UCSD study says statins can cause fatigue

Low-dose Zocor was one of the statins used in the UCSD study. Associated Press

New concerns have arisen about statins following the release of a UC San Diego study that says that cholesterol-lowering drugs can sap people's energy and make them grow tired faster when they exercise.

The study comes two months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered that the labels of some statins be changed to note that users faced an increased risk of developing diabetes and forgetfulness.

"The medical community needs to spend more time asking whether the benefits of these drugs outweigh the risks for certain patients," said Beatrice Golomb, the study's author and a professor of medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine.

UCSD says that more than 1,000 generally healthy adults from San Diego participated in Golumb's study, which involved randomly giving participants either a placebo, 40 mg of Pravachol, or 20 mg of simvastatin (Zocor), which are statins.

UCSD researcher Beatrice GolombUCSD

The university excluded people with heart disease and diabetes from the study because it was felt that they could clearly benefit from the drugs.

"Those placed on statins (in the study) were significantly more likely than those on placebo to report worsening in energy, fatigue-with-exertion, or both," Golomb said in a summary of the findings.

"Both statins contributed to the finding, though the effect appeared to be stronger in those (people) on simvastatin (a drug that led to greater cholesterol reduction.)"

Golomb said, "Side effects of statins generally rise with increasing dose, and these doses were modest by current standards. Yet occurrence of this problem was not rare, even at these doses, and particularly in women."

There's broad agreement in medicine that statins can help prevent heart attacks. But there's also debate over whether they should be taken by healthy who are at risk of developing heart disease or diabetes. And Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health, pointedly disagreed earlier this year when the FDA said that users of certain high dose statins faced only a "small" risk of developing diabetes and forgetfulness, as federal officials suggested.

"The risk is at least 1 of every 200 people taking a statin, which could be as many as 100,000 diabetics in the US that are statin-induced," Topol said.

But he added that the situation can be confusing for patients because statins actually improve memory in some people, and it is difficult to determine whether the drugs are directly responsible for reversible memory loss."

Topol also emphasized the benefit of statins, saying, "It’s important to point out that those who have heart disease will derive an important benefit from statins."


