Does taking a statin to lower cholesterol INCREASE your risk for type 2 diabetes?

My response:

Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, and you don’t see it. Or….the focus of research is going one way and ignoring the obvious.

Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. It is typically a disease of older adults because it usually takes years to develop. These days, because the stressors that propel the train to diabetes are occuring earlier and more intensely, the age of onset averages 40 years of age.

Type 2 has genetic roots…multiple genes appear to be involved. We are born with our genes. Stressors appear to add up to trip the onset of metabolic syndrome…more stressors/longer time/greater intensity; pre diabetes…followed by more stressors/longer time/greater intensity; type 2 diabetes.

The stressors? emotional stress (family, marriage, economy, depression, anxiety) diet (high carb intake), weight gain (midline adiposity), physical stress (chronic pain, illness, surgery), inactivity (lack of physical activity), environmental stressors. As you can see, life in 2012 is full to the brim with stressors.

The candidates? Those with the genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes who have applied stressors for a period of time….older men and post menopausal women (older women).

Because type 2 diabetes is linked to metabolic syndrome, by the time it is diagnosed, a person typically has hypertension, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high LDL, low HDL, low Vitamin D….and then type 2 diabetes.

A patient is put on a statin for the elevated cholesterol….but this does nothing to stop the inevitable progression to type 2 diabetes….unless stressors are minimized before the diagnosis.

So…these postmenopausal women were started on statins….and then went on to develop type 2 diabetes. The statins did not cause the diabetes. The progression to diabetes was not halted and inevitably, diabetes ensued.

Does this mean we are “sitting ducks” just waiting for the inevitable diagnosis of type 2 diabetes because of our genetic roots? NO! Minimize or eliminate the stressors and decrease the chance of incurable type 2 diabetes.

THE DIABETES MIRACLE by Diane Kress, RD CDE. Order on Amazon.com. Read and learn as knowledge is power. http://www.thediabetesmiracle.com