If you pop prescription painkillers when a workout leaves you with sore muscles, you may not be doing yourself a favor. Recent research shows that the body's inflammatory reaction to the minor injury caused by vigorous exercise could in fact be an essential part of recovery. Tamping it down with meds seems to inhibit healing.
Lead author Matthias Rother and colleagues in the Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine of the Sophien and Hufeland Clinic in Weimar, Germany, presented their findings at the European congress of Sports Medicine. They tested a potent drug, ketoprofen (brand names Actron, Orudis, and others) as well as a less powerful drug, celecoxib (brand name Celebrex).
"The use of NSAIDs [non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] seems like a reasonable therapeutic approach for treatment and is frequently used in daily practice," they wrote. "But evidence for treatment effects is controversial. One of the reasons why the effect of NSAID´s might be limited are detrimental effects on recovery . . . Ketoprofen as a highly potent anti-inflammatory drug may, in contrast to the less potent celecoxib, causes deleterious effects on recovery from muscle soreness. The results may imply that the inflammatory reaction following muscle injury . . . is an essential part of recovery."
They added in conclusion: "Since the effect of celecoxib for DOMS [delayed onset muscle soreness] was only modest and not significant, usage of NSAIDs for the treatment of exercise induced muscle soreness cannot be supported."
