In this solo presentation, neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter warns that statin medications, widely prescribed to lower cholesterol, are linked to a substantially higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. He begins by emphasizing the importance of lifestyle choices—diet and exercise—in preventing diabetes, noting the connection between type 2 diabetes and a four‑fold increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. He then reviews a 2015 Diabetologia study of nearly 9,000 men followed for six years, of whom about 2,000 were on statins. The study used oral glucose tolerance tests and hemoglobin A1c measurements to diagnose diabetes. Findings showed statin users had a 46 % higher incidence of diabetes, a 24 % reduction in insulin sensitivity, and a 12 % drop in insulin secretion. A graph illustrated the rising risk over time, and simvastatin (Zocor) was highlighted as having the strongest association. Interestingly, participants with the lowest baseline blood sugars experienced the greatest risk increase. Dr. Perlmutter stresses that the risk is similar in women, urges patients to be aware of these findings when prescribed statins, and advocates prevention through lifestyle and informed decision‑making.
Chapters
Hello everyone, I'm Dr. David Perlmutter. You don't want to become a type 2 diabetic if you can help it, and that means you really need to pay attention to lifestyle choices like the foods you eat, how much exercise you get, because these things do play an established role in determining your risk for type 2 diabetes. From my perspective as a neurologist, The reason I'm really fixated on type 2 diabetes is because recent reports indicate that if you are a type 2 diabetic, you may have increased your risk for Alzheimer's disease, a disease for which there is no treatment, by as much as fourfold. So, you know, my mission here is to do everything I can to give you information about how you can reduce your risk of becoming a diabetic. Well, new research is demonstrating that one of the most commonly used classes of medications, which are the statin drugs that are used to lower cholesterol, are associated with a profound increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Let's take a look at some research. This study is called Increased Risk of Diabetes with Statin Treatment. And it is really quite compelling. This is a study that looked at individuals over a 6-year period of time, evaluated close to 9,000 men who did not have diabetes, and just over 2,000 of them were on statins. Here's their age, and they were followed for about 6 years, and they had an oral glucose tolerance test where sugar is given orally and they see how high the blood sugar goes, what their insulin response is. They had a test of average blood sugar called hemoglobin A1c. Diagnosis of diabetes was made if the A1c was 6.5% or greater. That's fairly standard. And they also determined if a person during that 6-year study had to go on blood sugar lowering medication. So these are the parameters that were used to determine the diagnosis of diabetes in any of these men. And the findings were really profound. The folks that were taking statin medications had a 46% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. And similarly, as you would expect, their sensitivity to insulin decreased, so their bodies, their cells became less sensitive, less responsive responsive to the hormone insulin by 24%, and actually the excretion of insulin was declined as well by about 12%. So here's what the graph looks like, and it's really quite profound in terms of risk for developing type 2 diabetes on the left side and the follow-up time on the right. And you'll see that those folks that were on statin medications had a fairly a dramatic increased risk increasing over time, and if we look at a particular statin drug medication, simvastatin or Zocor, we see that it is really associated with a strong increased risk for developing diabetes. Now here's what's really very interesting and I find a bit surprising, and that is that the folks that had the highest risk for developing diabetes when they were taking statins had the lowest blood sugars at the beginning of the study, and again this was published in Diabetologia in 2015. So again this study is really very compelling. There's no free ride when it comes to taking statin drugs, and make no mistake about it, the increased risk of around 40% of developing diabetes taking a statin drug is seen in both men and in women. There are studies too that actually looked at both populations. So prevention is the ultimate principle of wisdom here, and I think that when you are told by your doctor that you need a statin drug, you might well need to take that drug, but I think it's really important to recognize what our most well-respected peer-reviewed medical journals are telling us in terms of risks that you may not be aware of, in this case becoming a type 2 diabetic. Thanks for joining me. I'm Dr. David Perlmutter.
