Stroke, heart attack or diabetes? Which would you prefer?

People who are using the cholesterol-reducing drug statins are more likely to gain weight, a new study from the University College London and the University of Glasgow reveal.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Currently, statins are prescribed to those with increased risks of heart attacks or strokes, and experts say the medication has saved countless lives in that respect.

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Many other doctors and patients are concerned though, they fear that the drug may be prescribed too easily.

In July, the health group NICE began to encourage general practitioners to prescribe the drug to anyone who has a 10% chance of having a heart attack.

This means that 17 million adults are now eligible to take statins regularly.

But the new study, which was published in the Lancet medical journal, revealed that people on statins gained roughly half a pound over four years.

Clinical data from 130,000 people who were on the drug showed that the risk of having type 2 diabetes increased 12% over the same time period.

But experts insist that the diabetes risk is small, and would only affect about five more people per thousand. The health benefits of statins still outweigh the chances of harm.

"Many patients eligible for statin treatment would also benefit from lifestyle changes including increased physical activity, eating more healthily and stopping smoking," said the study's co-author, Professor Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow.

"The modest increases in weight and diabetes risk seen in this study could easily be mitigated by adopting healthier diets and lifestyles.

"Reinforcing the importance of lifestyle changes when discussing these issues with patients would further enhance the benefit of statin treatment in preventing heart attacks and strokes."

Dr. Daniel Swerdlow from the UCL institute of cardiovascular science also said that the team may have found a genetic cause for the link between the drug and the side effects of weight gain and diabetes.

"The effects were very much smaller than from statin treatment, but the genetic findings indicate that the weight gain and diabetes risk observed in the analysis from trials are related to the known mechanism of action of statins rather than some other unintended effect."

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