What on earth is sarcopenia – and should I care?
Well, it’s a pretty hot topic of discussion in both the medical and health and wellness fields, so we should at least find out something about it.
Sarcopenia describes a condition in which there is loss of skeletal muscle mass, loss of muscle condition, and therefore a reduction in muscle function. It’s mostly associated with ageing – and anyone who has spent time with older people knows what that looks like: their gait becomes shuffly, balance is impaired, and consequently they can no longer easily perform normal daily tasks. This sets up a vicious cycle – as tasks become more challenging they feel disinclined to do them and the lack of exercise speeds up the atrophy of the muscles.
But it also happens in younger people, and we need to know how to prevent it, or at least delay the process.
There is indeed good news! Not long ago the decline was thought to be inevitable, but now we know that there are things we can and must do if we want to prevent it from affecting our lives.
So what are the causes of the condition?
- Reduced daily physical activity – our sedentary lifestyles are a real problem!
- Slowing of nerve cell messaging from brain to muscle, so muscles fail to move.
- A reduction in the protein-promoting hormones such as testosterone and human growth hormone.
- Too few calories for energy production.
- Too little protein to ensure that muscle tissue can continue to rebuild constantly.
Muscle is actually the largest organ in your body, and it’s biodynamic, meaning that it is constantly being broken down and rebuilding. This process is called protein turnover, and as we age this process becomes less efficient.
In order to keep the muscle-building machinery functioning reasonably over time, the amount and quality of our daily protein intake in our diet needs to increase. However, as we get older we tend to lose our appetites. We skimp on protein, especially in the morning. We have greater difficulty digesting our food, and the gap between demand and intake grows wider all the time.
Furthermore, protein malnutrition is a major cause of declining cognitive health and even dementia in later years! So too with your immune capacity, to protect you against viruses and other pathogens.
So a good amount of high quality protein on a daily basis is essential for ongoing good health.
As ever, there are different proteins of different qualities. I strongly recommend NeoLife Shake (or Nutrishake or Sports Performance Protein). They each have slightly different formulation, to serve different specific needs, but all the protein is of exceptionally high quality.
Or, if you’d like to chat to me directly please do get in touch.
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