(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Taking higher doses of the cholesterol-lowering
drugs called statins may cause dangerous side effects.
New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham finds high doses of
statins may hinder how the skeletal muscles repair and regenerate themselves.
Statins have been known to trigger side effects on skeletal muscle in both human
and animal studies causing cramping, fatigue and potentially myopathy.
Relatively little is known about the effect of statins on the muscle progenitor
cells known as satellite cells (SC) which play a key role in repairing and
regenerating skeletal muscle after exercise or injury.
Researchers looked at how human satellite cells were able to multiply when they
were exposed to the statin, simvastatin. They wanted to see whether the SCs
could divide to make new cells when they were treated with statins.
Results show higher doses of statins led to reduced SC proliferation, which
would likely negatively affect the muscles ability to heal and/or repair itself.
Researchers note the data are preliminary and more research is needed. But they
say the findings still show there can be serious side effects from taking high
doses of statins.
“We are very interested in these effects in the older population,” researcher
Dr. Thalacker-Mercer, University of Alabama at Birmingham, was quoted as saying.
“It is possible that older adults may not be able to distinguish between muscle
pain related to a statin effect or an effect of aging and therefore adverse
effects of statins in older adults may be under-reported. Therefore, our next
step is to examine statins among older adults.”
SOURCE: American Physiological Society Conference in Hilton Head, South
Carolina, September 24-27, 2008
