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Why Taking Statins for High Cholesterol Shouldn’t Affect Athletic Performance

July 30, 2020

If you’re an athlete who takes statins to lower your cholesterol and are concerned they may be affecting your performance, relax. Dr. Paul Thompson, chief of cardiology emeritus at Hartford Hospital and national expert on the athlete’s heart, says it’s safe to continue treatment without sacrificing your performance. But it’s your call.

“We think overall that careful clinical studies show no evidence [of harming exercise performance] in humans,” Dr. Thompson said during a presentation recently at the virtual American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention. “Now, I said humans because there’s a ton of basic science work that suggests statins have deleterious effects on mitochondria, etc. I point that out because the customer, or the athlete, is always right. If somebody thinks that statins are interfering with their exercise performance despite my attempts to convince them that they don’t, I often have to accept the patient’s conclusion.”

Read a full report on Helio here.

Here are some basics on statins:

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