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According to an article published in The Lancet, the benefits of taking statins to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease outweigh the increased risk of developing diabetes experienced by some patients who take these cholesterol-lowering drugs.

A JUPITER study first reported that taking statins results in an increased risk of developing diabetes. The was a large-scale study, involving almost 18 000 patients, designed to determine whether taking a statin called rosuvastatin would decrease the rate of cardiovascular illness in patients who had never previously suffered from cardiovascular disease.

Based on the results of the JUPITER study, , the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added new safety warnings to cholesterol-reducing statin drugs noting increased risks of Type 2 diabetes and memory loss for patients who take the medications.
Now, a team of researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital have examined the JUPITER  study determine whether or not the risk of developing diabetes was outweighed by the benefits to cardiovascular health conferred on patients who took statins over the five year trial period. They found marked differences in the likelihood of developing diabetes, depending on whether or not the patient was already at risk of developing diabetes when the trial began.

Researchers found that:

Patients who had at least one risk factor for diabetes were 28 percent more likely to develop diabetes when using statins, compared to patients in the control group

There was no discernible increase in the risk of developing diabetes for patients who did not have any risk factors for diabetes

Although the use of statins clearly increased the likelihood of developing diabetes in patients already at risk of the disease, these patients were still 39 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular illness while using statins, and 17 percent less likely to die over the trial period

Patients who were not already at risk of developing diabetes experienced a 52 percent reduction in cardiovascular illness when taking statins, and had no increase in diabetes risk

"Our results show that in participants with and without diabetes risk, the absolute benefits of statin therapy are greater than the hazards of developing diabetes, Paul Ridker, leader of the study, said . "We believe that most physicians and patients would regard heart attack, stroke and death to be more severe outcomes than the onset of diabetes, and so we hope that these results ease concern about the risks associated with statin therapy when these drugs are appropriately prescribed - in conjunction with improved diet, exercise and smoking cessation - to reduce patients' risk of cardiovascular disease."

The researchers said the study should prompt the FDA to consider restricting their warning about the increased risks of diabetes to people with existing major risk factors for the disease.

Researchers say all individuals on a statin who have major risk factors for diabetes, particularly impaired fasting glucose, need to be informed about the risk, monitored regularly for hyperglycaemia, and advised to lose weight and take regular physical exercise to mitigate the emergence of diabetes.