by Tom Naughton

It was yet another bang-up Super Bowl. I love it when the game is in doubt until the very end … although as a Bears fan, I didn’t mind seeing them blow away the Patriots back in 1986. I like the pomp of the Super Bowl, the hype, the buzz, the commercials, the halftime shows, the whole experience. And of course I enjoy the game itself, watching athletes at the very top of their games giving it everything they’ve got.

As I was watching recaps of the game today, it occurred to me that I recently downloaded an article from the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology on how statins affect professional athletes. I think the title pretty much says it all:

Professional athletes suffering from familial hypercholesterolaemia rarely tolerate statin treatment because of muscular problems

The paper’s authors are from Austria and examined case histories of Austrian professional athletes who attempted to go on statin therapy to treat genetically high cholesterol. Out of 22 athletes, only three were able to tolerate the first statin they were prescribed. Three more were able to eventually tolerate a statin other than the first one prescribed. The remaining 16 — 72% of the total — ended up refusing statin therapy. You can probably guess what it was about statins that most of the athletes couldn’t tolerate: muscle pain and muscle weakness.

Read the entire article here: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/02/07/athletes-and-statins/