Are Physically Active Individuals Taking Statins at Increased

vol. 3 • no. 4 It would behoove health care professionals to counsel dyslipidemic patients about the differences between drug-induced myopathy and exercise-induced muscle soreness…. Abstract: Statin drugs are generally well tolerated in most patients. A lim-ited number of studies have been pub-lished that look at the relationship of skeletal muscle injury in patients who take statin medications and exer-cise compared with taking statin med-ications without exercise. To date, the sample size of these studies is small, but there appears to be evidence to show that statin medications may exacer-bate exercise-induced skeletal muscle injury. In addition, a study of pro-fessional athletes with familial hyper-cholesterolemia showed that 16 of 22 athletes could not tolerate statin medi-cations. Patients with dyslipidemia who experience muscle pain and discom-fort may be less likely to be compliant with their medication and/or physical activity regimens. Educating patients to recognize the signs and symptoms of medication-induced myopathy versus exercise-induced muscle soreness is an important counseling topic for health care providers