Moderate exercise safe for people with muscle pain from statins

The research is part of the PhD programme of Eline Allard, physician-researcher at the Department of Physiology at Radboudumc. Silvie Timmers, assistant professor of Human and Animal Physiology at Wageningen University & Research, is one of the supervisors of Allard. The findings of Allard show that statin users can engage in a physically active lifestyle. This contributes to prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Lowering cholesterol

Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs used daily by more than 1.5 million Dutch people. They are one of the drugs most commonly prescribed. Statins lower blood cholesterol, which lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, they can also cause side effects, of which muscle pain and fatigue are the most frequently reported.

No complaints

Whether muscle symptoms associated with statin use worsen with moderate-intensity exercise was unknown until now. Research amongst 100 walkers of the Nijmegen 4Daagse into muscle complains shows that statins did not worsen muscle damage and muscle complaints after one day of walking. This was also not the case after three days of walking.

Research

“Everyone develops mild muscle damage and complaints such as fatigue and muscle pain after a day of walking 30, 40 or 50 kilometres. We measure muscle damage by signalling substances in the blood that are indicative of muscle damage. Higher concentrations of these substances in the blood imply more damage. In this study, we examined both damage to skeletal muscles, which are responsible for movement, and damage to the heart muscle,” explains Allard. “Although the scores for muscle pain and fatigue before walking were higher in the people on statins who already had such complaints prior to the 4Days Marches, the increase in complaints and muscle damage after exercise was similar between the groups,” says Allard. According to her this means that even this long-term moderate-intensity exercise is safe for statin users.