Statins are cholesterol-lowering medications that are widely prescribed by doctors, particularly to older people whose cholesterol levels have placed them at increased risk of cardiovascular disease.  But a new study out of the University of Queensland in Australia will likely have many doctors thinking twice before prescribing statins to women.

The new data show that women over 75 faced a 33 percent higher chance of developing diabetes if they were taking statins. At higher doses of statins, the risk increased to 50 percent.

Up until very recently, the majority of the research on statins has been performed on men between the ages of 40 and 70.

Statins have been very effective at reducing cardiovascular disease and mortality in those who are at high risk. In addition to the elevated risk of diabetes, known statin side effects include muscle pain and abnormalities in liver enzyme tests.

The U Queensland scientists examined data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) which included data collected from over 58,000 women in three cohorts who were aged 18-23, 45-50 and 70-75 when surveys began in 1996. ALSWH assesses women’s physical and mental health, as well as psycho-social aspects of health and their use of health services.

"What's most concerning was that we found a 'dose effect' where the risk of diabetes increased as the dosage of statins increased,” said U Queensland School of Public Health researcher Dr. Mark Jones.

"Over the 10 years of the study most of the women progressed to higher doses of statins... (Doctors) and their elderly female patients should be aware of the risks.

"Those elderly women taking statins should be carefully and regularly monitored for increased blood glucose to ensure early detection and management of diabetes."

Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke than adults without diabetes. This has led to what may now be a lethal irony of the American Diabetes Association recommending that in addition to lifestyle changes, all people with diabetes take a statin for cholesterol at a certain level whether or not they have heart disease.

The study was published in Drugs and Aging.