Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia can be prevent with a good weight training program
Researchers are now studying sarcopenia, a fairly new term describing an old condition: muscle mass loss and its effect on the body.
Professor of exercise physiology Gianni Maddalozzo of the University of Oregon has done research focusing on osteoporosis and muscle strength in adults between the ages of 40 and 80. The findings are either extremely exciting and provocative or alarming and discouraging depending on your views of fitness, more specifically weight lifting. Most of the test subjects suffer with a condition known as sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass that occurs naturally with the aging process. Professor Maddalozzo also states initially, that this loss of muscle mass is inevitable.
By comparison to other diseases, sarcopenia is quite subtle, syphoning one fifth of a pound of muscle per year between the ages of 25 and 50 and then advancing the pace thereafter. At 50 muscle loss can total a pound per year. The symptoms, not recognized until it’s too late, due to the fact the body will not get thinner but accumulate fat to fill the void, may not be detected until the unsuspecting victim takes a tumble and breaks a hipbone. The victim finds he has little muscle left to build on during rehab from his injury.
You may still have your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body fat and even aerobic capacity at respectable levels due to tenacious aerobic conditioning but sarcopenia inches forward relentlessly, covertly. In fact, not until 1988 did the scientific community formally name this muscle pilferer. Professor Maddalozzo and others are leading a crusade to illuminate us to the monumental advantages attained from weight lifting.
Research suggests sarcopenia not only diminishes muscle size and strength but has also been linked to weakened immune systems, early stages of heart disease, diabetes, weaker bones, stiffening of the joints and poor posture.
Muscle mass also plays a central role in protein metabolism, affecting our response to stress. A decline in overall metabolic rate can also be attributed to diminishing muscle mass. Further research is expected to draw a correlation between muscle mass and cancer mortality. Views are changing, there will be more emphasis on weight training and the accompanying nutritional component, protein, necessary to develop that muscle mass.
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, PhD, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine states,"We used to discourage older adults from lifting heavy weights. Now we're telling them they can't maintain overall health without it." After age 50, you can't get by just doing aerobic exercise. Robert Wolfe, PhD, a professor of geriatrics at the University of Arkansas says, "But it is far more effective to begin resistance training before the process gains momentum. Intervention in the middle years is necessary." Although the federal government has not mandated it, some agencies such as CDC advocate weight lifting to help curtail the devastating affects of sarcopenia.
By the time a man reaches 25 he has pretty much hit the summit for muscle fiber and from that point on the descent begins. From the ages of 25 thru 50 he can expect to lose 10 percent of his muscle fibers. At age 50 things really spiral downward rapidly: testosterone, human growth hormone, and DHEA dwindle and motor cells of the nervous system deteriorate. As motor cells die, the fibers to which they're attached also die. (Continued next article.)
“Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.” -Orison Swett Marden
References:
New York Academy of Science
Annals of Medicine
Journal of the American College of Surgeons
