Sarcopenia – Will it affect you?
Derived from the Latin words ‘sarco’and ‘penia’, the term sarcopenia broadly means ‘poverty of flesh’. Generally, it relates to low muscle mass accompanied by low muscle strength or low physical performance. Informally, sarcopenia is a synonym for muscle wastage which often accompanies increasing age particularly after 50. However, it is also the result of lack of use of a particular muscle or muscle group, for example after immobilizing a fractured limb. So one can ask: “sarcopenia, will it affect you? Check back for our series of exercises designed to fight this scourge.
Left to itself, loss of lean muscle mass is a natural part of aging. The process begins slowly around the age of 30 and then increases more rapidly with each passing decade. It is the reason many elderly people find difficulty in walking and lifting relatively light weights. Eventually the sufferer cannot even hold themselves upright and find difficulty in standing unsupported for any length of time
However, the most dangerous consequence of all is that muscle wastage increases, by many fold, the chances of the individual falling to the ground. And, when the elderly fall, the chances of them breaking a leg or their hip are massive. It has been calculated that 40 percent of elderly persons who sustain a broken hip die within a year.
So sarcopenia – willit affect you? Sarcopenia can be prevented and reversed and we will explore ways of doing this in future posts.
Edit. We have used the term ‘elderly’ rather loosely as it relates to a state of being rather than to a specific chronological age. We all have among our friends and acquaintances ‘young’ 80 year olds and ‘old’ 60 year olds.
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