Your guide to sarcopenia management

Here at Rise and Shine Healthcare, I help you stay active and do the activities you love at any age. Today we'll chat about sarcopenia. This is one of my favourite topics. Doing the activities you love without physical restriction represents freedom.

What is sarcopenia?

Sarcopenia is from the Greek word "sarx" meaning flesh and "penia" meaning lack of. It is a progressive and generalized muscle disorder characterized by decreases in:

  • muscle strength

  • muscle function

  • muscle mass

These changes accumulate as you age and present when you are older. But this can happen in younger people too. There are two types of sarcopenia:

  • Age-related sarcopenia

  • Sarcopenia due to chronic disease or loss of mobility

In this article, I will be discussing age-related sarcopenia.

Muscle strength & age

Your muscle strength and function vary across your lifespan. It increases in your youth and stays consistent through adulthood until ~40 years old. At age 50, strength begins to decline at 1.5-5% per year.

As you lose strength, you risk losing the ability to do the activities you love. It also increases the risk of falls, fractures, and physical disability. Loss of independence may increase the need for long-term care.

Some factors affecting muscle strength loss with age

Inactivity or sedentary lifestyle:

If you don’t use it, you lose it. Physical inactivity accelerates the loss of muscle strength.

Changes in physiology:

Your brain, nervous system, and muscles change as you age. You tend to lose the muscles that produce force and power. This changes your physical performance.

Resistance to anabolic stimuli:

Resistance training and protein intake are two stimuli that encourage muscle growth. After a meal with adequate protein, muscle building exceeds muscle breakdown. With age, you need more protein per meal to stimulate muscle growth. Without resistance training and adequate protein, muscle breakdown exceeds muscle growth. Over time, you lose enough muscle to affect your physical ability.

Insulin resistance:

After eating a meal, insulin signals muscle cells to take up amino acids from the food. Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle. As you age, the effects of insulin on muscle diminish. Amino acid transport into cells declines.

Body composition changes:

Excess body fat affects the muscle’s ability to take up amino acids. These are the building blocks of muscle.

What can you control?

So far, this sounds like bad news. But with any situation, there are things you can control and things you cannot. Let's focus on the things we can control.

When building lean muscle, the following are important:

1. Diet & nutrition

2. Physical activity

Some say the best time to start was yesterday but the next best time is right now.

Youth & young adults: maximize muscle strength & mass

Middle-aged adults: maintain muscle strength & mass

Older adults: decrease muscle strength and muscle mass loss

Practical Takeaways

Nutrition

  • Adequate total energy intake for the day

  • ~1.6 g/kg/day of protein per day to maximize muscle building

  • Older individuals, aim for 30-40 g protein per meal, at least 4 meals

  • Younger individuals, aim for 25-30 g protein per meal, at least 4 meals

Physical Activity

If you are inactive, starting with a small & simple routine can be enough to help get the ball rolling. The best exercise is the exercise you’ll do. Incorporate aerobic and resistance exercises to meet the physical activity guidelines. Doing what you can right now is better than being perfect.

Management of chronic disease

Work together with your family doctor to manage the symptoms of chronic diseases that may affect muscle and bone mass.

For more support with your nutrition and physical activity, book an appointment online to work with me.

Reference

Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Bahat G, Bauer J, et al. Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis [published correction appears in Age Ageing. 2019 Jul 1;48(4):601]. Age Ageing. 2019;48(1):16-31. doi:10.1093/ageing/afy169

Ganapathy A, Nieves JW. Nutrition and Sarcopenia-What Do We Know?. Nutrients. 2020;12(6):1755. Published 2020 Jun 11. doi:10.3390/nu12061755

Bauer J, Morley JE, Schols AMWJ, et al. Sarcopenia: A Time for Action. An SCWD Position Paper. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2019;10(5):956-961. doi:10.1002/jcsm.12483

Tournadre A, Vial G, Capel F, Soubrier M, Boirie Y. Sarcopenia. Joint Bone Spine. 2019;86(3):309-314. doi:10.1016/j.jbspin.2018.08.001

Melinda LamComment