Aseem Malhotra

Aseem Malhotra is a medical researcher working in the fields of cardiovascular health and clinical nutrition. His published research examines coronary artery disease interventions, including the clinical roles of coronary stents, statin therapy, and target cholesterol levels. He has also published work evaluating dietary strategies for type 2 diabetes remission and the relationship between lifestyle factors, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease.

13 claims checked on air: 1 context 3 contradicted 1 overstated 8 supported

What they said on air - overstated

3 citing their own research

0:49:46overstatedhighIt's Not Cholesterol. Inflammation Is What's Actually Causin

Approximately 1 in 100 (or up to 1 in 50) people prescribed statins develop type 2 diabetes as a result of the medication.

"What else do statins do? They cause insulin resistance. Say 1 in 100 people get type 2 diabetes because of statins. ... Some some studies say 1 in 50, right? Will get type 2 diabetes because of the statin." (said at 0:49:46)

The claim that 1 in 100 (or up to 1 in 50) people develop type 2 diabetes because of statins overstates the excess risk attributable to the medication. In large collaborative meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, statin therapy was associated with a modest 9% relative increase in incident diabetes (odds ratio 1.09), corresponding to an absolute risk of 1 additional case of diabetes for every 255 patients treated over an average of 4 years (approximately 1 in 255, or ~0.4%). Even when comparing intensive-dose statin therapy to moderate-dose therapy, the number needed to harm per year was 498 (approximately 2.0 additional cases per 1,000 patient-years).

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