RE:RE:RE:STATINS INCREASE RISK T2D BY UP 46%I took a quick glance at the article. "A total of 2,142 (24.5%) of the 8,749 nondiabetic men were on statin medication at baseline (65.9% on simvastatin, 18.1% on atorvastatin, 8.6% on rosuvastatin,
3.8% on fluvastatin, 2.3% on lovastatin and 1.3% on pravastatin)." Due to the low number of patients on rosuvastatiin, fluvastatiin, lovastatin or pravastatin, these four subgroups were combined and not analyzed for individual statin effects or for dose dependency effects. It definitely looks like simvistatin and atorvastatin increased T2D risk at the high dose of each statin, with only moderate risk increases as the lower dose. The combined other four statins only increased T2D risk modestly as compared to simvistatin or atorvastatin. However, the graph does not show rosuvastatin on its own, only combined with fluvastatin, lovastatin and pravastatin.
Regardless of these findings, I don't think this has too much bearing on RVX-208. No ill effect of rosuvastatin was proven. If anything, this may bolster the idea that RVX-208 should be combined with rosuvastatin. And if RVX-208 has anti-diabetic effects, then it may protect against the deleterious T2D effects of high statin dosage.
Also, keep in mind that independent of a potential increase in T2D risk, these men treated with statins very likely decreased their risk of cardiac events and death due to the beneficial effects of statin use. So would one rather die early due to a high-LDL related cardiovascular event w/o an increased risk of T2D, or benefit from the LDL-lowering effects of statins and accept a potentially increased risk of T2D?
One takeaway is that physicians should only cautiously prescribe high statin doses and instead encourage other lifestyle changes and/or other combined LDL lowering therapies (low dose statin + ezetimibe, low dose statin ETC-1002, low dose PCSK9 inhibitors).