Wondering how to keep strong and age well? Think muscle health

Healthy ageing can mean many things, from keeping your memory intact to maintaining an active social life to staying in peak physical condition. One component of aging well is supporting your muscle health. Muscle loss begins around age 40 and increases year after year, accelerating at around age 70.

Muscle Mass and Strength: Important Health Indicators

Research shows muscle mass can say a lot about a person's overall health status, especially for those living with a chronic disease. A review paper in the Annals of Medicine that was supported by Abbott found people with less muscle mass had more adverse outcomes — poorer quality of life, more surgical complications, lower physical function and overall lower survival — than those with more muscle mass. In other studies, lower muscle mass was associated with greater Alzheimer's severity. Additionally, people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who had higher muscle mass experienced better respiratory outcomes. 
 

The Impact of Mass Muscle Loss

Do you know that around 35% or 400,000 Thais are at risk of falling? Research has shown that muscle loss begins around age 40 and increases year after year, accelerating at around age 70.

Research published in The BMC Geriatrics, show one third of urban community-dwelling older Thai adults, aged 70 years and above have advanced muscle loss, known by the medical community as sarcopenia. This aging disease can affect the individual’s ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, rising out of a chair, lifting objects, or walking up stairs.

The good news is that there is an easy way to assess your overall muscular strength.

During World Sarcopenia Day, Abbott, a global healthcare leader and maker of Ensure® Gold™, is calling on Thai adults to take a #Stand4Strength, an initiative to heighten awareness of the importance of muscle health and how adults can improve their strength and overall health as they age. Abbott also launched muscle age calculator activities in early July 2023 at Siriraj Hospital, with the aim to heighten awareness among Thai adults to place importance on muscle health and self-care for healthy ageing. As many as 700 adults participated in the activities, more than 50% of whom were found that the muscle age is older than their true age!

Test your muscle age:

The way to determine your overall muscle strength is to simply take a 5-times sit-to-stand test and use the muscle age calculator, a simple tool that assesses muscle age which can indicate the strength and physical performance of the muscles in the lower limbs through this website: https://bit.ly/470Llvj. 

Rebuilding Muscle and Strength

The good news is that it's never too late to regain muscle and strength. It can be achieved through a combination of strength exercises and a complete, balanced diet with sufficient protein.

In addition to strength training, these nutrients can help your muscles recover after exercise or while recovering from disuse:

Protein: As people age, the body requires more protein for muscle and overall health. According to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, consuming 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per 1 kilogram of body weight is recommended; for example, if your body weight is 60 kilograms, your recommended amount of protein intake is 48 – 60 grams per day. Meat, fish, beans, legumes, and yoghurt are all good options.

HMB: The amino acid metabolite occurs naturally in the body and is found in small amounts in some foods, such as eggs, chicken breasts, avocados, or cooked cauliflower, and essential amino acids (EAAs) have also been found to help preserve muscle mass or strength in healthy older adults. HMB is the one and only breakthrough ingredient in complete & balanced with duo mechanism that helps strengthen muscles and hinders muscle breakdown.

Research showed that the HMB intake of 1.5 grams daily had a favourable impact on muscle protein break; while the SHIELD study by Abbott, Changi General Hospital (CGH) and SingHealth Polyclinics revealed that HMB has also proven to improve health, nutritional and functional health outcomes such as improved leg strength, improved calf circumference, and improved handgrip strength and muscle damage. 

However, it’s difficult to get enough of it from diet alone as the consumption amount is equal to 50 eggs, 7 chicken breasts, 3,000 avocados, or 6,500 servings of cooked cauliflower. Hence, looking for oral nutrition supplements (ONS) with HMB can be beneficial. According to the SHIELD study, older adults who received individualized dietary counselling and consumed an oral nutrition supplement with HMB reduced malnutrition risk by almost three-fold, and improved physical function and health.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C is one of the best-known nutrients for immune health and is essential for the formation of collagen, a protein that makes up the tendons that connect muscles to bones. Red and green bell peppers, orange juice, strawberries and cauliflower are excellent sources of vitamin C.

Zinc: Your body is in a constant state of immune-cell turnover.  Ideally, your body would create these new, ready-to-go cells as efficiently as possible. Zinc plays an important role in this process. 

Zinc is also important for the synthesis of muscle cells and supports the function of muscle tissue. Excellent sources of zinc include beef, fortified breakfast cereals and pumpkin seeds.