I SAW ONE OF MY GPS YESTERDAY CONCERNING MEDICATION FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE recom by my renal clinic, when asked about statin medication he denied that statins raised blood sugars, he seems either he lied to me, or is not looking at information about statin drugs
Gp denial : I SAW ONE OF MY GPS... - British Heart Fou...
Gp denial
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Wellington19
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There are well publicised medically authenticated side effects for taking statins for some people, which may or may not include changing blood sugar levels, I can't comment in that particular outcome. However the majority of people take them without experiencing any side effects and the risks from any possible side effects are far outweighed by the risks from heart disease if they are not taken. In my case I have taken them at a high dose for 25 years and have no noticeable side effects and they have probably kept me alive. Furthermore statins are prescribed globally for millions of people and if any side effects were significantly serious they would have been abandoned. But it's your choice whether you take them or not and how much value you give to anything you have read or heard, especially from social media or pseudo scientific sources. As for your doctor deliberately lying to you, if thats your opinion that's fine, my opinion would be it's extremely unlikely.
My cardiologist changed my statins from simvastatin to pravastatin , she told me that pravastatin would not raise my blood sugar levels as much simvastatin, i have found that gps avoid telling you about diabetes risk, because of people refusing to tajke statins, 40 percent of people on simvastatin become diabetic
People are all different, what works for some won't work or cause issues for other hence the warnings of side effects on package inserts. If your doctor does not accept this then they are not doing their job properly. Because of a heart condition I have I used to be able to discuss all risks and possible side effects with my doctor but now a face to face with my doctoris a memory and its whatever doctor phones you back. I was given a medication I shouldn't have been prescribed recently ( not a statin) and now have side effects but GP surgery no longer does bloods so have an appointment with Phlebotomy next week and as its holiday time it will be January before I get results, meanwhile I have stopped the medication.
I’d be very interested to see from what source you take the information that statins increase your blood sugar? Can you quote the source and I will have a read of it,
British heart foundation i, my cardiologist at John RADCLIFFE, nhs site, nurse at JOHN RADCLIFFE, Mayo clinic video , And BMJ , WARNING ON information leaflet with the medication
Hi. Me too, under the care of JRH, for 4 years now. I'm on high dose of Atorvastatin. I had a recent appointment with my Cardiologist, including a medication review. Nothing was mentioned about my use of Statins, and I'm a diabetic, on Insulin 3 times daily, with HBP (controlled by medication), and stage 3 kidney disease. I have 3 stents in my heart since 2019, and also had a stroke in 2018.Personally, in my opinion, most GP's have only a rudimentary understanding of straight forward heart conditions, certainly not the more complex ones.
I know who I would take my advice from.
What do you consider to be a high dose of Atorvastatin? You said you are on a high dose. Thank you. Do you consider 40 mg to be a high dose of Atorvastatin? What is the range that you would consider a high dose.
The largest dose of Atorvastatin is an 80mg tablet. That's what I take.
I take 40mg of pravastatin I think that's a pretty high dose but I have no side effects.char
I’ve just looked on my leaflet, o such warning.
Pub Med etc have research papers along with many other papers that clearly show statins, in many cases do raise diabetes risk but of course its a pro’s versus con’s in each indivdual thats the important factor. It is thought Atorvastatin is the one more likely to raise risk. your gp will (hopefully) be best placed to advise you of your pro’s and con’s.
Gp denied statins raise blood sugar levels, my cardiologist changed my my statins from simvastatin to pravastatin because of diabetes risk, she was honest about this
GP's often don't have the time to keep up to date with side effects or the latest research. I know somneone who had a side effect to a drug, the GP flatley denied this wa possible yet it was on the package insert.
I have now read through the Patient Info sheet for Atorvastatin and it certainly mentions increase blood sugar levels, as a possible side effect, that is clear, along with other side effects. As far as increased blood sugar levels are concerned there are well established tests for this. If your blood sugar does become elevated and it is proven to be caused by statins it is then simply a case of deciding whether to come off them and seek an alternative or simply do without cholesterol reducing medication, or continue with them. What is not usually tested without evidence of heart disease is the degree of artery blockage that progressively occurs through high cholesterol. It is usual that testing only occurs after a heart 'event', such as a heart attack, which for many is unfortunately too late. So until then statins are taken to reduce the risk of such an event. Anyway as I stated earlier its entirely down to the individual whether they follow the recommendation of their health professional as to whether they take statins or not.
All my cardiologist offered me a change of stains, said not authorised to give me alternative medication, pcsk9 inhibitors .
Your cardiologist is constrained by NICE directives as summarised in below for pcsk9 inhibitors where the bar is set very high
bhf.org.uk/for-professional...
Yes realise that
Hello 
I can only say what I have found
I take statins have done a couple of years I have never had problems with my sugars yet this last year I am diabetic and have got to start insulin my sugars are so high and I take Atorvastatin
I have also mentioned this to my Doctor and she denied it even though I said it was strange I eat more healthier than ever etc
I would not let this put people of taking them as I cannot prove it is the statin but just strange that this has now happened and I am thinking I will ask about another different stain to see if it makes a difference
Hope you have a lovely Christmas x
My cardiologist offered me pravastatin, does not raise blood sugar levels as much, but because of long time simvastatin, my going on diabetes prevention course ,of diet and exercise would not make difference
Hello
I wished I had been offered and put on it who knows I may still have developed diabetes but leaves you wondering x
Really all it is diet , exercise and lose weight
Hello
My diet has never been so good maybe more exercise would help but other than that the others are not an issue for me x
It is just a series of lectures, the person leading my course admited he had no qualifications at all
Hello
Hopefully he had done a few courses to be able to give sound advice x
ZHe was a personal trainer who couldn't find any work
x
Join the group Stopped our Statins on fb. You will gain further information
Not sure that this adds much to the debate, but I've been taking Simvastatin for years and early this year had a pre-diabetic reading of 46. I've always exercised far, far more than most people of my age, carry hardly any excess weight and had a sensible diet that I "tweaked". My pre-diabetic reading at the end of November was 42. ("Pre-diabetes" is from 40 to 48.)
