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Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
Senior Citizens Need Just a Little More Protein-Rich Food to
Maintain Muscle
Elderly just as able to turn protein into muscle as
younger people
Aug. 13, 2007 - A new study suggests that a diet containing a
moderate amount of protein-rich food such as beef, fish, pork, chicken,
dairy or nuts may help slow the deterioration of elderly people’s
muscles and, it also finds, that older bodies are just as capable as
younger ones in turning this protein-rich food into muscle.
Reducing the decline in muscle mass among the elderly is
crucial to maintaining their health and independence, these researchers
say.
The good news is that older bodies are just as good
as young ones at turning protein-rich food into muscle, say the
scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which
runs counter to some studies.
And they add that consuming adequate protein is essential for
making and maintaining muscles.
Since nutritional studies show that many elderly
individuals eat less protein than the average person, researchers have
reasoned that if the elderly simply increased their protein intake, they
might slow down muscle loss - as long as old age doesn’t inherently
interfere significantly with the ability to make muscles out of the
protein in food.
“We wanted to know if there is some reason your
grandmother’s body, for example, can’t stimulate muscle growth in
response to eating the same protein-rich meal that you eat, which might
over time contribute to muscle loss,” said
Douglas Paddon-Jones, an associate professor in UTMB’s departments
of physical therapy and internal medicine.
Paddon-Jones is the senior author of a paper on the
study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition and now available online.
The investigation compared changes in muscle
protein synthesis in 10 young and 10 elderly volunteers after eating a
four-ounce serving of lean beef. By analyzing blood and muscle samples,
the researchers were able to measure the rate at which a particular
individual’s body built muscle protein. During the five hours after the
young and elderly volunteers ate the beef, both groups’ muscle protein
synthesis increased by 50 percent.
“We’ve done studies in the past with specialized
drinks containing amino acids — the chemical building blocks of proteins
— but this was the first time anybody’s looked at a real food and its
ability to stimulate muscle growth in both the young and elderly,”
Paddon-Jones said.
“What we learned was really encouraging, because it
suggests that elderly people actually can benefit from eating a moderate
serving of protein-rich foods. That’s something they aren’t doing enough
now - in fact, between 16 and 27 percent of older adults are eating less
than the USDA’s recommended daily allowance of protein.”
Elderly people may eat less protein for a number of
reasons, said Paddon-Jones, including cost, the fact that many foods may
not taste as good to them as they once did, difficulty chewing, limited
menus in nursing homes or assisted living communities, and decline in
appetite. Another important contributor to muscle loss in the elderly is
a lack of exercise, he noted.
Even among the elders who volunteered for the
study, whom Paddon-Jones described as typically more physically active
than most others in the elderly population, “a disturbing thing was that
on average they had 12 kilograms (26.5 pounds) less lean muscle mass
than the younger people we tested.”
That difference, he said, would probably be even
greater in the general population. In other words, compared to a young
adult, a typical elderly person lacks the advantages provided by more
than 26 pounds of muscle — a deficit that in some cases could lead an
older person to being permanently bedridden by an injury or illness.
“A high percentage of elderly folks who break a hip
or suffer a major injury never get out of bed again, and one of the big
reasons is that they rapidly lose so much muscle mass and strength that
they become physically incapable of getting up,” Paddon-Jones said.
“Sufficient muscle is fundamental for the
activities of daily living, movement and independence — it’s definitely
a quality-of-life issue.”
Editor’s Notes:
UTMB rehabilitation sciences postdoctoral fellow
T. Brock Symons was lead author on the paper, titled “Aging does not
impair the anabolic response to a protein-rich meal.” Other authors
include UTMB research nurse Scott Schutzler, clinical research
coordinator Tara Cocke, Associate Professor
David L. Chinkes and University of Arkansas professor
Robert R. Wolfe.
Support for the study was provided by the
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Checkoff Program and UTMB’s
National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging
Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center.
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