To build muscle you are tearing the muscles and letting it heal. Does this not increase risk of mutations that might turn into cancer like how repeated damage to skin or lung cells can cause cancer?
I don’t think it is a cancer risk but I would like an explanation as to why.
In: Biology
There’s some debate around the topic but it’s largely agreed that muscles grow by hypertrophy and not hyperplasia.
Hypertrophy is when existing cells get bigger, hyperplasia is when new cells are added to the mix through cell division.
The number of muscle cells you have is predetermined by genetics. Working out produces damage to the muscles that you described.
This damage produces a signalling cascade that stimulates muscle stem cells – myosatellite cells – to turn into immature muscle cells – myoblasts – which then fuse with existing muscle cells in the damaged area, making those muscle cells larger without actually adding a new muscle cell into the mix.
So there’s not actually a whole load of cell divisions going on when it comes to muscle growth. It’s high rates of cell division that increase the risk of cancer.
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