This Is How You Can Fight Sarcopenia Or Age-Related Muscle Loss

Sarcopenia is a condition of muscle loss that 10% of people above 50 years of age suffer. While aging might be one of the reasons responsible for this condition, there are other causes as well that you can prevent. Workouts regularly and a healthy and nutritious diet can prevent sarcopenia, thus improving life quality and lengthening your lifespan. Sarcopenia can lead to a decrease in life expectancy, but you can take certain steps that might protect you from this particular condition. Here’s what you can do about it.

What Is Sarcopenia?

Sarcopenia, in literal terms, implies the loss of flesh. It causes muscle degeneration in people over 50 years. After you cross middle age, you start losing 3% of your muscle strength on an average every year. Thus, your ability to carry out your routine tasks gets diminished.

Sarcopenia also has a detrimental effect on life expectancy in people who suffer from it compared to those who have retained their muscle strength. Anabolism is the process of cell growth, and catabolism is the process of cell-teardown. Your body doesn’t respond to the growth signals with age, taking its balance more towards muscle loss and catabolism.

Four Factors That Lead To Muscle Loss

Immobility is a big reason why people suffer from sarcopenia. The more you stay away from using your muscles, the faster you lose your muscles, thus growing weak by the day. Lack of movement and bed rest owing to an illness or an injury leads to muscle loss.

Aside from this, if you bring down your walking rate and cut down your routine activities over two to three weeks, you lose your muscle mass and the overall strength of your body. This cycle of decreased activity can prove to be fatal. Reduced muscle strength leads to more fatigue. As a result, it becomes difficult for you to get back to your normal activities.

An unbalanced diet can also be a key reason. Intake of insufficient calories and lack of protein result in muscle loss and weight loss. If you want to prevent sarcopenia, you must have 25 to 30 grams of protein during every meal.

The other causes of muscle loss are inflammation and severe stress. Illnesses such as cancer and the treatment that follows put your body under great stress, and sarcopenia strikes.

Steps That Can Protect You From Sarcopenia

The best way to ward off sarcopenia is to refrain from immobility. Make your muscles work as much as you can. Regular workout sessions, including resistance training, aerobic exercise, and balance training, prevent muscle loss. Moving your body parts against gravity, using resistance bands, and weightlifting are all resistance training parts. These kinds of exercises accelerate the actions of hormones responsible for promoting growth.

It is known to be the most direct way to lose muscles, thereby increasing your muscle mass. As per a study conducted, when 57 people belonging to the age group of 65 to 94 got involved in resistance exercises at least three times a week, it took 12 weeks to strengthen their muscle mass.

Sustained workouts such as endurance training and aerobic exercise positively affect your muscles, helping your body prevent sarcopenia. If studies are to go by, hiking, jogging, or cycling helps increase muscle mass. Women who started by doing these activities for 15 minutes every day could take it to 45 minutes over 12 months. Walking is very helpful in reversing sarcopenia. Six months of this activity can increase muscle mass.

Four Nutrients That Can Prevent Sarcopenia

Consuming the requisite amount of protein every day helps in building as well as strengthening the muscle tissue. The deficiency of Vitamin D might cause sarcopenia. Vitamin D supplements strengthen your muscles. Omega-3 fatty acids are indispensable for your muscle growth.

Creatine is a small protein that forms in the liver, and you can get it either by consuming meat or dietary supplements. It will eventually lead to muscle growth.

Sarcopenia is a common symptom in old age and hurts the quality of life. It brings down life expectancy. Adding good protein to your diet and consuming ample calories, working out, and staying active are some effective ways to save your muscles from sarcopenia. And with healthy lifestyle changes, you will be able to enjoy an active life even in retirement.