Preserve the anchor of your Body- Your Muscles!

As you grow old it’s not only the Bones and joints that you need to worry about, there is another very important factor that you need to preserve and protect- the muscles of your body. As we grow old the overall muscle mass of the body reduces but that doesn’t mean that we are helpless to stop it.

Sarcopenia is the name for Age-related muscle loss. It is a natural part of aging. After age 30, one begins to lose as much as 3% to 5% per decade. Most men will lose about 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes.

Less muscle means greater weakness which in turn means less mobility, both of which may increase the risk of falls and fractures. A 2015 report from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research found that people with sarcopenia had 2.3 times the risk of having a low-trauma fracture from a fall, such as a broken hip, collarbone, leg, arm, or wrist.

But just because you lose muscle mass does not mean it is gone forever. it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it. All it takes is work, dedication & Plan

The symptoms of Sarcopenia include weakness and loss of stamina. This can affect the ability to carry out physical activities. A reduction in activity then leads to further muscle mass loss.

Causes — The most common cause is decreased physical activity throughout the day.

Other Causes of Sarcopenia may include :

· Reduction in the nerve cells that send signals from your brain to tell your muscles to move

· a lowering of your hormone levels

· A decline in your body’s ability to convert protein to energy

· Not consuming enough daily calories and protein in order to maintain your muscle mass

Treatment :

Exercise

The main treatment path for sarcopenia is exercise.

As you must have understood that it is a terrible condition and gets the patient into a vicious cycle of inactivity and muscle loss!!!

So the most important part is to do regular exercise and keep moving. Just don’t limit yourself only because you are old. Some of the advice I would like to give are:

1. Develop a habit of moving around. Just don’t keep sitting in one place. Keep moving regularly.

2. After the age of fifty it becomes difficult to lose weight. Especially if you have never exercised before then you rely on eating less to lose weight and it becomes a double whammy because you lose muscle mass because of less activity and then eating fewer means that you would be consuming calories/nutrition deficit diet further reducing the muscles mass.

3. Exercise regularly to develop muscle strength. It can be any form of exercise like walking, cycling, running, etc. But you must exercise regularly

4. If you need to take rest because of a medical condition then try to get back to the routine of exercise as early as possible. Lying down for a week loses at least 5% of muscle mass! And in old age, it is very difficult to get these muscles back.

5. Help in the household chores, it will help in keeping the body and mind active

6. Don’t just do a single activity every day when you go to the park. Don’t just shake your hands when you can also shake your legs. You must also pull the horizontal bar or move every sports equipment! Because as long as a person moves, then all the muscles of the whole body will be involved!

7. Sarcopenia is more terrifying than osteoporosis! With osteoporosis, you just need to be careful not to fall, whereas sarcopenia not only affects the quality of life but also causes high blood sugar due to insufficient muscle mass!

8. The fastest loss of sarcopenia is in the muscle of the legs! Because when a person sits or lies down, the legs are not moving and the muscle strength of the legs are affected may lead to the development of black feet.

9. Try squatting exercises if you can. Otherwise, you can also squat in a chair min 20 to 30 times a day.

10. Also regularly take a protein-rich diet. Protein helps in building the muscles.

Keep moving and don’t waste your muscles!!