Sarcopenia- The Shrinking Disease of Aging
added 11/22/11
by Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D.
Dietitian and Co-op Food and Nutrition Educator
Did you ever notice how many older folks seem to almost shrink away as they age? This may be caused by the serious condition known as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the muscle weakness and the loss of muscle common among older adults. It results in disability, increased risk of death, and reduced strength and exercise ability.
Sarcopenia is a common problem in adults over the age of 65 years and increases with age. But as early as age 30, muscle mass begins to decline by about 1 percent- that’s about one- third of a pound a year.
The Society for Sarcopenia, Cachexia, and Wasting Disease convened an expert panel to develop nutritional recommendations for prevention and management of sarcopenia. They found that exercise (both resistance and aerobic) in combination with adequate protein and energy intake is the key component of the prevention and management of sarcopenia.
Some of their major recommendations include:
- Because of natural metabolic changes, older persons require a higher protein intake than younger persons. Total protein intake should be 1 to 1.5 g/kg/day.
- A balanced protein and energy supplement may be useful in preventing and reversing sarcopenia as part of a varied restorative approach.
- Vitamin D levels should be measured in all sarcopenic patients and high dose vitamin D2 or D3 supplementation should be set to raise blood levels if they are low.
- Exercise is critical to stopping or even reversing sarcopenic muscle loss
- Resistance exercise (weight training) and aerobic exercise improve quality of life.
- Both resistance and aerobic exercise are recommended for 20 to 30 minutes, 3 times a week.
To translate to a real family, your 100-pound elderly grandmother might need about 45 to 70 grams of protein a day. According to the latest Dietary Reference Intakes, a healthy, younger 100-pound woman needs only about 36 grams of protein a day (0.8g/kg/day). Unless she is eating high protein meals and snacks, grandma is probably missing the mark by quite a lot. Getting eggs, nut butters, animal and vegetable protein and supplemental high protein drinks into her diet can help to boost her protein intake. A registered dietitian can be helpful in suggesting high protein foods and other strategies to support muscle maintenance and growth for elderly people.
Encourage her to talk to her healthcare provider about getting a vitamin D level check and a referral to safely join the local “Bone Builders” strength training classes. Helping her to find a local trainer especially qualified to work with elderly clients would also be indispensable to keeping the damages of sarcopenia at bay.
For more information:
Nutritional Recommendations for the Management of Sarcopenia J Am Med Dir Assoc 2010; 11: 391–396 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20627179
High Protein Food List: USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Content of Selected Foods per Common Measure, Protein in grams (g) www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR24/nutrlist/sr24w203.pdf
