Writing in an editorial piece for the New York Times on March 4, 2012, Dr. Eric J. Topol assessed the situation bluntly: “we are overdosing on cholesterol lowering statins, and the consequences could be a sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.”
Dr. Topol is a cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic who teaches at the Scripps Research Institute. He wrote “with the more potent statins [Zocor, Lipitor and Crestor] – particularly at high doses … the risk of diabetes shows up. The cause and effect was unequivocal because the multiple large trials and more potent statins had a consistent excess of diabetes. For those statins, the higher the dose, the more diabetes. We do not have enough data yet to say with precision at which doses excess diabetes showed up for each drug. But what we do know is that diabetes showed up.”
Dr. Topol asserted: “more than 20 million Americans take statins. That would equate to 100,000 new statin-induced diabetics. Not a good thing for the public health and certainly not good for the individual affected with a serious new chronic illness.”
In early 2012, the Federal Drug Administration forced Pfizer to change the label of Lipitor to include a warning that the drug could increase the risk of diabetes mellitus. Other drug makers were also forced to add similar warning labels to their statin drugs.
But for many — perhaps for you or someone close to you — the damage had been done.
Understand that this analysis has not even begun to scratch the surface of the debate over the efficacy, safety, and utility of statins. Yet, hopefully, it has raised serious questions:
- What are the real benefits and genuine side effects of these drugs?
- Why did our nation become obsessed with taking statins in the first place?
To understand the astonishing growth of the multibillion dollar statin industry, we need to take a step back and examine what statins are supposed to do. How do they work, exactly, and what are the purported benefits for the body?
Put your biochemistry hats on for the next section in our series. Although these posts are written for the layperson, the content needs to touch on some slightly complex concepts. After all, to appreciate the debate, you need to understand why doctors are so keen on promoting these drugs.
So what ARE the effects that Lipitor has on the body: good, bad and ugly?
We’ll explore the science in detail in the next post. For now, if you need help with your Lipitor case, call the Davis & Crump team now at 800-277-0300 or email us at info@daviscrump.com.
