Physical activity and nutrition in ageing and independent living (original) (raw)
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Strategies to Prevent Sarcopenia in the Aging Process: Role of Protein Intake and Exercise
Nutrients, 2021
Sarcopenia is one of the main issues associated with the process of aging. Characterized by muscle mass loss, it is triggered by several conditions, including sedentary habits and negative net protein balance. According to World Health Organization, it is expected a 38% increase in older individuals by 2025. Therefore, it is noteworthy to establish recommendations to prevent sarcopenia and several events and comorbidities associated with this health issue condition. In this review, we discuss the role of these factors, prevention strategies, and recommendations, with a focus on protein intake and exercise.
Clinical Nutrition, 2014
The aging process is associated with gradual and progressive loss of muscle mass along with lowered strength and physical endurance. This condition, sarcopenia, has been widely observed with aging in sedentary adults. Regular aerobic and resistance exercise programs have been shown to counteract most aspects of sarcopenia. In addition, good nutrition, especially adequate protein and energy intake, can help limit and treat age-related declines in muscle mass, strength, and functional abilities. Protein nutrition in combination with exercise is considered optimal for maintaining muscle function.
Impact of nutrition on muscle mass, strength, and performance in older adults
Osteoporosis International, 2012
Muscle strength plays an important role in determining risk for falls, which result in fractures and other injuries. While bone loss has long been recognized as an inevitable consequence of aging, sarcopenia-the gradual loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength that occurs with advancing age-has recently received increased attention. A review of the literature was undertaken to identify nutritional factors that contribute to loss of muscle mass. The role of protein, acid-base balance, vitamin D/calcium, and other
Exercise and Protein Intake: A Synergistic Approach against Sarcopenia
BioMed research international, 2017
Sarcopenia, the age-dependent loss of muscle mass and function/strength, is increasingly recognized as a major risk factor for adverse outcomes in frail older people. As such, the skeletal muscle is a relevant target for interventions aimed at preventing or postponing the occurrence of negative health-related events in late life. The association among physical inactivity, insufficient intake of energy and protein, and poor muscle health in older adults suggests that physical exercise and targeted nutritional supplementation may offer substantial therapeutic gain against sarcopenia and its negative correlates. This view is supported by observational studies as well as by small-scale clinical trials. In this review, we summarize the available evidence on the beneficial effects of behavioral interventions on sarcopenia. We also briefly describe how the knowledge gathered so far has been used to design the "Sarcopenia and Physical fRailty IN older people: multicomponenT Treatment s...
Combined Exercise and Dietary Intervention to Optimize Body Composition in Aging
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1998
Concomitant losses of skeletal muscle and bone mass along with gradual accretion of adipose tissue typify usual human aging. Recent investigations have attempted to modify these processes with various combinations of dietary and exercise intervention in older adults. Complete nutritional supplements given with weight-lifting exercise have been shown to augment muscle and fat gains in healthy older men, but have merely suppressed habitual dietary intake when administered to frail sedentary elders, and have not altered body composition responses to strength training in this population. Protein supplementation at twice the RDA does not improve skeletal muscle function or increase muscle mass in healthy elderly weight lifters compared to those on a normal diet. Calcium supplementation during one year of aerobic training has an independent beneficial effect on cortical bone density at the femoral neck in postmenopausal women, whereas the exercise is associated with trabecular bone increases in the lumbar vertebrae. Hypocaloric dieting, with or without aerobic exercise, results in losses of weight, fat and lean mass in obese elderly men and women. By contrast, resistance training during hypocaloric dieting augments lean mass while further reducing fat mass. Low protein, isoenergetic diets result in muscle atrophy in older women. Current studies will determine the ability of resistance training to offset these catabolic effects on skeletal muscles of a low-protein (0.6 g/kg/day) diet prescribed for elderly with chronic renal failure. More longterm studies of efficacy and feasibility of diet and exercise combinations are needed in the aged to optimize the potential for healthful shifts in body composition.
Role of Dietary Protein and Muscular Fitness on Longevity and Aging
Aging and disease, 2018
Muscle atrophy is an unfortunate effect of aging and many diseases and can compromise physical function and impair vital metabolic processes. Low levels of muscular fitness together with insufficient dietary intake are major risk factors for illness and mortality from all causes. Ultimately, muscle wasting contributes significantly to weakness, disability, increased hospitalization, immobility, and loss of independence. However, the extent of muscle wasting differs greatly between individuals due to differences in the aging process as well as physical activity levels. Interventions for sarcopenia include exercise and nutrition because both have a positive impact on protein anabolism but also enhance other aspects that contribute to well-being in sarcopenic older adults, such as physical function, quality of life, and anti-inflammatory state. The process of aging is accompanied by chronic immune activation, and sarcopenia may represent a consequence of a counter-regulatory strategy o...
