Medical news this week: Statins can cause diabetes and aspririn causes more harm than help.

If you take statins, you have increased your risk of developing diabetes [January 9, 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine]. This study showed a risk of developing diabetes that is significantly higher than previously thought. In the postmenopausal women studied, there was about a 48% higher risk of diabetes compared with those not given statin medication, controlling for all other significant factors. Aspirin is found to increase the risk of “non-trivial” bleeding events at a rate that surpasses the risk of non-fatal heart attacks [January 9, 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine]. In this study it means that 120 people need to take aspirin daily for nearly a decade before there is a chance that one has been helped. But one in 78 people will have a significant bleed, like a hemorrhagic stroke or gastric bleed that causes hospitalization or death. Take home message…Do not go looking for preventive wellness care from your doctors’ prescription pad. Maybe you are at a significantly increased risk of getting a thrombolytic (clot) stroke and an aspirin can help, but you raise the risk of a hemorrhagic stroke, so how good is your crystal ball. It turns out that most prescribing doctors have a pretty cruddy one, because all those people in the above two studies had the drugs recommended by their doctors. Proper wellness blood tests and an assessment with a qualified naturopathic doctor will be your step toward true longevity and health. Be well…for a long time to come, Richard Maurer, ND