A large -scale analysis of an international team led by researchers from the 'University College London' (UCL) and the University of Glasgow, in the United Kingdom, using information on genetic studies and clinical trials reveals a modest effect of statins on risk on the riskof type 2 diabetes and body weight in relation to the mechanism of action.
Published in the magazine 'The Lancet', the work received the financial support of the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Rosretrees Trust and the National Health Research Institute of the Biomedical Research Center of the UCL.
Among about 130,000 participants in clinical trials that have previously analyzed the effects of statins on heart disease and stroke (higher vascular events), those assigned to be taken in front of placebo or with higher doses compared to dose with doselower presented a small increase in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes of around 12 percent for a period of four years and an increase in weight of 240 grams.
"The weight gain is a risk factor for diabetes that could help explain the small increase in the risk of diabetes observed in people who take statins," explains the main co -author David Preiss, of the Institute of Medical and Cardiovascular Science of the Universityof Glasgow.
Statins work by reducing the efficiency of a hepatic enzyme involved in cholesterol production, which makes liver cells trape more low density lipoprotein (LDL) of the blood torrent, decreasing its circulating level.It is believed that this mechanism is the basis of the efficacy of statins in reducing the risk of vascular events.
"Variants that commonly occur in the gene that encodes the same enzyme of the liver are associated with a lower LDL cholesterol," explains the main co -author Daniel Swerdlow, of the UCL Cardiovascular Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences."By incorporating information from up to 220,000 people, it was found that these genetic variants were also associated with greater and marginally greater risk of type 2 diabetes," adds this researcher.
And it continues: "Genetic findings indicate that the risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes observed in the test analysis is related to the well -known mechanism of action of statins instead of some other unwanted effect."
"The genetic findings of our study help explain the mechanism by which statins increase weight risk and diabetes," insists Aroon Hingorani, director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences of UCL and also the author of the work.
"However, the effects of genetic variants are of less magnitude than the effects of statins. This study does not identify that an individual's genetic composition significantly affects their clinical response to statin treatment. Statin medications shouldcontinue to prescribe without the need for any type of genetic tests, "he recommends.
Taking into account the newly known risk of diabetes, the current guidelines of the National Institute for Health and the Care of Excellence (NICE) of the United Kingdom suggest that statin treatment should be offered to people with aRisk of 10 percent or more of developing cardiovascular diseases in the next ten years.
Statins are also recommended for people who have had a heart attack or stroke in order to reduce the risk of future incidents.Statins are effective in decreasing cardiovascular events in people with diabetesestablished.
"The above analyzes have indicated that the cardiovascular benefits of statin treatment far exceed the risk of recent-start type 2 diabetes," says the main co-author Naveed Sattar, of the Institute of Medical and Cardiovascular Science of the University of Glasgow.However, many suitable patients for statin treatment would also benefit from lifestyle changes that include the increase in physical activity, eat healthier and quit smoking. "
"The modest increases in the weight and risk of diabetes observed in this study could be easily mitigated by adopting more healthy diets and lifestyles. Reinforce the importance of lifestyle changes when talking about these issues withPatients would further improve the benefit of statin treatment in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes, "he concludes.
Madrid, Sep. 24 (Europa Press)
