Context

Evidence suggests that the health benefits of statin therapy may extend beyond its cholesterol-lowering properties, potentially including favourable effects on systemic inflammation, endothelial function and oxidative stress – important mechanisms involved in the aetiology of cardiometabolic diseases.1 However, contrary to such a putative benefit, meta-analyses of randomised trials have recently suggested that statin use is associated with elevated diabetes risk compared with placebo.2 3 In this meta-analysis, Preiss and colleagues reported that intensive-dose statin therapy is associated with a 12% increase in risk of incident type 2 diabetes compared with moderate dose statin treatment, thus proposing a dose-response relationship for the statin-diabetes association.