Protein intake as a determinant factor of physical activity in older persons
Universa Medicina, 2011
Worldwide, the proportion of people aged 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group. It has been well-established that the aging process can be associated with increased susceptibility to chronic conditions, disability, and co-morbidity, which however may be minimized or even partially reversed by physical activity. The assessment of physical activity is becoming an increasingly important component in the evaluation of elderly persons. Nutritional intake and status play an essential role in determining the physical activity level potentially capable of minimizing the health burden of older persons. The objective of this study was to find out whether nutritional intake and status were correlated with physical activity in community-dwelling older persons. The study population included 219 aged 60 to 69 years, of whom complete measures of socio-demographic characteristics, nutritional status, nutritional intake and physical activity were obtained. Serum total protein, album...
Review article: Exercise, aging, and muscle protein metabolism
The Journals of Gerontology …, 2003
Age-associated alterations in muscle protein quantity and quality that adversely affect muscle structure, composition, and function have been referred to as sarcopenia. Muscle protein is metabolically active, and the ageassociated loss of muscle protein mass is related to a loss of physical function and an inability to perform activities of daily living (physical frailty). It is important to maintain adequate reserves of muscle protein and amino acids as we age. As in all cachectic conditions, sarcopenia can be explained by an imbalance between the rates of muscle protein synthesis and muscle proteolysis, in which net muscle protein balance is negative. This review summarizes evidence that supports the notion that: (a) advancing age and physical frailty are associated with a reduction in the fasting rate of mixed and myosin heavy chain protein synthesis, which contributes to muscle protein wasting in advancing age; (b) this impairment can be corrected because resistance exercise acutely and dramatically increases the rate of muscle protein synthesis in men and women aged 76 years and older; and (c) resistance exercise training maintains a modest increment in the rate of muscle protein synthesis and contributes to muscle hypertrophy and improved muscle strength in frail elderly men and women. The cellular mechanisms responsible for these adaptations, as well as the role of nutrition and hormone replacement in reversing sarcopenia, require further investigation. Figure 4. A hypothetical model depicting how acute exercise stimuli might increase muscle protein synthesis and breakdown rates and, after many exercise stimuli (exercise training), result in an accumulation of muscle protein. [From Ref. 15. Reprinted with permission from Springer Publishing Co.] 921 PROTEIN METABOLISM AND SARCOPENIA
Nutrition & Metabolism, 2011
Age-related muscle wasting (sarcopenia) is accompanied by a loss of strength which can compromise the functional abilities of the elderly. Muscle proteins are in a dynamic equilibrium between their respective rates of synthesis and breakdown. It has been suggested that age-related sarcopenia is due to: i) elevated basal-fasted rates of muscle protein breakdown, ii) a reduction in basal muscle protein synthesis (MPS), or iii) a combination of the two factors. However, basal rates of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown are unchanged with advancing healthy age. Instead, it appears that the muscles of the elderly are resistant to normally robust anabolic stimuli such as amino acids and resistance exercise. Ageing muscle is less sensitive to lower doses of amino acids than the young and may require higher quantities of protein to acutely stimulate equivalent muscle protein synthesis above rest and accrue muscle proteins. With regard to dietary protein recommendations, emerging evidence suggests that the elderly may need to distribute protein intake evenly throughout the day, so as to promote an optimal per meal stimulation of MPS. The branched-chain amino acid leucine is thought to play a central role in mediating mRNA translation for MPS, and the elderly should ensure sufficient leucine is provided with dietary protein intake. With regards to physical activity, lower, than previously realized, intensity high-volume resistance exercise can stimulate a robust muscle protein synthetic response similar to traditional high-intensity low volume training, which may be beneficial for older adults. Resistance exercise combined with amino acid ingestion elicits the greatest anabolic response and may assist elderly in producing a 'youthful' muscle protein synthetic response provided sufficient protein is ingested following exercise.
Muscle Building and Maintenance in the Elderly: the Use of Protein
Current Nutrition Reports, 2016
The involuntary loss of lean muscle mass that accompanies aging, or sarcopenia, necessitates identification of strategies that can blunt muscle protein breakdown and enhance muscle protein synthesis. This chapter focuses on the key factors impacting muscle protein synthesis in the elderly including adequacy of total caloric intake, a focus on the total daily quantity of high quality protein, a balanced pattern of protein ingestion per meal, characteristics regarding protein quality, anabolic resistance of aging, and achieving an adequacy of the essential amino acid, leucine, in each meal. A discussion is included regarding the existing limitations in current dietary protein recommendations for the elderly and the challenges of exaggerated muscle loss secondary to disuse.