Cholesterol-lowering statins may help protect people with diabetes from major complications of the disease, researchers have revealed.
The Danish researchers say their findings are "surprising" as it had been thought statins might increase body glucose levels.
The research suggests statin use is linked to reduced rates of blindness and limb amputations in people with diabetes.
The findings come from a study of 60,000 patients in Denmark. Some 15,679 had used statins regularly before being diagnosed with diabetes.
Researchers found that statin users were 34% less likely than others with diabetes to develop nerve disease in the foot and 40% less likely to develop eye disease. They were also 12% less likely to develop gangrene.
The findings were reported in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
Researcher Professor Børge Nordestgaard, of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, said yesterday: “Surprisingly, the results showed that statins decreased rather than increased risk of these complications.”
Fellow researcher Dr Sune Nielsen said: “We found no evidence that statin use is associated with an increased risk of microvascular disease.
"Whether or not statins are protective against some forms of microvascular disease, a possibility raised by these data, and by which mechanism, will need to be addressed in studies similar to ours, or in mendelian randomisation studies, but preferably in randomised controlled trials.”
Writing in the journal Dr David Preiss, of Glasgow University, UK, says statins may help by having anti-inflammatory effects.
He adds: "For now, however, any benefit of statins on microvascular complications remains unproven."
Statin use before diabetes diagnosis and risk of microvascular disease: a nationwide nested matched study. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology 10 September 2014 [abstract]
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