To learn more about the effect statins have on exercising muscles, scientists in Strasbourg, France, recently gave the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor to a group of rats for two weeks, while a separate control group was not medicated. Some of the rats from both groups ran on little treadmills until they were exhausted. It was immediately obvious that the medicated animals couldn’t run as far. They became exhausted much earlier than the rats that had not been given statins. The differences were even more striking at a cellular level. When the scientists studied muscle tissues, they found that oxidative stress, a measure of possible cell damage, was increased by 60 percent in sedentary animals receiving statins, compared with the unmedicated control group. The effect was magnified in the runners, whose cells showed 226 percent more oxidative stress than exercising animals that had not been given statins.So let me get this straight- my diabetic husband who MUST exercise to keep his blood sugar in control, has been FORCED to take a drug which not only makes this less effective but dangerous?
Just checking.
