The success of statins could fuel the obesity crisis by discouraging patients from losing weight, experts say
- Around eight million Britons take statins to lower their cholesterol levels
- The effective protection against heart attacks can distract from losing weight
- This makes them susceptible to heart failure, fatty liver disease, and arthritis
Statins and blood pressure pills could promote obesity because they work so well that some patients may stop trying to lose weight, experts warn.
Around eight million Britons take statins to lower their cholesterol levels and up to nine million take medication to lower blood pressure.
But the protection against heart attacks and strokes that the pills offer may discourage people from taking action to combat their expanding waistlines, argues a provocative article in a medical journal.
Statins and blood pressure pills can live decades longer.
But those who live longer with obesity because of such drugs are at greater risk of a long list of obesity-related diseases, such as heart failure, fatty liver and arthritis.
Statins and blood pressure pills could promote obesity because they work so well some patients may stop trying to lose weight, experts warn (file image)
The opinion article in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology claims modern treatments mean many diseases are “not as feared as they used to be”.
Lead author Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: “Better treatments like statins and blood pressure pills … are indirectly helping to fuel the obesity crisis.
“It’s a tremendous achievement that people are being kept alive longer, so that someone who might have died of a stroke or heart attack at 60 lives to the age of 75.
“But if weight isn’t discussed, that person could end up with multiple health issues, some related to being overweight and taking dozens of different medications.”
But the protection from heart attacks and strokes that the pills offer may discourage people from taking action to target their growing waistlines (file image).
Over the past 40 to 50 years, people in high-income countries like the UK have gained an average of 10kg (1.8lb) heavier, with around two-thirds of adults in that country now being overweight or obese.
There is evidence that someone with a BMI over 30 classified as obese is 12 times more likely to have multiple health conditions than someone of a healthy weight.
Professor Sattar added: “When someone takes blood pressure pills, it’s the perfect window to think about their lifestyle. But healthcare providers rarely discuss this. We need better health policies to prevent obesity.”
dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, Consultant Cardiologist and Deputy Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Decades of research have shown that statins and antihypertensive drugs save lives.
If these have been recommended by your doctor, it is important that you continue to take them.’