How not to lose muscles in adulthood: the doctor told about the symptoms and risk groups of sarcopenia

With age, a natural reduction in muscle mass occurs in the human body. However, when this process goes beyond the physiological norm and is accompanied by the loss of usual motor functions, doctors diagnose sarcopenia. About the mechanisms of development of this pathology and its consequences told the Russian geriatrician, therapist Anastasia Fomina, writes sb.by.

The specialist stressed that sarcopenia aggravates the course of any chronic diseases, provokes falls, fractures. The main marker of the disease is the loss of the ability to serve themselves at home. It becomes difficult for a person to climb stairs, get up from a chair, or even simply move from bed to a chair without assistance.

- Very severe sarcopenia can be manifested even by the fact that a person can no longer swallow food, said Anastasia Fomina. In this case, the disease can develop at any age. It all depends on the conditions in which the person is. For example, in severe bedridden patients on long bed rest, elderly people are also at the main risk.

Physiological loss of muscle mass occurs from 40 years, and after 60 years this process begins to progress rapidly. Provoking factors are a sedentary lifestyle, protein deficiency in nutrition against the background of an excess of fast carbohydrates, a sharp weight deficit or obesity, as well as oncological, bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular pathologies.

To protect yourself in old age, the doctor calls to lay muscle “capital” from childhood and adolescence: the higher the peak of muscle and bone mass formed by regular sports in youth, the longer this reserve will be enough for the body in adulthood.

How to recognize the syndrome of “dead buttocks” and who is at increased risk of experiencing it? The doctor answers