How Muscles Prevent Disease and
Stop Aging
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November 30, 2009
By Susan Callahan, Health Editor and Staff of
CollectiveWizdom
We lose muscle as we age. Everybody knows that. All of us
lose about 1% of muscle mass for every decade past age 30.
But did you know that muscle loss makes you more
vulnerable to disease? Muscle actually acts as an armour
against death from many diseases, several research studies
have found.
A 2006 study from the University of Texas Medical Branch,
Department of Surgery and Shriners Burn Hospital, found
that muscle plays a key role in the prevention of numerous
common chronic diseases and conditions.
How? Muscles are not simply dense tissue. Muscles are
actually your body's storage tanks for protein. They hold 85
to 90% of all the protein you have in your body. In essence,
whenever your body has a need for more protein --amino
acids--it sends out a signal to the storage tank and the
storage tank responds by shipping out protein to wherever it
is needed.
When you are sick or stressed, your body starts the healing
by using the amino acid building blocks of protein. In fact,
you cannot heal without these amino acid protein building
blocks.
Researchers studying the chances of survival from severe
burns, starvation, AIDS and conditions of severe stress have
made a startling discovery. Your chances of survival are
directly linked to how much muscle mass you have. This is
worth repeating. The amount of muscle mass you have is
the single most important determinant of how long you will
live.
So-called natural "thinning out" or wasting of muscle as we
age is not a benign process. It is the beginning of death.
Loss of that critical muscle mass leaves you completely
vulnerable to disease because it depletes your body's
reservoir of the amino acids it needs to heal.
Here are examples of how muscle actually helps to prolong
your life, based on university research studies:
1. Muscle Increases Survival from Burn. A 2002 study led by
Drs. Biolo, Fleming and Nguyen from the University of Texas
found that , when you are severely burned, your body's
demand for protein increases on average by 83%.
However, the doctors were surprised to discover that
feeding you extra protein intravenously is ineffective in
supplying your body's increased demands. Only the
breakdown of muscle mass is effective in supplying the
needed protein. Therefore, if you have less muscle than you
need before you are burned, nothing the doctors can feed
you while you are in the hospital will make up the deficiency
in amino acids. Your body's healing relies almost exclusively
on drawing down on the amino acid reserves in your muscle
mass.
2. Muscle Increases Survival from Stress and Starvation.
During World War II, Jewish doctors in the Warsaw ghetto
studied the chances of survival from starvation and
discovered that starvation from death only occurs when your
muscle protein drops too low to maintain an adequate supply
of gluconeogenic precursors needed for healing.
A separate study in 1950 published by the University of
Minnesota found that, in all cases of human starvation, death
is actually caused by loss of muscle mass.
3. Muscle Increases Survival from AIDs. Seriously ill patients
from AIDs live longer if they have more muscle mass. This
finding was made by a team of doctors
Thinning Out Is a Cause for Alarm
Many of us notice that we begin to thin out as we age. We've
all seen middle-aged men with those skinny legs and arms
but with pot guts. Or women with skinny thighs and pot
guts. Many of us wrongly assume that this process is benign
or, perhaps even a good development since we have always
been taught that we should watch our weight. But losing
this muscle is a cause for alarm. If you start to notice muscle
loss, it is a cause for alarm. If you notice that your husband
or wife's legs have started to thin out, it is a cause for alarm.
This is the beginning of a condition known as sarcopenia.
Sarcopenia is the wasting away of muscle mass as we age.
Unfortunately, once sarcopenia progresses beyond a certain
point, it will not be possible to regain this muscle mass by
lifting weight.
You will have passed the point of no return.
From that point, you literally can start to set your clock on a
countdown to death. For, even if you "wake up" and start
exercising furiously and eating perfectly, after sarcopenia
progresses too far, there literally is nothing you can do.
Take a look at yourself. Take a look at your spouse. Over the
years have those legs gotten thin and spindly while your
stomach has gotten progressively larger? You are headed in
the wrong direction. In our youth, we had relatively
powerful thighs and arms. How can you get those arms and
thighs back? Follow a regular exercise regime that
emphasizes weight lifting--squats, lunges and overhead
presses. These type of exercises will not only increase your
muscle mass which will bulk up those spindly legs and arms
but will also reduce the fat around your abdomen.
Find out more tips to improve your skin and general health:
Exercise To Increase Muscle Mass and Boost Metabolism/
Exercise Center / Bowel Movements Indicate Your Overall
Health /Ideal Breakfast for Losing Weight/ Bowel
Color-What It Means / Sugar - the Disease Connection
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