ArticleThe Journal of physiology2015
Statin myalgia is not associated with reduced muscle strength, mass or protein turnover in older male volunteers, but is allied with a slowing of time to peak power output, insulin resistance and differential muscle mRNA expression.
Article in The Journal of physiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01047163 (Maintenance of Muscle Mass in Older People), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Maintenance of Muscle Mass in Older People: the Negative Impact of Statin Therapy
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of lipid-lowering drugs with risk of sarcopenia: a drug target mendelian randomization study and meta-analysis.Human genomics · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of statins on falls and physical activity in people aged 65 and older: A systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Pitavastatin Is Well-Tolerated With no Detrimental Effects on Physical Function.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025 · on this mapTrial
- Feasibility of conducting a cohort randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of a nurse-led package of care for knee pain.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Physical Function Impairment and Frailty in Middle-Aged People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the REPRIEVE Trial Ancillary Study PREPARE.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2020Trial
- Statin use does not impair muscle health in older adults: findings from the SCOPE study.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2026Article
- Deconditioning in quiescent Crohn's disease patients with heightened fatigue perception.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2025Article
- Red Yeast Rice or Lovastatin? A Comparative Evaluation of Safety and Efficacy Through a Multifaceted Approach.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2025Article
- Mechanisms and effects of metformin on skeletal muscle disorders.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Statins induce skeletal muscle atrophy via GGPP depletion-dependent myostatin overexpression in skeletal muscle and brown adipose tissue.Cell biology and toxicology · 2021Article
- Plant Extracts as Possible Agents for Sequela of Cancer Therapies and Cachexia.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- The impact of statins on physical activity and exercise capacity: an overview of the evidence, mechanisms, and recommendations.European journal of applied physiology · 2020Review
- Statin-Associated Muscle Disease: Advances in Diagnosis and Management.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2018Review
- Effect of hyperinsulinaemia-hyperaminoacidaemia on leg muscle protein synthesis and breakdown: reassessment of the two-pool arterio-venous balance model.The Journal of physiology · 2015Article
- Current Treatment of Dyslipidemia: A New Paradigm for Statin Drug Use and the Need for Additional Therapies.Drugs · 2015Review
- Prevention of statin-induced myopathy--do not stop physical activity.The Journal of physiology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Statins are associated with muscle myalgia and myopathy, which probably reduce habitual physical activity. This is particularly relevant to older people who are less active, sarcopaenic and at increased risk of statin myalgia. We hypothesised that statin myalgia would be allied to impaired strength and work capacity in older people, and determined whether differences aligned with divergences in lean mass, protein turnover, insulin sensitivity and the molecular regulation of these processes. Knee extensor strength and work output during 30 maximal isokinetic contractions were assessed in healthy male volunteers, nine with no statin use (control 70.4 ± 0.7 years) and nine with statin myalgia (71.5 ± 0.9 years). Whole body and leg glucose disposal, muscle myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) and leg protein breakdown (LPB) were measured during fasting (≈5 mU l(-1) insulin) and fed (≈40 mU l(-1) insulin + hyperaminoacidaemia) euglyceamic clamps. Muscle biopsies were taken before and after each clamp. Lean mass, MPS, LPB and strength were not different but work output during the initial three isokinetic contractions was 19% lower (P < 0.05) in statin myalgic subjects due to a delay in time to reach peak power output. Statin myalgic subjects had reduced whole body (P = 0.05) and leg (P < 0.01) glucose disposal, greater abdominal adiposity (P < 0.05) and differential expression of 33 muscle mRNAs (5% false discovery rate (FDR)), six of which, linked to mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis, increased at 1% FDR. Statin myalgia was associated with impaired muscle function, increased abdominal adiposity, whole body and leg insulin resistance, and evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.