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Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age

Sarcopenia is the loss of skeletal muscle mass which occurs as we age. We can start losing muscle mass in our 30s, and the process continues relentlessly and accelerates after 50. Like loss of bone mass (osteopenia), we experience specific changes as we enter into new decades of our lives that ultimately signal a slowing down in general physiological function. While these changes are preprogrammed into us… they do not need to be our reality– if we pay attention now.

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Featured

 Doctors Seek Way to Treat Muscle Loss

Bears emerge from months of hibernation with their muscles largely intact. Not so for people, who, if bedridden that long, would lose so much muscle they would have trouble standing. Why muscles wither with age is captivating a growing number of scientists, drug and food companies, let alone aging baby boomers who, despite having spent years sweating in the gym, are confronting the body’s natural loss of muscle tone over time.

 What Is Sarcopenia and How Can Older Adults Prevent Its tragic Impacts

You may ask, what is sarcopenia? Is it a disease, an insect, or food? Is it something we should fear? The answer is, “Yes and No.” The name itself sounds gross, but no, it is not a disease, insect, or food. And no, we should not fear sarcopenia. However, we should know what it is, and how we can wage the noble fight against it.

Articles of Interest

Could extreme exercise help slow down the ageing process?

Meet the older people who believe their punishing exercise routines are keeping them young.

Am I too old to build muscle? What science says about sarcopenia and building strength later in life

Sarcopenia is the progressive and accelerated loss of muscle mass and strength as we age. The term was coined in the 1980s, and the condition has been recognised as a disease for less than a decade, but the concept is as old as time: use it or lose it. But what if you’re in your 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s? Is it “too late” to build muscle and fight sarcopenia? Here’s what the research says.

Challenges in the Management of Sarcopenia in the Primary Care Setting: A Scoping Review

The initiation of treatment that comprises resistance exercise training and nutrition should not be delayed, as they are salient in the management of sarcopenia.

Health Consequences of Sarcopenic Obesity: A Narrative Review

Sarcopenia is defined as the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength or physical performance. Increased amounts of adipose tissue often accompany sarcopenia, a condition referred to as sarcopenic obesity. The prevalence of sarcopenic obesity among adults is rapidly increasing worldwide. However, the lack of a universal definition of sarcopenia limits comparisons between studies.

How to Get Strong

Everyone knows that exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. But most people ignore one crucial component of it: resistance training. According to federal researchers, only 6 percent of adults do the recommended minimum amount of at least two muscle-strengthening workouts each week. Neglecting resistance training – any type of workout that builds strength and muscle – is a big mistake.

How to Keep Your Muscles Strong as You Age

Researchers are looking at promising treatments including inhibiting a naturally occurring protein called myostatin that curbs muscle growth. Pharmaceutical companies already have drugs in the pipeline that act by blocking myostatin or blocking the sites where it is detected in the body, potentially rebuilding muscle.

Role of exercise in age-related sarcopenia

Mitochondrial oxidative stress, apoptosis, and dynamics, and mitophagy, myostatin, and inflammatory cytokines are all believed to be associated with age-related sarcopenia. Nevertheless, aerobic, resistance, and combined exercise training regimes have been shown to produce the most beneficial preventive and therapeutic effects. Further research is required to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for protective effect of regular exercise training on age-induced sarcopenia of skeletal muscles.

Sarcopenia in older adults

Although no consensus diagnosis has been reached, sarcopenia is increasingly defined by both loss of muscle mass and loss of muscle function or strength. Its cause is widely regarded as multifactorial, with neurological decline, hormonal changes, inflammatory pathway activation, declines in activity, chronic illness, fatty infiltration, and poor nutrition, all shown to be contributing factors.

Sarcopenia – Age Related Muscle Loss

Sarcopaenia is a condition that affects each and every one of us, often with life changing consequences, yet ask most people and that have probably never even heard of the word!

Sarcopenia: A Time for Action. An SCWD Position Paper

The term sarcopenia was introduced in 1988. The original definition was a “muscle loss” of the appendicular muscle mass in the older people as measured by dual energy x‐ray absorptiometry (DXA). In 2010, the definition was altered to be low muscle mass together with low muscle function and this was agreed upon as reported in a number of consensus papers.

Sarcopenia: burden and challenges for public health

Sarcopenia, operationally defined as the loss of muscle mass and muscle function, is a major health condition associated with ageing, and contributes to many components of public health at both the patient and the societal levels. Currently, no consensual definition of sarcopenia exists and therefore it is still a challenge to establish the actual prevalence of sarcopenia or to establish the direct and indirect impacts of sarcopenia on public health. Anyway, this geriatric syndrome represents a huge potential public health issue because of its multiple clinical and societal consequences.

Screening Tools for Sarcopenia

In this review article, screening tools for sarcopenia, with a focus on the SARC-F, were outlined. Although the SARC-F has the limitation of low sensitivity, it is an excellent assessment tool because it has high specificity for sarcopenia, and correlates well with other screening tools, prognosis and the level of nursing care.

The Current Understanding of Sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is defined in the literal sense from the Greek for “poverty of the flesh” and is the natural, aging-related process of the loss of LM. Skeletal muscle undergoes numerous changes during adult aging including fiber atrophy, loss of type II muscle fibers, clustering of type I fibers, a reduction in fast motor units, fatty infiltration, and neuromuscular changes that all may contribute to the process of sarcopenia.

The Unseen Role Our Muscles Play in Getting Older

Our muscles allow us to go about our days with ease, but we rarely think about how we’re treating them—and we should, especially as we age.

Understanding Sarcopenia Development

Although significant progress has been made in our understanding of the molecular and biochemical contributors to sarcopenia, further research using well-controlled clinical trials are needed to determine the long-term benefit of exercise and nutrition on aging skeletal muscle.

Resources

Physiopedia

Sarcopenia most commonly affects elderly and sedentary populations and patients who have comorbidities that affect the musculoskeletal system or impair physical activity. Sarcopenia leads to disability, falls, and increased mortality. Sarcopenia has been linked to an increased prevalence of osteoporosis, thus further increasing its propensity to produce fractures.