August 21, 2000
Complications, Other Medications
Question from the UK:
Can you tell me whether it is safe for a person with diabetes to take [a brand of a prescription medication] to reduce cholesterol?
Answer:
The brief answer is yes.
The risk of people with diabetes of having cardiac and vascular complications from atherosclerosis, a process that is aggravated by high cholesterol levels (treated by various prescription medications) is much higher than for most non-diabetic folks, and it’s considered more important to force the cholesterol levels down (see lipidhealth for more information). Hence my conclusion: If your physician feels comfortable writing a prescription for you to take a lipid-lowering medication, and you have both diabetes and high cholesterol, it’s probably much safer to take it, than not take it!
WWQ