It affects about one in three older adults, it’s debilitating, it fast-tracks mortality, and finally it is gaining greater recognition.
Sarcopenia Australia Day was officially launched just last year in July 2018 by the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science, the University of Melbourne and Western Health to increase awareness, detection and treatment of this muscle wasting disease.
The “new disease on the block”?
In November 2016, Sarcopenia was dubbed the “‘new’ disease on the block” by SBS news, shortly after it was recognised by the World Health Organisation and given its own ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) code in October that year.
Its label as a disease may be new, but the condition certainly isn’t.
Irving Rosenberg first devised the term sarcopenia (sarx = flesh; penia = loss) in 1988 to describe the disease, saying, “no single feature of age-related decline (is) more striking than the decline in lean body mass.”
Despite this, the disease didn’t gain traction until more recent years. Professor Gustavo Duque from the University of Melbourne is pushing for greater recognition of the condition.
He told SBS news that “People progressively lose the capacity to do the things that they usually do and they don’t know why.”
The disease is “to muscles what osteoporosis is to bones”, but doctors are often unaware of the condition, he said.
It can be particularly tricky to detect if patients are not visually wasting away; low muscle mass can even coexist with obesity.
Some muscle wasting is normal with ageing, but thousands of older Australians have accelerated muscle loss, leading to increased risk of falls, fractures, and hospitalisation.
And it affects more than just muscles. Muscle mass makes up more than half of overall body tissue, and so far research suggests its degradation has widespread ramifications including poor wound healing, increased risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, poor lung function and even breast cancer.
Prevention is supreme
Diet and exercise become increasingly important as we age, and our body’s ability to repair and regenerate muscle is not what it used to be.
Physical activity helps to maintain muscle mass and strength – especially resistance training. But any activity can help, even small, regular movements or 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise can promote muscle growth.
The importance of protein cannot be underestimated. Protein has numerous functions for maintaining the body’s metabolic processes and is important for maintaining lean muscle mass and healthy bone density.
Other nutrients can also help, including Vitamin D, creatinine supplementation (combined with resistance training), and minerals such as magnesium, selenium and zinc.
Importantly, the best results come from combining movement with good nutrition for stronger muscles and better, longer quality of life.
References
http://seniorau.com.au/8119-sarcopenia-disease-given-greater-recognition
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sarcopenia-new-disease-affects-thousands
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27470918
http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/debilitating-disease-recognised-national-day
