{"id":3107,"date":"2026-07-24T02:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/?p=3107"},"modified":"2026-07-24T02:14:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:14:53","slug":"statins-damage-muscles-by-increasing-endotoxin-lps-absorption-and-inhibiting-glucose-metabolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/?p=3107","title":{"rendered":"Statins damage muscles by increasing endotoxin\/LPS absorption and inhibiting glucose metabolism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Statin drugs that lower cholesterol are perhaps the most widely prescribed medications globally. Despite their effectiveness at lowering cholesterol, the evidence that they actually decrease rusk of future heart disease (CVD) or ameliorate already existing one is very slim. In addition, evidence has emerged over the years that statins have severe side effects, including increased risk of muscle damage, and even some evidence of them causing the lethal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) condition. While all of those risks have been vehemently disputes by Big Pharma, the evidence of statin risks is stubborn and continues to accumulate. One of the plausible mechanisms through which statins may be causing muscle issues is the fact that statin inhibit the synthesis of the crucial mitochondrial electorn carries Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Animals depleted of CoQ10 reliably develop severe mayopathies, including cardiomyopathy, and usually die if the CoQ10 depletion is severe enough. However, statins have also been implicated in increasing chronic inflammation and so far there has been no plausible mechanism of action proposed for this side effect of statins. The study below offers one plausible explanation. Namely, it found that statins increased endotoxin absorption into the bloodstream, and that (aside from PUFA and its metabolites) is probably the main endogenous pathway for creating systemic inflammation. In addition, statins were found to inhibit glucose metabolism, which is known to both cause inflammation de-novo and also synergize with endotoxin to further increase the inflammatory burden posed by endotoxni alone. If the study findings below are confirmed by other studies, it would mean that statins may be one of the most dangerous classes of drugs, considering the vital systemic effects of endotoxn and glucose oxidation, affecting every tissue\/organ and not just muscles. But even if we limit ourselves to muscle damage, it is mighty ironic that statins are prescribed to protect the heart, which is a muscle itself, when in reality statins can severely damage muscles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.adz3612\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.adz3612<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellhealth.com\/statins-may-contribute-to-muscle-weakness-12010808\">https:\/\/www.verywellhealth.com\/statins-may-contribute-to-muscle-weakness-12010808<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;Healthcare providers prescribe <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>statins<\/strong><\/span> to manage cholesterol levels. However, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>muscle pain and weakness can be side effects<\/strong><\/span>.<span class=\"mntl-inline-citation mntl-dynamic-tooltip--trigger\" tabindex=\"0\" data-id=\"#citation-1\">1 <\/span>In a 2026 study, researchers may have revealed the biological mechanism underlying this drug\u2019s effects on muscles.<span class=\"mntl-inline-citation mntl-dynamic-tooltip--trigger\" tabindex=\"0\" data-id=\"#citation-2\" data-tooltip-position-x=\"center\" data-tooltip-position-y=\"bottom\">2<\/span>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;To investigate\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellhealth.com\/side-effects-of-statins-8633448\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">why statins might cause side effects<\/a>, researchers used a clinical model of the low-level damage they cause. They found that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>statins can introduce lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of bacteria, which can trigger an immune response<\/strong><\/span> in some people, making them more susceptible to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>statin-related myopathy (muscle damage)<\/strong><\/span>. \u201cWe discovered that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><strong>statins cause a type of metabolic danger, which lowers the ability to use sugar in muscle cells<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/experts.mcmaster.ca\/people\/schertze\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">Jonathan Schertzer, PhD<\/a>, one of the study\u2019s authors and professor of biochemistry and biochemical sciences at McMaster University, told Verywell. \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>This activates a very specific immune response that promotes muscle damage directly within muscle cells<\/strong><\/span>.\u201d The study also showed that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>the muscle side effects might be separate from statins\u2019 cholesterol-lowering effects<\/strong><\/span>. \u201cImportantly, we found that the pathway to muscle side effects was completely separate from the\u00a0<a class=\"recommendation-inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellhealth.com\/statins-anti-inflammatory-and-other-good-effects-698210\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">cholesterol-lowering benefits<\/a>\u00a0of statins,\u201d said Schertzer.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Statin drugs that lower cholesterol are perhaps the most widely prescribed medications globally. Despite their effectiveness at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[490,9,542,2250,12,10,1267,482],"class_list":["post-3107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-cholesterol","tag-endotoxin","tag-glucose","tag-inflammasone","tag-inflammation","tag-lps","tag-myopathy","tag-statin","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3107"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haidut.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}