OTC Painkillers Assist With Muscle Building?
There was a recent presentation at the American Physiological Societ, that cited certain OTC painkillers such as “ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting.” To the typical meathead this seems like a “wow bro” opportunity to get excited about but is a bit appalling to me.
I’d like to see the actual study including exercise protocol, caloric intake, etc. What concerns me about “reports” like this is that they aren’t peer reviewed or accepted for publications. It created a buzz in the medical community and probably support from OTC pharma hence the reason it was released in a sensationalistic manner.
NSAID’s which are indiscriminant to either the COX I or COX II pathway can cause numerous pathogolies related to the GI tract, kidneys, and the circulatory system. Even the “next gen” COX-2 selective inhibitors were shown to double the risk of heart attacks. Saying these help build muscle when they most likely gave these to untrained elderly who most likely have elevated inflammatory markers due to age alone is terribly disgusting. Talk about a “doctored” study. I’m sure the study participants were also not aware that analgesics like acetominophen is the leading cause of acute liver toxicity with over 56,000 reported cases per annum.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for OTC NSAID’s like Advil and or analgesics like Tylenol. However, those who are taking them chronically are fools and the people responsible for publishing this article should have their heads examined because it was not released to the public in a responsible manner. You’ll notice that no relevant clinical safety markers were addressed in this press release. I’d love to see how their kidney’s were functioning or if they did before and after endoscopy to check for any ulcers that may have developed.
What’s sad is the FDA lets claims like this go unchecked but a supplement manufacturer can’t say fish oil will help in certain areas of clinically diagnosed depression despite hundreds of studies to supporting this non-prescription approach to treatment. They seem more concerned with corporate profitability than truly what is best for the American people. Anyone remember Vioxx or Fen-Phen? Those worked out well until over 150,000 product liability cases were filed and the list keeps growing. The next "study" we’ll see published is that cigarettes are great for weight loss. It’s true and they really are, especially when they give you cancer or when you are on a calorie restricted diet while on a ventilator.
April 21, 2008 at 6:41 am
I first read about this in ricphoenix’s blog (http://blog.bodybuilding.com/ricphoenix/2008/04/13/so-now-will-we-ban-advil-and-tylenol-as-performance-enhancing-drugs/) but it really looks like an insufficient study from even the information there, plus the demographic that was studied. The FDA really is a joke. It’d be nice if all supps were NSF certified, but of course that means supps would cost more to have tested and proven as well as manufactured to a higher standard versus the FDA’s crap of allowing +/-10% of what’s on the label (plus some byproducts)
April 21, 2008 at 6:55 am
I agree this industry-sponsored study is suspect.
Over the years, I’ve read just the opposite about NSAIDs. The inflammatory response is a key part of the body’s ability to respond to overtaxing the muscles and rebuilding to a stronger state (hypertrophy). NSAIDs reduce that ability. And they can hurt the liver. In this particular study, what may be happening is that reduced pain allowed or encouraged the test subjects to continue exercising instead of just laying around moaning about how sore they were. But I believe a motivated person who doesn’t take those drugs and works through the initial pain will find they merely have to push themselves hard enough for adrenaline to kick in. Nothing blocks pain better than adrenaline. Keep doing this, and eventually the post workout soreness won’t even be than bad, unless you do something stupid and fall off a ladder, like I did yesterday.
April 21, 2008 at 5:57 pm
You fell off a ladder? THAT SUCKS!