Soaring obesity could render the statins useless in 10 years

Statins and drugs to lower blood pressure could be rendered effectively useless if obesity levels continue to soar, a major new study warns today.

The report - the world's biggest investigation into obesity - found more than one in ten men and one in seven women around the globe are now dangerously fat.

And the situation is only set to get worse, with experts predicting almost a fifth of us will be obese within a decade.

In light of this, health problems linked to being overweight - such as high cholesterol and increased blood pressure - will be of such a level that the drugs will have hardly any effect, scientist warn.

The tablets will still work in the same way, but will no longer be able to bring cholesterol and blood pressure down to a safe level, they added. 

Gastric band surgery may be the only option left for those whose cholesterol levels cannot be controlled by statins, they warned.

A University of Iowa study found weight loss surgery reduced patients' need for statins by 90 per cent. 

Statins are a group of medicines that can help lower the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood.

LDL cholesterol is often referred to as 'bad cholesterol', and statins reduce the production of it inside the liver.

Having high levels of LDL cholesterol is dangerous as it can cause the arteries to narrow and hard fatty plaques to form inside them, leading to heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

The authors of the report, which was published in the Lancet journal, today told MailOnline that as people become incerasingly obese, statins will no longer be able to bring their cholesterol down to a safe level.

This also applies to beta-blockers, drugs to control blood pressure.

Dr James Bentham, of Imperial College London, said: ‘What we’re saying is that once you get such high levels of morbid obesity, the effects on health are so severe that statins and beta-blockers will only help in a small way.

‘If you get so big your blood sugar levels, cholesterol and blood pressure are dangerously high, these drugs can’t bring it back down to safe levels. More dramatic interventions are needed.

‘We’re certainly not saying people should take statins and beta-blockers, they will still have a beneficial effect, but it’s not enough.' 

He continued: ‘We’re suggesting gastric band surgery may be the only option. We made this suggestion to show what a serious problem obesity is - and there’s no easy solution.

‘Weight loss surgery is effective but it’s a very expensive, intrusive operation.

‘With the rates of obesity we’re predicting, there aren’t many healthcare systems that could afford it. It would place a big burden on the NHS.

‘So there needs to be a package of solutions.’

Lead author Dr Mariachiara Di Cesare, also of Imperial College London and Middlesex University, added: ‘There have to be Governmental interventions - sugar taxes, education of people, easy access to fruits and vegetables and more physical activity.’

Worldwide, some 200 million take statins to reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks, according to a paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In the UK, 17 million people are prescribed the cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Lead author Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial College London, said if obesity continues to rocket, the drugs will do little to curb the crisis.

He said: ‘This epidemic of severe obesity is too extensive to be tackled with medications such as blood pressure-lowering drugs or diabetes treatments alone, or with a few extra bike lanes.

‘Obesity has reached crisis point. We need co-ordinated global initiatives.’

The study measured the height and weight of nearly 20 million adults over 30 years.

It revealed there are currently 640 million obese people around the globe, comprising 266 million men and 375 million women.

Overall, the fattest men and women now live in China and the USA.

However the USA still has the highest number of severely obese men and women in the world.  

In Britain, obesity rates are 28.4 per cent for women - the second highest in Europe behind only Malta – and 26.2 per cent for men, the worst in the continent. 

And in a decade, it will be the fattest nation in Europe, with almost 40 per cent of adults obese. 

The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and involving the World Health Organization, also found the world’s population has become heavier by around 1.5kg (3.3lbs) in each subsequent decade since 1975. 

It found the global rate of adult obesity has more than tripled in men, to 11 per cent, and more than doubled in women, to 15 per cent, in the last four decades.

But the trend is more pronounced in many western countries, with a fifth of the world’s adults living in just six wealthy English-speaking nations - UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The research predicted if these global trends continue, by 2025 18 per cent of the world’s men and 21 per cent of women will be obese. 

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