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Does long term opiate use cause muscle loss?

WantToBeReborn

Bluelighter
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Jan 24, 2014
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Altered States of Mind.
Hello

I'm currently on a long taper off opiate pain meds, from long term use at high doses. It seems that gradually, the muscle bulk in my body has been depleting, even though I eat a lot and have a monster metabolism. I've been told that the muscle in my legs especially the quads, is wasted by medics who are not yet quite sure what is causing it. At one stage it was thought that a previous rare tumour affecting metabolism might be related but it was never linked to this recent fast loss of muscle.

Do opiates make it hard to maintain normal muscle mass even in people who still eat a lot? Or make it hard to gain musce bulk whilst taking opiates?

I'm a small female and probably eat about 4000+ calories a day with good proteins but I still can't gain weight or muscle.

Any suggestions how to rebuild my quads would help as I do feel my legs are weak. Now I am detoxing, I need to start looking at ways to rebuild strength and fitness and combat the deconditioning of 7 weeks detoxing, much of it hardly able to do much and much sickness/dehydration.

All suggestions welcome.
 
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If you were a male... opioids could be the cause. They lower testosterone levels especially in the long term.
But you're a female so I'm not sure. Maybe you have low estrogen levels...
 
Opiates disrupt the body's hormone system and muscle atrophy can be a symptom of this, regardless if you are male or female.
 
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