Sarcopenia

[Guest guest]

With all the recent discussion of exercise, I haven't seen any mention in these posts of sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the wasting away of muscle mass with age, and should be very interesting to anybody who expects to live to be over 75. Although it's exacerbated by inactivity, some degree seems to be inescapable as you get older. There's a good article at http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/sarcopenia.html .Sarcopenia causes muscle fibers to be replaced by connective tissue, or just to disappear. Fast-twitch fibers (type II) go first, being replaced by slow-twitch (type I). Fast-twitch fibers are those used for sudden motions, jumping, sprinting, and extreme exertion. They are also the fibers that help you recover when you stumble, preventing or cushioning falls. Old people fall heavily and helplessly, often injuring themselves seriously because they lack the agility to roll or block or cushion the fall as a younger person would. To some degree, that's due to slower reflexes, but it's also due to a lack of fast-twitch muscle fibers to respond to sudden signals. I'm 69, have been a Crony for 7 years, and am stronger than many of my younger friends. I exercise regularly and vigorously, even though it costs me precious calories, alternating a day of aerobic exercise with a day of resistance training. My motivation is two-fold: mostly I like the way I feel when I'm strong. I enjoy climbing stairs and racing up hills; my body feels light and able. I'm also driven by fear. My mother died at 97, and the last 10 years of her life were dominated by sarcopenia. She walked and hiked into her mid-eighties, but began to slow down then, and exercised less and less. She needed a walker the last 5 years of her life, and spent most of the last two in bed or a recliner, tended by aides. She didn't like it much, and talked longingly of the days when she could run down hills. She had no diagnosed organ problems right up to the end of her life, dying finally of "old age."If you avoid cancer, have a healthy circulatory system and limit your calories, you will probably live as long as my mother or longer. I intend to make my last 10 years useful; I want to be moving, active, and involved with life right up to the end if it's at all possible. So I exercise, and vigorously! I exercise about 45 minutes a day now, and will probably increase that as I get older, to compensate for any weakness that develops. Any older Cronies out there with tales of wasting (or not wasting) muscles? Mike

[Guest guest]

Sarcopenia is by no means inevitable. My mother lived to be almost 98 and was vigorous and healthy until past the age of 97. It was only in the last 6 or 7 months of her life that there was a decline . Up until then she lived independently, shopped, cooked, cleaned and otherwise maintained her own residence. And of course there are other examples such as in Okinawa where the elderly are vigorous into advanced old age.

on 12/5/2006 1:11 PM, michael.smith7 at .7@... wrote:

With all the recent discussion of exercise, I haven't seen any mention in these posts of sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the wasting away of muscle mass with age, and should be very interesting to anybody who expects to live to be over 75. Although it's exacerbated by inactivity, some degree seems to be inescapable as you get older. There's a good article at http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/sarcopenia.html <http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/sarcopenia.html> .