This is one of the most shocking things we’ll ever see from a major news outlet

Game change

This might be one of the most shocking things I’ve ever read in a major news outlet.

Let me set the stage for you…

Imagine a large table surrounded by well-known and respected cardiologists from the medical mainstream. They’re busy praising the benefits of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs — guzzling their own Kool-Aid as usual.

But suddenly, one of them stands up and announces, “I’m out! I’m not drinking this junk anymore.” Jaws drop all around the table as they watch their colleague walk away.

Then a chill sets in as they look around the table and wonder: Who’s next? Is it all about to unravel?

Seriously – this could be a true game-changer.

Throwing down the gauntlet

As I mentioned earlier this week, FDA officials have announced that new safety details will be added to statin drug labels. One of the details includes a warning about increased risk of high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes among statin users.

Now, this isn’t a late-breaking news scoop to you and me. I first told you about this link more than two years ago. And for two years, whenever this disturbing statin danger has surfaced in the media, the simple-minded commentary from the medical mainstream has gone like this: “The danger is far outweighed by the significant benefits of statins.”

Right. As if type 2 diabetes is no more of a health risk than a common cold.

But then came a surprising op-ed piece in the New York Times that began with this stunning admission: “We’re overdosing on cholesterol-lowering statins.”

That’s stunning because it was written by Eric J. Topol, M.D., a cardiologist at the Scripps Clinic and the former chairman of the cardiovascular medicine department at the Cleveland Clinic.

Eight years ago, in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Topol called statins a “remarkable class of medicines,” and lamented that, “only a fraction of the patients who should be treated with a statin are actually receiving such therapy.”

But much more recently, Dr. Topol explained his transformation in Forbes Magazine: “The op-ed on the risk of diabetes from statins had nothing to do with changing my mind. It has everything to do with new data that were not available in 2004.”

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? And yet, Dr. Topol is the only major cardiologist to step forward and state that the new FDA diabetes warning is serious and attention must be paid.

But maybe even more surprising are Dr. Topol’s candid comments about statin benefits.

As we’ve been told again and again, any potential risks linked with statins (type 2 diabetes, muscle damage, and cognition problems, to name the worst) are “far outweighed” by the benefits, which are invariably described as “overwhelming” and “clear” and “undisputed.”

Dr. Topol still believes that high doses of the more potent statin drugs provide some degree of cardiac protection for patients with heart disease, but here’s how he qualified that in the Times…

“In the vast majority of people who take statins — those who have never had any heart disease — there should be a careful review of whether the statin is necessary, in light of the risk of diabetes and the relatively small benefit that can be derived.”

Relatively. Small. Benefit.

Thank you, Dr. Topol. We’ve been waiting a long time to hear that from someone in your corner.

Sources: 
“The Diabetes Dilemma for Statin Users” Eric J. Topol, M.D., New York Times, 3/4/12, nytimes.com

“Eric Topol, Megamind” Larry Husten, Forbes Magazine, 3/5/12, forbes.com