misery and that accursed drug, no-one will ever convince me otherwise.
 
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Robbity said:
Statins are apparently implicated in causing/aggrevating type 2 diabetes (and cataracts - both of which I'm suffering from); this was one of the first things I learned when I was researching diabetes after I was first diagnosed. (And asking my diabetes nurse about this during my first appointment I was told "Oh yes - they're good for you" :wideyed:...) I actually stopped taking mine last autumn due to concerns over some previously very low cholesterol levels. Shortly after stopping them my glucose levels dropped from highish but stable 6s and 7s to mid 5s and 6s. Unfortunately during the same time period I was also taken off long term corticosteroid eye drops, and these steroids I also discovered can also raise glucose levels, so I believe - but can't be 100% sure - that coming off statins has been beneficial for me both diabetes wise, and in other areas, namely increasingly bad pins and needles in both my arms and hands which has now greatly diminished.

I stopped without my GP's permission, although my ex and short term diabetes doctor at our practice was willing to accept my request to halve the dose a couple of months prior to my deciding to stop taking them. My GP is now aware that I've done so and there was a note on my recent blood test to this effect.

There was a very long ongoing poll about the effects of statins when I first joined the forum in early 2014. It might be worth having a search for as it made for rather worrying reading, although at the time I wasn't aware of any of those effects for me!

Robbity
Click to expand...
Yes @Robbity I have read the previous threads, I started this one in response to the DCUK just posting the report on their main site
An investigative look into the relationship between type 2 diabetes and statins
 
I've stopped taking statins due to all the adverse publicity about them. Like so many others it seems they were just added on as "that's what we do for diabetics" I noticed mention of leg cramps earlier in the thread, I had terrible problems with this a couple of years ago and found information linking it to Metformin use, my doctor swapped me onto slow release Metformin and it sorted it in a few days
 
I'm very skeptical about a number of things - especially when it comes to medicine, the drug companies have been and continue to play fast and loose with the results of their trials. However, there is very good independent evidence that statins do lower cholesterol and lower cholesterol leads to less heart disease. I particular distrust people who choose to change the course of science with their own book. That's not how science works - it's a about looking at all the studies and coming to a consensus, but coming out with outrageous statements and getting headlines in the Daily Mail/Express for being controversial is very good marketing for your book.

There are known side-effects of statins and in a very few people they can be unpleasant, but if you're anything like me, you're taking several different medications and it's hard to know what's ,due to which drug and what's due to diet, the illness itself or your lifestyle. For instance, I get a lot less cramp in my legs now I'm doing at least 10,000 steps a day and lost weight. I had thought it was Metformin, which is possible, as I've now reduced my otherwise gradually increasing, but less effective dose from 2000mg to 750mg. My point is, individual stories aren't sufficient to declare the whole idea of prescribing statins as a precaution as wrong. The overall evidence seems to be that they're good with few, minor and infrequent side-effects.
 
ChrisSamsDad said:
The overall evidence seems to be that they're good with few, minor and infrequent side-effects.
Click to expand...

"Seems" being the operative word .... and don't use the words "very few people" as you wouldn't know
 
This is a repeat for me but here goes:

11-2014 - I had an LDL reading of 190 and was put on 40mg daily dose of Lipitor. There was NO SIGN of diabetes at this time

2-2015 - I had sugar in my urine and a subsequent Ha1C showed type 2 (9.5% USA)

Over the past year I have controlled my Type 2 and I have had 6 months worth of Ha1c of 5.7%, (which is normal). I quit Metformin and Lipitor last November and just last week my LDL was at 168. My Dr. asked if I would consider resuming Lipitor and said, "no thanks!I am going to try some other routes to lowering my LDL."

I will report my results here.

As of right now I am not even sold that high LDL is all that bad for you. But I do believe that lower is better.
 
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