Evidently 40 percent of people on simvastatin become diabetic
"Evidently 40 percent of people on simvastatin become diabetic"
Can you provide some research articles to support this comment?
Pub med, British heart foundation, mayo clinic video, my cardiologist and nurse at John RADCLIFFE hospital
Thank you, however can you provide the actual articles?
Please can you give the links to the BHF website, Mayo Clinic video, giving this information ?
I am surprised that your Cardiologist or cardiac nurse at the John Radcliffe, Oxford has provided you with this information.
You may find this article helpful?
This is from the Mayo Clinic.
"Rarely, statins can cause more-serious side effects such as:
Increased blood sugar or type 2 diabetes. It's possible that your blood sugar (blood glucose) level may slightly increase when you take a statin, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. This is especially likely if your blood sugar is already high. However, the benefit of taking a statin may outweigh that risk. People with diabetes who take statins have much lower risks of heart attacks."
mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...
Just do statins prediabetes on internet nhs
Please can you provide the quote from the NHS website that states statins increase the risks of prediabetes by 40%?
Hiya
If you are on X (formerly twitter, ) you should follow Marion Holman
@holmanm , she has done loads and loads of research on statins and she gives an abundance of information about them.
Merry christmas 🥂
But how many of those would have become diabetic anyway?
Statins increase your risk over all by 48 percent the stronger the statins the bigger the risk
I'd like to see the research on that too aswhat I found was studies indicating a much lower risk eg bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2610
For what it’s worth, I have been taking Atorvastatin for fourteen years and had absolutely no problems or side effects. It keeps my Cholesterol levels down and I’ve never had any blood sugar problems.
You are verry lucky
I have a tale about this one. In 2009 I had a general blood test and was a bit shocked at my LDL and went on a web search and found an research by a gp in Leeds. This was at the time when there was talk in government of giving everyone over 50 statins like everyone needs vit D in winter! This report clearly showed that there was a 30% increase in type 2 diabetes in women with no other issues apart from raised LDL. I printed it off to show gp ready to do battle. When I got in there offering him the article. He said I've seen that too and no you are not being offered them. Apparently up till then all the research had been run on men and so until this one no one had any idea of the impact, suitable dosage or anything else about statins and women. It turned out to be a bit of an eye-opener.
Could I ask follow up question -what then did you /GP suggest you do about the LDL and did it work for you?
nhs.uk/conditions/high-chol... what they say now but back then it was cut the rubbish, only whole grain when it comes to pasta bread etc eliminate as much sugar as possible. Stick with oily fish and chicken for animal protein along with nuts and seeds for omega 3s. They say no hard cheese but that is not my experiance. Tesco do a good organic chedder and organic chedder has good live bacteria in. Try and get a selection of2 or 3 a day of that, yoghurt kefir kimchi, saurkraut and this gets ldl and triglycerides down . If you can bear it soya products are particularly good if you can face them along with all other beans. Also regular exercise in particular resistance helps up the hdl which a v. good thing!
And has that turned things around for you?
I’m on 80mg Atorvastatin and have been since a heart attack nearly 4 years ago. It hasn’t raised my blood sugar nor caused any other side effects. In fact the only thing it’s done is lower my cholesterol. There’s a lot of scare mongering about statins and most reported side effects have been demonstrated to have other causes.
If you go on the BHF website they lost a number of medications that can increase blood sugar levels apart from statins. I have been pre-diabetic for 4 years as I'm on about 5 of the meds. Will I stop any of my meds? No way, after having a stroke and recovering I'm not taking any chances with my heart. BTW my younger son is T1 diabetic so I'm well aware of the issues.
I've been on rosuvastatin for years with no side effects.
I told my cardiologist about my concerns. He recommended I take it twice a week.
Look at number needed to treat. Also Number Needed to Harm. Look at the stats. Don’t forget everyone is different. Happy Christmas
Unfortunately not all GPs know everything about all drugs - the most reliable sources of info on medications are pharmacists
you GP might be the sort of person who thinks their knowledge is up to date and does not appreciate being challenged on it, but i doubt that they knowingly lied to you - as a patient and a nurse i have encountered many untruths and false facts by health professional, i probably dished some out myself, but these are rarely purposeful lies
Interesting. I've been on Atorvastatin for several years (20 mg) and have only just been told that I am pre-diabetic.
Got it down a lot but also wacked up hdl and lowered triglycerides so that the TC/ HDL ratio < 1 and so long that stays optimal no-one seems bothered. But am recently diagnosed with PMR and consequently on prednisolone which inevitably pushes everyone towards type 2 diabetes, so now on v strict diet with time restricted eating and absolutely no complex carbs with dinner and nothing after 7.30. End result for the first time in my life I have LDL in normal range!
Dr. Ken Berry high BP youtube..👍👍
”for some people” it raises blood sugar. This does not mean it DOES raise blood sugar. It certainly didn’t raise mine.
Didn't raise mine either.!! xxx
Hi, I was diagnosed with Angina 14 months ago, when I saw our GP she revieved my medication. The result was that I was put on an 80 mg dose of Pravastatin as part of my other heart related medication. If there was an issue with that 80 mg dose raising my blood pressure, then that would surely not help me with my angina. I also saw a Heart Surgeon while on an Angina Management course, and she was quite happy with me taking the 80 mg Pravastatin, so I don't understand where your GP gets that information from.
yours,
bludnut
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