The study in question (Women's Health Study) reaffirmed this association, in this case specifically for postmenopausal females. Certainly other populations are likely to be affected as well.

Nice article here: http://naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=3&article=330

Physicians are faced with a basic question when making a prescription of any drug to a patient: “What are the risks and benefits of this recommendation?” When it comes to statin drugs, the benefits have been grossly overstated, while the risks have continually been swept under the rug. That discussion is much longer than the space available in this commentary. Suffice it to say that it is important to point out that while statins reduce the heart attack risk in women, they do not appear to affect overall risk of death, possibly because an increased risk for diabetes cancels out the reduced heart attack risk. So, let me focus on the study at hand and try to make sense of such a high risk for diabetes in postmenopausal women using statins.

The other day I was chatting with some medical students and someone mentioned a new study (published in the New England Journal of Medicine) that says that all American adults can benefit from statins. There was a suggestion of putting it in the water....which scared me enough to look it up. The study showed that people with elevated CRP (C Reactive Protein, an indicator of systemic inflammation) have fewer heart attacks when medicated with statins....but the study was done by...guess who? One of the makers of statin drugs. When I saw that, I just wrote off the study. Though I wonder, if the finding is repeated throughout the mainstream media without mention of who sponsored the study, how many people will begin to believe that they too could live longer on statins? And how many of those people will take a look into the side effects and alternatives....? Anyway, this morning I see that Dr Mercola also noticed the study, and here's what he has to say about it.

--6/25/08 report from U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
--statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs, and are said to lower the risk of heart attack or stroke by lowering "bad" cholesterol and triglycerides, and raising relative levels of "good" cholesterol
--use increased by 156% between 2000 and 2005
--15.8 million people-->>29.7 million people
--spending on statins: $7.7 billion-->>$19.7 billion annually
--total number of outpatient prescriptions for statins 90 million-->>174 million in 2005
--average individual annual expenditure on statins: $484 in 2000-->> $661 in 2005.
--including atorvastatin (Pfizer, brand Lipitor), pravastatin or Pravachol (Bristol Myers Squibb), fluvastatin (Novartis, brand Lescol), and more
--my mom is on a statin
( STATINS: a huge topic, this is only a tasteCollapse )