" I’d not think it wise to have this concern be a reason not to be on a statin" – That may be true for most people, but I think that it’s a good enough reason for somebody in their 70s (at this age, I have limited opportunities for do-overs).
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The higher level evidence doesn’t show this effect on a population basis.
If there is a reason to be on a statin; I’d thus not consider this to be a risk. However, the beauty of N=1 is, simply monitor strength/serial DEXA’s and if is decreasing beyond normal rates, one can stop the therapy as it is always possible that individuals have unusual side effects. However, even then, it would probably not be due to the statin.
On average, purely from measuring these items, and putting in efforts, I’d bet the average person would head toward improvement rather than deterioration, with or without a statin.
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If we expect a 7 kg increase in grip strength from an optimal resistance training program starting as a 70 year old with sarcopenia, that’s 21 years of statin use from 19 weeks of training, and we’re assuming we hit a plateau and without optimizing in any other way.
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Have you done blood tests for various hormone levels such as testosterone (free T and total T)?
If you have, what are your levels?
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Fascinating stuff. I don’t know if it’s hurting me much. I’ve put on probably 15lb of muscle since I started rosuvastatin (and also working out)
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The abstract does not mention controlling for cholesterol. It could be that the cholesterol levels are the causal factor and not the statin, or that higher muscle mass (as a proxy for exercise) tends to reduce cholesterol, so that higher cholesterol (and hence the likelihood of taking a statin) correlates with reduced muscle mass.
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This study is ridiculous and definitely do not use it as a reason to die from a heart attack (e.g. stop using a statin). Just look at the comparative populations at baseline. There is a marked healthy user bias toward no statin use and the non-statin group has almost no CV disease and much less metabolic dysfunction. I can’t believe they actually got this past peer review.
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Very thoughtful analysis. Thanks!