How to Prevent Age-Related Muscle Loss....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 11-3-2015

I got an email today from The Journal of Natural Longevity

To get on their email list,

     email:  info@JournalofNaturalLongevity.com 

Presented by Quantum Wellness Botanical Institute, LLC., a supplement company.

Their article was well enough done, I decided to use an enhanced version as today’s post.

How to Prevent Age-Related Muscle Loss was the theme.

To have decades more healthy life you need to be able to walk and lift things and not be super fat or frail. 

If you have to use a walker or a wheel chair and have people do things for you, your ability to live an enjoyable and productive life is impaired.  And you will likely not live as long.

Simply put, from about age 20 to age 65 people who don’t do some kind of strength training and eat enough protein, their muscles gradually reduce in size and strength.

In addition to this people who don’t prevent this muscle loss, release less of the nerve cell and brain cell growth factor BDNF and have less blood circulation and tend to lose the mitochondria that generates energy in ALL their cells.  This also tends to cause various kinds of mental decline and a reduction in energy and vitality.

And the kicker is that it’s so gradual it’s hardly noticeable; BUT the muscle you lose was burning a lot of calories.  After 10 years you eat the same as you were; but the fat you then gain takes up more room than the muscle you used to be feeding. That results in getting fatter without eating more or even eating badly!

Age-related muscle loss results in “middle aged spread” in both sexes because of this.

So, it’s really quite important to prevent age-related muscle loss to have the decades of extra life worth living you can have!

Here are excerpts from their article with comments and extras from me:

“Age-related muscle loss can kick in as early as your 30s if you haven't taken preventative measures.  

Studies show that without the right dietary and exercise choices, muscles deteriorate at an average of 7 pounds of muscle every 10 years. 

Here's the good news: it doesn't matter how old you are, you can start regenerating muscle in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and upward.  Of course, prevention is key, but it's never too late to start turning the tables on muscle wasting. 

Why Muscle Maintenance Is So Critical to Health 

As your muscles succumb to age-related decline you are left more vulnerable to falls and hip fractures.  But muscle maintenance doesn't just protect your mobility and keep you physically pliable; it also helps to keep your metabolic function in order.  Your muscles play a significant role in hormone balance, protect against weight gain and obesity, and help keep diabetes and cardiovascular disease at bay.”

1.  Insulin resistance from eating too much fast carbs such as high fructose corn syrup and excess sugar and  any refined grain wheat tends to remove muscle mass!

"The more insulin sensitive you are, the more protected your muscles are.  Insulin sensitivity helps shield the muscles from breaking down between meals or at night when you are sleeping....."

"You can help prevent the effects of age-related muscle decline and help regenerate muscle in the process by activating the mechanism responsible for insulin sensitivity and muscle building: mTOR...."

"The mTOR mechanism must be activated in order for muscle building to occur. If your insulin receptors are resistant, muscle decline becomes unavoidable.”

2.  “Eat More Protein for Muscle Regeneration 

You don't need any supplements or surgeries to activate the mTOR mechanism; you just need to make the right diet and exercise choices.  A varied diet made up of organic and grass-fed food sources is imperative.  Recent research shows that people over the age of 50 may benefit from increased protein intake.  

A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Physiology shows that optimal muscle synthesis is best supported by 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day, a recommendation that is double that of the current RDA guidelines."

(The Perfect Workout found that clients who ate less protein than this guideline got less strength increase and health benefits from the otherwise effective strength training there.

Mike Matthews says that more than 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram is not needed; but that power lifters and body builders found that less than that level reduced gains.  This is almost exactly a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.  

Note that if you are several pounds to dozens of pounds overfat, you do NOT need to eat enough protein for those pounds.  But if you want to gain 10 pounds of muscle or 20 pounds, you do want to eat enough protein for those pounds of added muscle.

Currently I weigh 168 pounds and have about 126 lean pounds.  I want to have 145 lean pounds by adding 16 pounds of muscle and weigh only 161.  This would reduce my pounds of fat from 42 to 16!  So this suggests I should get 126 to 145 to 161 grams of protein a day. But I do NOT need to eat 168 grams of protein or more!)

“An easy way to get more protein is with whey.  Whey protein is made up of essential amino acids, including leucine, which stimulate mTOR and helps create and build muscle.  Whey protein also increases levels of GLP-1, a peptide that encourages healthy insulin levels and boosts human growth hormone.”

(Whey is unusually effective for muscle building and maintaining for another reason:  The protein profile of whey and human muscle is nearly identical.  And research many years ago found that such a protein match increased muscle building and strength increases when people did strength training.

Jarrow sells whey from grass fed cows so you can avoid eating whey high in pro-inflammatory omega 6 oils by using their whey.)

3.  "Exercise Is Essential 

You must exercise in order to maintain and build muscle.

Experts recommend integrating a program of low-level aerobic exercise, high-intensity interval training, and strength training, which is especially important for seniors.  

The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services all suggest a minimum of 2 days of strength training a week.  

Strength training may seem daunting if you’ve never done it, but you don’t have to start off with barbells like a weight lifter.  You can use your own body weight for resistance, and even if you are extremely frail, you can still do seated strength-training exercises under the guidance of a trainer…working to build that muscle steadily and surely. It is never too late to start regenerating muscle and improving your health!"

Progressive strength training using slow rep strength training with relatively heavy weights you gradually get strong enough to increase is ideal.

(I learned to do this by becoming a client of The Perfect Workout and by trying out the method in two ways in my at home workout that I was already doing.

My next step is to do progressive power lifting with sets of 5 & 3 & 1 where one is my maximum I can lift. And use slow rep strength training with slightly lighter weights than in my set of 5 in addition.  To do this I'll need to go to a local gym where they have the heavier barbells I'll need for this.

4.  Another health benefit of this kind of strength training is that it also prevents bone strength losses in the bones attached to muscles you exercise!

In fact, The Perfect Workout and its use of the Leg Press and slow rep strength training were originally developed to see if such exercise stopped or even partly reduced reductions in bone strength.  It tested to do so with no other interventions added!

But if you also stop drinking all soft drinks because the acid from carbonation and the phosphoric acid in colas leaches calcium from your bones, you’ll stop this very common cause of extra bone weakening.

AND, we now know that taking the real optimum intake of vitamin D3 of 7,000 to 10,000 iu and 200 to 600 mg of magnesium and 3 mg a day of boron and vitamin K2 helps to keep bones strong and even get stronger when you strength train.

Oddly, getting extra calcium seems to be neutral at best and even harmful in people who don’t take vitamin K2.

Conclusion:

People who do these things to prevent muscle and bone loss tend to continue to live worthwhile lives and do things for themselves well into their late nineties.

People who do none of them can wind up in walkers and wheel chairs before age 70 and in nursing homes not long after that.

People who don’t do them even at younger ages become MUCH fatter as well.

So doing these preventive things is well worth it!