Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Shown to Increase Diabetes

Most people who practice yoga are serious about taking care of their health. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to know which is the best way to take care of your health. Case in point are cholesterol-lowering drugs. We’re now told we need them even if we don’t have high cholesterol. However, are they really safe?

According to a recent article in the New York Times, new research reveals that in addition to causing muscle aches and abnormally high liver enzymes in some patients, cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, also increase a person’s Type 2 diabetes risk by 9%.

In of itself, this news would not be so concerning if it weren’t for the fact that the FDA recently approved a new set of criteria for statin prescription—one that would allow doctors to administer the drug to healthy people.

Furthermore, this new research, published in British medical journal The Lancet, highlights another concern: “We’ve had this drug for a while, and we’re just now finding out that there’s this diabetes problem with it?” Dr. Mark A. Hlatky, professor of health research and cardiovascular medicine at the Stanford University medical school, told the New York Times.

In other words, there could be even more side effects of the drug we don’t about. For patients who are at-risk for heart disease, the chances of side effects are well worthwhile. But when it comes to healthy people taking cholesterol-lowering medication, it may be better to get a second opinion.