In a new study from Wageningen University, researchers found a moderate-intensity endurance and resistance exercise training program improves muscle performance in statin users without exacerbating muscle complaints.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) are among the most widely prescribed medications in the world for the prevention of heart diseases and are suggested to influence the exercise tolerance of its users.
Statins are well-tolerated, but may produce muscle symptoms (e.g. cramps, pain, fatigue, stiffness) in some patients, in part due to disturbed muscle mitochondrial energy metabolism.
Physical activity is also associated with reduced cardiovascular disease risk, and this reduction is enhanced by statin treatment.
It was, however, unclear if the mitochondrial dysfunction associated with statin therapy attenuates training adaptations and exacerbates muscle complaints with exercise training.
In the study, patients with and without statin-associated muscle symptoms underwent a supervised training program for twelve weeks.
The program consisted of endurance cycling training twice a week and resistance training once a week.
The team measured muscle performance, muscle mitochondrial energy metabolism, muscle fiber capillarization and muscle symptoms before and after training.
They found both symptomatic and asymptomatic statin users can improve skeletal muscle performance, muscle fiber capillarization and mitochondrial content by participating in a combined exercise training program without exacerbating symptoms.
This has important clinical implications since combining statin therapy with physical activity is known to produce substantial health benefits.
The results indicate that statin use is unlikely to alter the exercise training response and statin use should not be a factor limiting clinicians from prescribing exercise to statin users. Exercise training may even increase the quality of life in symptomatic statin users.
If you care about muscle health, please read studies about soy and wheat proteins could help build aging muscles, but animal protein are better and findings of these common muscle drugs may cause dangerous health problems in older people.
For more information about muscles, please see recent studies about why some people can gain muscle quickly while others cannot and results showing that this well-known drug may help reduce muscle aging.
The study is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. One author of the study is Eline Allard.
Copyright © 2021 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
