The Science Of Skeletal Muscle

How do we know this? When these patients return home, they’re no longer able to climb stairs, so they never see their bedrooms again. They have beds moved down to the lower level of their homes and live out life in their den, office, or living room. The basement is no longer accessible. The frequency with which they leave home shrinks until it’s down to never. Gone are the days of errands, grocery shopping, or even dog walking. After a bad fall, they can’t even check their own mail. Even the simple task of using the toilet becomes impossible as people suddenly can’t reach their backsides to wipe. Feet and toenails can’t be cut or cleaned because patients can’t bend. Dental hygiene becomes an issue too, primarily because these folks can’t get themselves to a dentist. Many patients can’t or won’t get out of bed. Some are too weak and often too obese to even roll on their sides in bed without major assistance. Most rely on the backs of the nurses for all repositioning needs.

Before Believing

Physical therapy is offered once a day, but most decline it, because they are too tired. These patients are also presented with constant bathroom issues. Let’s face it. No one wants to live like this. It’s a nightmare to even imagine. We all want to avoid thinking about reality as we age, but that avoidance comes at a price. We encourage you to visit a senior citizens’ center in any metropolitan area. Notice how people over the age of 60 act and move. It will send chills down your spine as you imagine yourself or a loved one in that same situation. The following section will share the medical conditions that drive this downward spiral. Each of us is susceptible to them. Learning about them will be useful as you understand the full scope and range of the problem.

The Price You Pay

The disease that relegates us to the Frail Trail downhill pathway. The key takeaway is that this is a silent, undiagnosed epidemic. We call this an epidemic, because unless preventive action is taken, every single person on earth, rich or poor, will suffer from the active process leading to sarcopenia. It simply is what happens over time unless we proactively take the preventive action necessary to maintain our strength and lean mass. While our bodies’ natural tendency will not change, a change in our behavior can largely prevent decline for much of our lives. As of this writing, sarcopenia is rarely diagnosed, because most medical doctors are likely unaware of the condition or how to treat it. Most of them never discuss the condition with their patients. Sarcopenia is silent, because it steadily, persistently, and without sudden symptoms can start to take away our strength and lean mass as early as our thirties. This condition is largely a function of inactivity over time, and in modern times we have a heightened tendency to become more sedentary as we age. On average this process accelerates to take more of our strength in our 50s and 60s and increases sharply again in our 70s. Loss of strength and muscle mass can become a great threat to our ability to stay healthy and functional in the last 30 years of our lives. And from there, the final decline begins.

Don't Get Mad, Get Even

As you age through your 70s and into your 80s, you will find repeated little slips, as you momentarily lose your balance. These slips can cause you to become more cautious as you move about, perhaps making you fearful to the point that you do not want to leave the house or even walk to another room in your home. A pivotal factor in the ability to remain healthy and functionally independent is the capacity to preserve skeletal muscle mass and strength. Skeletal muscle in humans contains 50–75 percent of all proteins and is the body’s primary amino acid reservoir. Maintaining body protein mass is critical not only for remaining physically independent but also for survival. You’re going to regain joy of life. You’re going to expand your independence. And, most important, you’re going to prevent a vast range of maladies from robbing you of the healthy, vigorous life you deserve. As we lose strength, we become less active, and as we become less active, the rate at which we continue to lose strength constantly increases. This loss of strength makes it difficult to recover if we lose our balance, and most of us wind up suffering a bad fall. This will cause many of us to become hospitalized, which in turn decreases our life expectancy. Unfortunately, these extra years also give us more time to develop disabilities and chronic diseases that absolutely prevent any real enjoyment of life. Many of these diseases are also related to our loss of strength. Even though sarcopenia can ultimately affect all of us, it remains widely unknown and little attention is given to its prevention. Yet it is the single greatest threat to our ability to stay healthy and functional in the last 30 years of our lives. To avoid this fate, what you are about to read could prove to be the most important information you will ever receive. We are confident this information will change your life in the most profound ways imaginable. What is its root cause? Why haven’t our doctors told us about it? Once you better understand sarcopenia, you will be more equipped to fight it and more determined than ever to ditch the Frail Trail for the StrongPath. The term sarcopenia was invented relatively recently by Irwin Rosenberg. At the time, it was thought that the degenerative process being described was led by the loss of lean muscle mass with aging. Today, it is understood that inactivity causes muscles to lose strength through a process of denervation, the loss of nerve supply that signals muscle cells to act.1 Strength loss leads to frailty and disability over time. Loss of lean muscle mass is a trailing and serious consequence of the process.