Statins make you fat and insulin resistant?

Among the studies you did not see highlighted in the media recently was this study published in the journal Diabetes Care:

Simvastatin Improves Flow-Mediated Dilation but Reduces Adiponectin Levels and Insulin Sensitivity in Hypercholesterolemic Patients

The reason is that the big drug companies do not put their publicity machine behind studies that call into question the safety or healthfulness of their blockbuster drugs. And that is exactly what this study did.

Simvastatin is Zocor. What this small but interesting study found was that "Simvastatin significantly improved endothelium-dependent dilation, but reduced adiponectin levels and insulin sensitivity in hypercholesterolemic patients independent of dose and the extent of apolipoprotein B reduction."

Translated into English this means that Zocor reduced cholesterol and improved the elasticity of arteries, but did this at the cost of increasing insulin resistance and decreasing the hormone, adiponectin, that keeps people from gaining weight.

Can this be yet another reason for the so-called "Diabetes Epidemic?" It would be ironic if the overprescribing of statins to people with mildly elevated cholesterol turns out to be a major factor in worsening blood sugars.

We know that giving statins to people who don't already have heart disease does very little to improve health. But we also know that raising blood sugar by the amount needed to raise A1c by as little as 1% (i.e. from 4.7% to 5.7%) is enough to create a very significant increase in heart attack risk.

Hmmmmm. . . . .