Older Adults: Build Muscle to Live Longer

Older Adults: Build Muscle to Live Longer | Hello guys, I'm going to discuss about older adults if then can build up muscle so they can live longer. Obviously we'll be older in future we know already about that. So keep in you mind if you want to live long so can build up you muscles. Because researcher research, if older adult build muscle so then can live long.

The new UCLA research suggests that the more muscle mass older adults have, the less likely they are to die prematurely. The findings add to the growing evidence that general body composition, and not the widely used BMI or body mass index, is a better predictor of all-cause mortality.

The study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, is the culmination of a previous UCLA investigation led by Dr. Preethi Srikanthan, an assistant clinical professor in the division of endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who discovered that the Building muscle mass is important to decrease metabolic risk.

"As there is no standard gold measure of body composition, several studies have addressed this issue using different measurement techniques and have obtained different results," said Srikanthan. "So many studies on the impact of obesity mortality are focused on the BMI. Our study indicates that physicians should focus on ways to improve body composition, rather than just on the BMI, when advising older adults about preventive health behaviors. "

The researchers analyzed the data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, conducted between 1988 and 1994. They focused on a group of 3,659 individuals that included men 55 years of age or older and women 65 and older. at that moment. of the poll. Then, the authors determined how many of those individuals had died of natural causes according to a follow-up survey conducted in 2004.

The body composition of the study subjects was measured using a bioelectrical impedance, which involves the execution of an electric current through the body. The muscle allows the current to pass more easily than fat, due to the water content of the muscle. In this way, researchers could determine a muscle mass index (the amount of muscle in relation to height) similar to a body mass index. They observed how this muscle mass index was related to the risk of death.

They found that mortality from all causes was significantly lower in the fourth quartile of the muscle mass index compared to the first quartile.

"In other words, the larger the muscle mass, the lower the risk of death," said Dr. Arun Karlamangla, associate professor in the geriatric division of the Geffen School and co-author of the study. "Therefore, instead of worrying about weight or body mass index, we should try to maximize and maintain muscle mass."

This study has some limitations. For example, one can not definitively establish a cause and effect relationship between muscle mass and survival using a cohort study such as NHANES III. "But we can say that muscle mass seems to be an important prognostic factor in the risk of death," Srikanthan said. In addition, bioelectrical impedance is not the most advanced measurement technique, although NHANES III measurements were performed in a very rigorous way "and in practice, this is the best possible situation in a study of this size," he noted.

"Despite these limitations, this study establishes the independent predictive capacity of muscle mass survival measured by bioelectrical impedance in older adults, using data from a large nationally representative cohort," Srikanthan and Karlamangla write, adding that BMI's association with mortality in the elderly has been shown to be inconsistent "We concluded that the measurement of muscle mass in relation to body height should be added to the toolbox of doctors who care for older adults. Future research should determine the type and duration of exercise interventions that improve muscle mass and potentially increase survival in older (healthy) adults. "


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