Millions of type 2 diabetics may suddenly feel stranded in no-man’s-land

Tough questions

Confused, frustrated and angry — that’s how my friend Ron felt last week when I told him the FDA recently issued a new warning about the risk of high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes in statin users.

And I know he isn’t the only one who must be feeling that way.

For Ron and other type 2 diabetics, the big question — the URGENT question — is this: Why didn’t my doctor call and tell me?

I think I know the answer to that one…

No guiding light

One evening a few weeks ago, Ron started to feel light-headed and began to slur his words. His wife rushed him to the hospital where they were relieved to find out that he wasn’t having a stroke — it was his blood sugar running a bit high.

Ron is good about exercising and disciplining his diet. But he blamed himself. He figured that the amount of daily exercising he was already doing just wasn’t enough. And he assumed he needed to be even tougher on himself about his diet.

But now he’s angry. He knows he’s been diligent in doing what he needs to do. Now he wonders if the statin drug his doctor put him on may have been the problem.

When he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years ago, Ron didn’t question his doctor’s decision to put him on a statin drug even though his cholesterol levels were normal. His doctor simply told him that the drug would help prevent heart disease and heart attack — a no-brainer.

And that’s exactly how statin’s reputation as a magic heart pill grows daily. Patients trust their doctors, and doctors trust what all their mainstream colleagues are saying: “Take it. It works.”

Unfortunately, over the past decade, conventional medical wisdom has come to equate type 2 diabetes with heart disease. So if you have heart disease, they put you on a statin. If you have type 2 diabetes, they put you on a statin.

No questions asked.

But now, for Ron, the huge question looms: If the FDA has issued this warning, obviously it’s well known throughout the medical community. So why isn’t his doctor on the phone calling every type 2 diabetic patient who is using a statin?

As I say, I think I know the reason. It’s simple and it’s outrageous: His doctor has no guidance.

The recent FDA action only does one simple thing: It requires statin drug makers to update product information to show that the drug may raise blood sugar and has the potential to prompt full-blown type 2 diabetes. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there’s not a single word from the FDA, or anyone else for that matter, regarding patients who are already type 2 diabetics who are taking statins.

There’s just no excuse for that. It’s insane!

If I were a doctor I know exactly what I would do. But then I haven’t been brainwashed into believing that a daily statin pill is all that’s standing between every type 2 diabetic and a heart attack.

My gut feeling is that conventional doctors all over the world are in denial about this. They’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid for years, they believe that statins are wonder drugs, so they are struggling to come to terms with the fact that they have been unwitting accomplices in putting their patients in serious danger.

But any doctor worth his salt needs to put aside his confusion — and his pride — and start a program to get his type 2 patients to stop using statins immediately.

Sources: 
“FDA Expands Advice on Statin Risks” FDA Consumer Update, February 2012, fda.gov