Muscle loss is a typical part of the aging process for most individuals, but for those suffering from a condition known as sarcopenia, the decline is extremely rapid.

A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet suggests that the early phases of sarcopenia could be avoided with early therapies aimed at preserving physical and cognitive function and managing chronic illnesses.

Sarcopenia is a chronic disease in the elderly that decreases their quality of life and increases their risk of falls and bone fractures when this deterioration is more severe or rapid than predicted.

Over a 12-year period, Karolinska Institutet researchers looked at how sex, age, educational level, living arrangement, lifestyle, and chronic illnesses affected the development of sarcopenia in adults aged 60 and up. The SNAC-K (Swedish National Study on Ageing and Care in Kungsholmen) research examined around 3,200 participants.

Nearly 10% of the subjects had sarcopenia at the start of the trial, 27% had probable sarcopenia, and slightly over 63% had no sarcopenia. Muscle strength and mass, as well as physical performance, were assessed using metrics such as grip strength, walking speed, speed of rising from a chair five times, and calf circumference.

“Perhaps the most interesting result was that after five years, a roughly equal proportion (just over 10 percent) of the individuals with probable sarcopenia had either improved or deteriorated. This suggests that sarcopenia is a dynamic condition that is modifiable especially in the initial stages, which is a hopeful message,” said the study’s corresponding author Caterina Trevisan.

Physical activity and higher cognitive test scores were linked to a greater chance of improvement and lower mortality, but a higher number of chronic diseases, male sex, and older age were linked to the opposite. The chances of improving for people who were diagnosed with severe sarcopenia were slim, and many of them died during the follow-up period (almost 71%).

“Our results support the need of early interventions to preserve physical and cognitive functions and manage chronic conditions in older individuals,” said the study’s last author Anna-Karin Welmer.

“With these tools, we could probably counteract muscle deterioration and the impairment in quality of life this entails. We now need intervention studies to find ways to use these tools to counteract sarcopenia.”

Source: 10.1002/jcsm.12875

Image Credit: Getty

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