Effect of different medications on exercise!

Either you or somebody you know might be on some kind of long term medications! I am not talking about somebody who takes an aspirin or a paracetamol or some antipyretic. When I say long term medications-I am talking about cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar lowering drugs. When a patient usually gets on any of these drugs there are high chances that they are on them forever!

Each one of these medications has a tremendous impact on the body which comes as a blow if you an exercise person!

Every medication has a different set of action, here are some points for you to keep in mind!

(1) Cholesterol medications

• Most commonly used cholesterol medication is statin.
• The generic names of these drugs mostly available are Rosuvastatin, Atorvastatin, Fluvastatin, Lovastatin, Pravastatin, Simvastatin, Pitavastatin.

(To check which statin is your medication- check behind the tablet. Salt name is always mentioned. If in case it is not mentioned, check it on company’s site)

• Statins deplete CoEnzyme Q10 in the body which is very important for muscles to make energy. This will affect your strength training routine. Post strength training recovery will be slow.
• It might also lead to rhabdomyolysis which means muscle death is definitely not good!

So, what can be done?

• The first thing which you should always try is getting off statins as soon as possible with some changes in your diet and exercise routine. You can ask your coach to help you with this! (Let your doctor change your medicines and coach can guide the path to that!)
• While you are on a statin, you should always try a gradual progress. Do not rush into any kind of exercise routine. Give your body enough time to get adapted.
• Take longer recovery time. Instead of having a 1-day gap between your strength training schedules you can take 2 days gap which will give your muscles more time to recover! You can do light workouts on the day when you don’t plan to do strength training.

(2) Beta blockers

• This is a group of medications used for lowering down the high blood pressure.
• Most commonly used beta blockers are atenolol, bisoprolol, propranolol, metroporolol.

(To check which beta blocker is your medication- check behind the tablet. Salt name is always mentioned. If in case it is not mentioned, check it on company’s site)

• People who are on beta blockers see that their heart rate is always less no matter what form of exercise they do. Maintaining a proper heart rate during different activities is very important for having a good cardiac health.
• People taking beta blockers witness that their heart rate after a sprint and after a moderate jogging is exactly the same. In fact, this shouldn’t be the case. It has to be more while sprinting than jogging.

So, what can be done?

• Instead of checking your heart rate for your exercise progress, start checking your exertion timing.
• If you start panting very soon, note that time. Work on your stamina and then go ahead. Beta blockers will always keep your heart rate low.

(3) ACE inhibitors

• These are another set of medications which are used in the treatment of lowering your high blood pressure!
• Most commonly used ACE inhibitors are fosinopril, lisinopril, quinapril.

(To check which ACE inhibitor is your medication- check behind the tablet. The salt name is always mentioned. If in case it is not mentioned, check it on company’s site)

• There are 2 types of people- One who has high blood pressure and is not taking any medication and another one who has high blood pressure and is on either beta blocker or ace inhibitor. If the person without the medication exercises, his blood pressure will come down automatically post exercise. This is called as post exercise hypotension.
• This even happens with someone who is a blood pressure medication, but then it can go really very low! That’s the reason people feel dizzy, shaky, nauseous, blurred vision post exercise. Sometimes the person can faint as well.

So, what can be done?

• For obvious reasons, you cannot skip the medications and neither can you skip your workout but you can definitely manage it.
• For people on BP medications, you should cool down a bit longer than an average person. Instead of a 5-minute cooldown, do a 10-minute cooldown.
• Your heart beat tracker can help you in this!
• For example, if your heart rate is 140 beats per minute- Post workout it can drop to 110 which is ok. After another minute it might go further low to 90. Hold on. Breathe it. Stretch yourself. Your targeted heart beat should be only 10% more than your RHR (Resting heart rate) which is around 60-70 beats per minute.

(4) Blood sugar lowering medications

• There are different blood sugar lowering medications which affect the body in different ways.
• Either they increase the insulin function, or removes excess sugar out through urine or decreases the amount of carbohydrate absorption in the body
• For a non-diabetic person, while exercising there are different hormonal fluctuation which happens. Adrenaline is released followed by a surge in the cortisol levels and these hormones rise the blood sugar levels. To bring this down, pancreas secretes another hormone called as insulin which brings the elevated sugars down. So, the fluctuation is not seen whereas this is not the case in people with diabetes.
• Some medications can cause hypoglycemia (Blood sugars below 70) in diabetics.

    So, what can be done?

• Well, in this case, nothing much can be done apart from monitoring.
• Check your blood sugar levels before exercising, middle of the exercise and after the workout gets over.
• Keep half glass of fruit juice or 1 glass of milk always with you and if the sugar drops please consume either of this.
• Do strength training, reduce your carbohydrates, add enough proteins to your routine and ask your doctor to reduce your medications!

Questions for me? Please drop in the comments below!