Is aspirin harmful to the mitochondria? (a discussion of the research)

Hans

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Another great concern that people might have about aspirin is its effect on the mitochondria (the first 1 I covered was aspirin and intestinal bleeding). There is some research indicating that it might be harmful, and the last thing we would want to do is harm our mitochondria.
But what's the full picture if we look at all the research, including the in vivo human and animal studies and not just selective in vitro studies.

 

grithin

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Article is missing a reference link

Furthermore, aspirin has been shown to inhibit complex I in vitro (R).

Perhaps this study?:


Also, you might revise:

The inhibition of complex I actually have life-extension benefits and that’s one way how aspirin promotes uncoupling

Inhibition of complex I is not a form of uncoupling.

Nonetheless, this is the best article I've seen on aspirin

I don't know if there is a term for what aspirin, at very high doses, does to mitochondria. Normally, the mitochondrial fused network is stringy, grid like. When there's a lot of fission, it looks like a broken, fragmented grid.

But, high dose aspirin creates these separate, large nodular mitochondria:


Unfortunately, the terminology of fission tends to overlap with "fragmented", making it hard to tell without seeing the data whether a study is presenting mitochondria that are actually fissioned (small) or just fragmented (which could be either small or large, but not in a grid network).
 
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Hans

Hans

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Article is missing a reference link


Perhaps this study?:

Yes, thanks. Not sure how I missed that one. Added!

Also, you might revise:


Inhibition of complex I is not a form of uncoupling.
Yes, but it can indirectly stimulate uncoupling.

"Inhibition of both complexes I and III lead to mitochondrial uncoupling when rotenone and antimycin were present at concentrations over 5 μM" (R).

Also, inhibition of complex I produce superoxide, which can stimulate UCP1. But regardless, this is most like not how aspirin stimulates uncoupling so I'll remove that part.

Nonetheless, this is the best article I've seen on aspirin
Thanks!

I don't know if there is a term for what aspirin, at very high doses, does to mitochondria. Normally, the mitochondrial fused network is stringy, grid like. When there's a lot of fission, it looks like a broken, fragmented grid.

But, high dose aspirin creates these separate, large nodular mitochondria:

Unfortunately, the terminology of fission tends to overlap with "fragmented", making it hard to tell without seeing the data whether a study is presenting mitochondria that are actually fissioned (small) or just fragmented (which could be either small or large, but not in a grid network).
Yes, it does appear as if aspirin alters the mitochondria in some way, but I'm not sure it's a bad thing when reasonable doses are used.
Many studies show that aspirin actually improves mitochondrial function.
Here is another one (in vitro though):
"STAT3 is responsible for activation of complex I and complex II in the electron transport chain in cellular homeostasis (Wegrzyn et al., 2009). To study cellular homeostasis and mitochondrial activity following ASA treatment of HepG2 cells, we measured STAT3 gene expression. A significant increase in STAT3 induction was observed at both 50 μM (4.154 ± 0.7 fold) and 0.1 mM ASA (5.787 ± 0.1 fold) as compared to control" (R)
 
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TheBeard

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Aspirin harms muscle recovery and growth



Too bad, because muscle mass preservation is one of Ray Peat's pillars.
 

schultz

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Aspirin harms muscle recovery and growth



Too bad, because muscle mass preservation is one of Ray Peat's pillars.

I don't think people understand the entire picture when it comes to aspirin and muscles. It's definitely not as simple as "aspirin reduces inflammation and inflammation is good for muscles". There is a bigger picture. I think muscle health is likely better with aspirin.
 
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Hans

Hans

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Aspirin harms muscle recovery and growth



Too bad, because muscle mass preservation is one of Ray Peat's pillars.
They only discussed in vitro evidence, but the main point is that aspirin lower PGE2, which might interfere with regeneration since it might be needed. However, there is no human study that shows that aspirin inhibits hypertrophy or exercise recovery or that shows that there is an optimal amount of PGE2 needed for regeneration.
This human study found that NSAIDs actually promoted muscle mass in older individuals (R).
 
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Hans

Hans

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I don't think people understand the entire picture when it comes to aspirin and muscles. It's definitely not as simple as "aspirin reduces inflammation and inflammation is good for muscles". There is a bigger picture. I think muscle health is likely better with aspirin.
Yes, that's what certain studies actually show. I included a study of people taking aspirin pre-workout and it was protective.
 

grithin

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They only discussed in vitro evidence, but the main point is that aspirin lower PGE2, which might interfere with regeneration since it might be needed. However, there is no human study that shows that aspirin inhibits hypertrophy or exercise recovery or that shows that there is an optimal amount of PGE2 needed for regeneration.
This human study found that NSAIDs actually promoted muscle mass in older individuals (R).

It's a bit complicated. Inhibition by aspirin depends on the local concentration along with {the local concentration of pge2, which would be increased by exercise muscle injury}.

Elderly people probably already have excessive levels of COX1,2 activity. Suppression of abnormal activity back to baseline would allow growth fuel (limited dietary protein intake) to be focused on muscle growth rather than unneeded inflammation of age.

Perhaps you can find studies that show over activation of COX, or even just over supply of some inflammatory eicosanoids are inhibitory to stem cells, resulting in a U curve for their effect.
 
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TheBeard

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I don't think people understand the entire picture when it comes to aspirin and muscles. It's definitely not as simple as "aspirin reduces inflammation and inflammation is good for muscles". There is a bigger picture. I think muscle health is likely better with aspirin.

My thinking rationale was that, if arachidonic acid is touted to be a muscle builder thanks to its transiant pro inflammatory properties, then the opposite might go against muscle building.

But yes, there are more factors at play than inflammation.
 

Steed

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A lot of assumptions TheBeard. Aspirin lowers stress related hormones, cortisol for one, that is in itself anabolic for muscle and most likely accounting for the majority of the muscle building effects from anabolic steroids.
 
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TheBeard

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A lot of assumptions TheBeard. Aspirin lowers stress related hormones, cortisol for one, that is in itself anabolic for muscle and most likely accounting for the majority of the muscle building effects from anabolic steroids.

That's bro science.
Majority of the muscle tissue acrued with AAS use is due to increased protein synthesis rate, much more than cortisol opposing effects, and also due to physical stretching brought upon by intramuscular water retention.

Back to the drawing board Paulo.
 

Steed

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”physical stretching brought upon by intramuscular water retention”. C’mon, Peat’s work about mass retention for health purposes has very little to do with edema.

To call muscle breakdown bro science is, in itself, bro science. Liver TAT moves well with muscle increase, as muscle building is about the net effect of building and breaking down.

Have you tried aspirin for building muscle yourself? It works better than most OTC out there.

To Inger in any way that normal aspirin use breaks down muscle is like picking up pennies from the street, while there are bills right next to them.
 

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