Diabetes Mellitus sufferers should take statins to prevent strokes - Endocrinologist

Diabetic care givers have been advised to add low doses of statins and blood anticoagulants to the routine drugs of all type 2 diabetics aged over 40 years despite their normal cholesterol level statuses, as this would help prevent strokes and resultant fatalities.

Dr. Peter Agyenim-Boateng, a former endocrinologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi said Diabetics were more susceptible to a faster onset and worsening progression of arteriosclerosis - accumulation of lipids in the large arteries and its thickening, a condition that leads to strokes and other cardiovascular-related conditions.

The Endocrinologist was delivering a lecture on 'Current Trends in the Medical Management of Diabetes Mellitus', at the third quarter conference of the Ghana Dietetics Association (GDA), middle Zone held at KATH.

He said statins a medicine to treat high cholesterol levels in the blood, could also help stop plaque formation in the large arteries adding that this could reduce deaths from strokes and heart-related conditions by 47 per cent.

Dr. Agyenim-Boateng called on Dietetics to repackage their sensitization messages well to ensure that more people were taking to good eating habits, good exercise regimes and healthy lifestyles, to tackle the rising trends of overweight/obesity and higher lipid levels, which are some of the factors strongly linked with cardiovascular diseases and Diabetes.

Ms.Efua Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional chairperson of the GDA called for an attitudinal change which she said was possible with conscious efforts and a religious adherence to a healthy eating plan, to stay healthy and live long.