Painkillers help build muscle in older exercisers

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Painkillers help build muscle in older exercisers

By Rauscher

http://medicalnewscenter.com/out/out.cgi?

http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/267807654/idUSCOL058

92720080410

In a study of healthy older adults lifting weights regularly, for 3

months, taking recommended daily doses of ibuprofen (like that in

Advil) or acetaminophen (like that in Tylenol) led to substantially

greater increases over inactive placebo in quadriceps muscle mass and

strength.

Dr. Chad C. Carroll, a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Todd

Trappe in the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University,

Muncie, Indiana, reported the study results this week during the

annual meeting of the American Physiological Society, part of the

Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference in San Diego.

Taking ibuprofen or acetaminophen regularly during resistance

training seems to induce chances within the muscle that enhance the

metabolic response to resistance exercise, which promotes additional

muscle building and strength gains in the elderly, the researchers

found.

During 12 weeks of supervised knee-extensor weight training,

performed three times per week for 15 to 20 minutes, 36 men and

women, between 60 and 78 years old, were randomly assigned to

ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or placebo in doses mimicking what chronic

users of these pain relievers were likely to be taking on a daily

basis.

" We used 1200 milligrams a day for ibuprofen and 4000 milligrams per

day of acetaminophen, which is the maximum over-the-counter daily

dose, " Dr. Trappe explained in an interview with Reuters Health.

As expected, resistance training alone (placebo group) increased

quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength. However, the increases

were far greater in the ibuprofen and acetaminophen groups.

" The muscles of the ibuprofen and acetaminophen users got 40 to 60

percent bigger than the placebo group and their muscle strength also

went up higher than the placebo group, " Trappe said.

Specifically, muscle volume increased 11 percent in the ibuprofen

group and 13 percent in the acetaminophen group, compared with 9

percent in the placebo group. Muscle strength increased 30 percent in

the ibuprofen group and 28 percent in the acetaminophen group,

compared with 23 percent in the placebo group.

These findings were somewhat surprising, Trappe said. In a prior

study, his team measured muscle protein synthesis over a 24-hour

period and found that ibuprofen and acetaminophen had a negative

impact on muscle by blocking the COX enzyme.

Based on this acute study, " we figured that these drugs would

actually get in the way of muscle building in the elderly -- the

group that seems to benefit the most from doing resistance

exercises, " Trappe explained.

The researchers are now examining muscle biopsies taken from the

study subjects before and after the 3-month period of resistance

training to better understand the metabolic mechanism behind the

apparent beneficial effects of ibuprofen and acetaminophen during

weight training.