The Statin Scare

Many of you may have heard the recent news in regards to the FDA updating the risk profile for the common cholesterol lowering medications referred to as "statins."  As portrayed by the media, if you take this medication you are sure to end up with dementia and crippling diabetes.  Let me share my perspective on this situation.

First of all, it must be reemphasized that statin medications have unequivocally resulted in lower rates of death due to heart disease.  Even in the short time that I have been in practice I have seen far fewer patients develop heart disease, suffer heart attacks or had the need for procedures and surgery.  This certainly is not due to the population eating better and getting more exercise since obesity rates have steadily climbed higher and higher over that same time period. It is due to driving down cholesterol levels, largely from statin medications.  This has been quantified to about a 25% decrease chance of death in those who take the medication.  That is very substantial.

Now to the cautions.  I'll be the first one to say that I do not want to take one of these medications.  I put a lot of time and effort into exercising regularly and eating right so that I do not have to.  I have grandparents who had heart disease and stroke.  My father was recently put on a statin medication.  I may have to take one some day but I will do all in my power to lower my risk through non pharmaceutical means first.  If my levels raise despite my best efforts I'll have no second thoughts about trying a statin medication.

The FDA highlighted two main concerns.  The first is the "reports of memory loss."  This sounds like the medicine can cause dementia.  That is as scary a thought as having cancer.  I have dementia in my family as well and have no desire to head down that path.  What has been reported is not dementia but more of a "brain fog." Patients describe this as muddled thinking, not being as sharp.  The good news is that this is totally reversible.  It goes away when the medications is stopped.  It happens quite infrequently but I have seen it in my practice on occasion.

The second concern is for elevated blood sugar readings.  As a prescribing physician I have not seen diabetic patients have problems with their blood sugars after taking the statin medications.  I wonder if this is related to the population becoming more obese.  That would be a reason both for having elevated cholesterol levels requiring medication as well as being predisposed to developing diabetes.  It is important to understand that the lower cardiovascular risk seen in studies using statin are the most robust in the subset of patients who have diabetes.  It is currently considered to be bad practice to avoid statin drugs in diabetics whose LDL cholesterol values are over 100 mg/dl.  Dr. Amy Egan, the deputy director of safety for the FDA's metabolism and endocrinology division summed it by saying, “Clearly we think that the heart benefit of statins outweighs this small increased risk, But what this means for patients taking statins and the health care professionals prescribing them is that blood-sugar levels may need to be assessed after instituting statin therapy” (link here).


If you have concerns, by all means share those with your physician but don't stop taking your medication till you do.  These are life saving medications.  They need to be treated with care, yes.  The risks of not taking them may well be higher than the risk of stopping them.