NSAIDs won't protect ultra-marathoners' muscles

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen during endurance events does not help prevent muscle damage or next-day muscle soreness, a study in ultra-marathoners indicates.

In fact, using NSAIDs during competition could actually be bad for muscles, Dr. Steven McAnulty of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina and colleagues found.

Based on their findings, they urge caution in using NSAIDs during ultra-distance exercise events.

Long, marathon-type runs are known to create a state of "oxidative stress" that damages cells in the body over time. But it's not clear whether oxidative stress during endurance workouts causes muscle damage.

To investigate, and also determine how taking NSAIDs might influence the relationship, McAnulty's team looked at markers of muscle damage and oxidative stress in 60 men and women before and after they competed in the Western States Endurance Run, during which they ran160 kilometers (99-mile) in 77 hours, on average.

Seventy-two percent of the runners used NSAIDs during the race, most frequently ibuprofen.

According to McAnulty and colleagues, there were no differences in blood levels of proteins indicating muscle damage between the NSAID users and athletes who didn't use these medications. Levels of most oxidative stress indicators also were the same in both groups after the race. And there was no relationship between oxidative stress and a competitor's degree of post-race muscle soreness.

However, levels of protein carbonyls (PCs) -- key indicators of oxidative stress -- were "dramatically increased" after the race in NSAID users only.

And athletes who had taken NSAIDs actually reported more muscle soreness the day after the race than those who didn't take these medications.

SOURCE: International Journal of Sports Medicine, November 2007.