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The long-term use of anti-inflammatories and painkillers such as Ibuprofen can limit muscle growth in young, healthy people who engage in strength training. Dutch researchers reached this conclusion and published their findings in Acta Physiologica.
NSAIDs and Ibuprofen
Most over-the-counter painkillers and anti-inflammatories (except for paracetamol) fall into the class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). We have long been warned about the long-term use of these medications, especially in situations where they are taken too quickly, too easily, or even entirely unnecessarily, such as with the popular Ibuprofen.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Laboratory Medicine specifically looked at the effects on young people engaged in strength training. They compared two groups of healthy men and women aged between 18 and 35 over eight weeks. During these eight weeks, one group received a relatively high dosage of Ibuprofen; 1200mg, equivalent to a normal dosage for 24 hours. The other group received a relatively low dosage of acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin. Throughout the study, participants engaged in quadriceps strength training two to three times per week under the supervision of the researchers.
The researchers then measured various variables such as muscle growth, muscle strength, and indicators of muscle inflammation.
After eight weeks, muscle mass growth in the group receiving a low dose of aspirin was twice as large as in the Ibuprofen group.
We chose to look at the effect of ibuprofen as it is the most well-studied anti-inflammatory drug on the market, but we believe that high doses of all types of over the counter NSAIDs have similar effects.
Tommy Lundberg, researcher at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Laboratory Medicine.
Gains in muscle strength were also lower in the Ibuprofen group, although this difference was smaller between the two groups.
When looking at markers for muscle inflammation, it was found that these were suppressed in the Ibuprofen group (not surprisingly). The inflammatory process has often been described as part of the muscle growth process in response to strength training.
This suggests that muscular inflammation processes when combined with weight training are beneficial to the long-term development of new muscle mass, at least in the young. Our results suggest that young people who do weight training to increase their muscle mass should avoid regular high doses of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Similar studies in older people have shown a protective effect of anti-inflammatories on muscle mass loss. This led the Swedish researchers to suspect that the mechanisms of muscle growth work differently in younger people than in older people. However, muscle growth is the balance between the continuous production of new muscle mass and the breakdown of existing muscle mass. In older people, the greater breakdown of muscle mass is mainly responsible for this balance being less positive. Possibly, the increase in higher new muscle mass as in the Swedish study in older people without anti-inflammatories does not counteract the saved breakdown with anti-inflammatories. But these are only personal suspicions.
For the young gym-goer, the use of anti-inflammatories such as Ibuprofen does not seem conducive to muscle mass.
References
- Mats Lilja, Mirko Mandić, William Apró, Michael Melin, Karl Olsson, Staffan Rosenborg, Thomas Gustafsson, Tommy R Lundberg. High-doses of anti-inflammatory drugs compromise muscle strength and hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in young adults. Acta Physiologica, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/apha.12948
References
- Mats Lilja, Mirko Mandić, William Apró, Michael Melin, Karl Olsson, Staffan Rosenborg, Thomas Gustafsson, Tommy R Lundberg. High-doses of anti-inflammatory drugs compromise muscle strength and hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in young adults. Acta Physiologica, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/apha.12948
