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Sarcopenia or "Soxopenia"?Bone Loss, Body fat, Bad Blood Sugar and why you must stop blaming the Red Sox and Patriots
This article is from my October issue of Health-E-News. Subscribe through the banner above or add you name here to get the next issue
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Dear New England Sports Fans; While staying up late watching a marathon Red Sox game may contribute to a few more gray hairs and tired eyes at work the next day- we certainly can't blame a game and a team for the decline in our health-can we? While the Patriots consistently put up big numbers on the scoreboard each week- we certainly can't blame them for our bigger numbers on the scale- can we? The answer to both of these questions is "it depends". If you are a true New England sports fan the answer is absolutely "YES". Here's my explanation (or perhaps your excuse New England sports fans) and a link to an example using Joe Dieter to illustrate my point. View Joe Dieter's Story and his eating plan in "Soxtober" If you just happen to live in New England and are caught up in "Soxtober" playoff baseball and well, Patriot Sundays', you might be able to pass on some of the blame to these teams. On the other hand, if you simply have no teams to use as an excuse, the physiological explanation of your bone loss, increased body fat and bad blood sugar may have more to do with another universal sign of aging that doesn’t create the same level of angst as graying hairs or growing waistlines—but it should. It’s called sarcopenia (sar-ko-PEENya), which is the loss of muscle mass, strength and function as you get older. Everyone experiences some degree of muscle loss with age. But progressive sarcopenia is at the core of why some people become frail and weak, and while it will not happen over the course of a weekend watching sports, over a lifetime it increases the likelihood of falls and impairs a person’s ability to perform even routine daily tasks. While we all don't want to think of ourselves as getting old, here's what happens to our muscles if we don't keep building them as we age: Quick Background on Sarcopenia and Muscle: After peaking in young adulthood, skeletal muscle starts declining at about 45 to 55 years of age. Experts estimate that advanced sarcopenia affects 30% of people over the age of 60 and possibly more than 50% over the age of 80. But there are ways to minimize muscle loss as you age. Less Muscle, Less Bone. Sarcopenia may not be as familiar a term as osteoporosis, but the fact is they often go hand in hand. These two conditions tend to track each other as you age and for good reason. Muscle helps prevent bone loss. If you lose muscle, you’re going to lose bone as well. Experts routinely recommend weight-bearing exercise to prevent bone loss. That’s because as muscles are used and strengthened, they impose physical force on bones, which stimulates the body to make more bone to support the muscle. Moreover, as muscle is lost, balance becomes impaired, which increases the risk of falling. And falls lead to fractures, especially of already weakened bones. Muscle Stabilizes Blood Sugar. While muscle is important for strength, it’s actually involved in a lot more than that in the body. Few people realize that muscle also helps maintain normal blood sugar levels. In fact, some experts believe the downward spiral to diabetes begins when insulin is no longer effective at helping muscle clear glucose from the blood. It stands to reason then, that as muscle mass diminishes, it impairs the ability to keep blood sugar stable. That increases the likelihood of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The opposite is also true. As you build muscle, improvements in insulin resistance follow. Researchers at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University studied 62 middle-aged and older adults with type 2 diabetes during 16 weeks of strength training and found that when muscle increased, insulin resistance improved significantly. More Protein, More Muscle? Weight lifters have long maintained that eating more protein results in bigger, stronger muscles. Now, researchers may be inclined to agree. They are finding that a low protein intake contributes to muscle loss (only about 30% of older adults even meet current recommendations for protein) and that extra protein may benefit older people in their fight against sarcopenia. 
The current Daily Value for protein is 50 grams. However, some experts think that older men and women may need twice that much for greater muscle mass and strength. Some experts studying sarcopenia and protein intake believe recommendations for protein intake seem to be insufficient, or just the very bare minimum for what people need to maintain muscle mass. To see if your current diet provides adequate protein intake try our online meal planner free for a week. Protein Quality Not only is the amount of protein important in preventing sarcopenia, the type of protein is a factor as well. Animal sources of protein provide a nutrient-rich package of all the essential amino acids needed to manufacture and maintain muscle. In other words, a little goes a long way toward maintaining muscle. High-quality protein from lean meat, poultry, eggs and low-fat dairy are the best options for making sure you get enough. In fact, a study from the Netherlands found that in older women, in contrast to a diet high in animal protein, a diet high in vegetable protein resulted in less protein manufactured by the body, part of which is incorporated into muscle. And a new study in the September-October Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging found that intake of animal protein was the only independent predictor of muscle mass in a group of women aged 57 to 75. The Evils of Inactivity ("Soxtober") and the decline of your Burn Rate The old saying, “Use it or lose it,” is particularly apt when it comes to the muscle loss that occurs with age. While getting enough high-quality protein each day is essential to maintaining muscle mass, and your resting metabolic rate or "burn rate" -so is being active. The two work hand-in-hand to increase and maintain muscle mass and strength. Research shows that just 10 days of being in bed with no physical activity can cause older people to lose 9% of the muscle mass in their legs. When inactivity is combined with illness, trauma or surgery, the loss of muscle tissue is accelerated, making recovery all the more difficult. However, studies from the Nutrition, Exercise Physiology and Sarcopenia Laboratory at Tufts University have found that regular strength-training exercises are safe and effective not only for preventing, but also for reversing sarcopenia increasing RMR (resting metabolic rate) and frailty in older people. In fact, studies have found that people benefit from strength training in their 70s, 80s and even in their 90s. Talking you into strength training and off of the couch With "Soxtober" in New England being the exception because we sit on the couch for 3+ hours per evening, more people take part in aerobic activity for exercise rather than strength training. It’s easy to understand why. Incorporating a walk into the day doesn’t take much planning, and other aerobic activities like cycling, jogging, or swimming are things you already know how to do and already enjoy. Strength training isn’t so familiar—and it takes extra time that has to be set aside rather than “folded into” your daily routine. But for less than an hour a week of strength training —about 20-30 minutes a session—you get so much back. Strength training is critical to preserving muscle and boosting RMR. Aerobic exercise, while it strengthens the heart and lungs, isn’t sufficient by itself to hold back sarcopenia. A study from Denmark illustrates the point beautifully: Men in their late 60s who’d lifted weights regularly for years had muscle mass similar to that of non-athletes in their 20s. But older runners and swimmers didn’t, even though they’d trained for years, too. Running and swimming did not prevent sarcopenia. In this study only men who did weights had the younger muscle mass.
Smart Move: Some aspects of aging are beyond our control, but getting plenty of high-quality protein and starting or maintaining a strength training program to revv up your RMR are two critical factors for staying well and remaining independent as you get older. Best of all, research shows it’s never too soon or too late to start. Try my Quick New England Super Fan Workout between innings or after each touchdown to rev your burn rate.
New England-Soxtober WorkoutQuick Start Instructions: This workout will help you burn a few extra calories, help fight off "soxopenia" and perhaps even help keep you awake to see the last few innings. Step 1- Get off the Couch. Step 2-Put down the food and/or beverages Step 3-Perform one of the exercises shown below at the end of each inning. For each exercise, continue until fatigue or try to exercise through the full commercial break. Repeat this process with new exercise each inning. By the "7th inning stretch" you should have completed the full Soxtober Circuit-Congratulations you just burned about 100 calories! Step 4-Don't forget to stretch those muscles you've just worked through the 8th and 9th innings. 
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