Long-standing statin therapy and the risk of new-onset diabetes in the elderly: Collateral damage caused by preventive medicine?

摘要

It is widely believed that the connection between cholesterol elevation and atherosclerotic plaques is clear and well established, with the consequent assumption that "atherosclerosis is a cholesterol problem", and that "[HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor] statin drugs are to atherosclerosis what penicillin was to infectious disease". However, controversy continues to surround the aetiology and pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, particularly with respect to cholesterol and lipids. It has also been suggested that hypercholesterolaemia does not represent a causa sine qua non for the development of atherosclerosis, and that the beneficial effects of statins are overstated and do not resolve the cholesterol controversy.