How To Fight Muscle Loss Due To Aging

One of the things that you have to contend to when growing older is the possibility of muscle loss. It can and will happen. So what do you have to do about it? Let’s try to find out more and see what we can do to make sure that we can prepare for muscle loss due to aging. After all, this could happen even to the best of us.

Here’s what we’re going to look into:

• What is muscle loss due to aging?
• How does aging affect it and what are the costs?
• What happens when you have muscle loss?
• What are you going to do to fight it?

Now let’s begin.

What Is Muscle Loss Due to Aging?

The exact term for muscle loss due to aging is Sarcopenia. According to Wikipedia, it is the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass (0.5–1% loss per year after the age of 50), quality, and strength associated with aging. Most people begin to lose muscle mass after their 30th birthday, but this loss increases exponentially with age. This is also a condition of the aging process. The aging person tends to lose balance, his or her gait is changed and overall ability to perform tasks are affected by the loss of muscle mass and strength.

Causes and Effects. Sarcopenia is a disease that has multiple causes. The most common ones are the following:

• Neuromuscular Function Loss – This is usually caused by satellite cells. These are cells that are normally activated upon injury or exercise. The older someone gets, the satellite cells decrease in their function thus decreasing neuromuscular function.
• Skeletal Muscle Loss – As we grow older, the lack of regular physical activity, change in protein metabolism, a decrease in certain hormone productions affect the production of muscle.
• Genetics – Sedentary lifestyle that has been happening over generations has affected the way we live. It has also been adapted into our DNA and is passed down to each and everyone of us.

Aside from that here are some other causes:

• Decreasing ability to turn protein into energy
• Lower concentrations of hormones like growth hormones, testosterone, and insulin
• Reduction of nerve cells responsible for sending signals from the brain to the muscle to start movement
• Insufficient calorie or protein consumption

People within the age group of 65 and 80 are more likely to feel the effects of this disease. Even if this does not have any harmful impact on the health and or overall condition of the body, apart from muscle loss. It does have other kinds of effects:

• Conducting movements of the body are hindered because of decreased mobility – Flexibility is affected, and the range of motion is compromised when sarcopenia occurs. This happens the older we get.
• Limitations in doing daily tasks – With the loss of flexibility and range of motion, the tasks we were once used to is affected as well.
• The possibility of being bedridden because of disability of movement – In severe cases, the movement is extremely hindered, and people with this condition cannot move at all. It becomes a full-blown disability.