Sarcopenia rehabilitation

"Strong people stay young"

Have a good look at yourself in front of the mirror, in your birthday suit, and be honest. Stand front on as well as side on. Does your tummy bulge out? Hold your arm up in the air. What do you see? The flesh hangs off your upper arm? Do your knees appear bigger than your thighs? It may be, as they say, "not a pretty sight" and perhaps because of this we tend to ignore these signs, which many of us take for granted as a natural phenomena of middle or advancing age.

Loss of muscle and associated tone, as one advances in age, is a fact of nature, and researchers at the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Centre on Aging, at the Tufts in the United States, who are investigating this phenomena, have coined a word for it: SARCOPENIA, from the word SARK - flesh, and PENIA - poverty. Sarcopenia is an insidious process which begins probably in the late 30's, but usually does not become obvious until we are in our 60's and 70's. It is marked by a withering of muscle mass and its loss is disguised by an addition of fat in and around the muscle.

So far, this has been "the bad news". Now for the good news!

Researchers from all over the world who are looking at this particular aspect of the ageing process all agree that SARCOPENIA can, to a certain extent, not only be minimised, but in most cases can actually be reversed. They have found that people in their 60's and 70's who exercise regularly with a light weights program, are stronger and fitter than people in their 30's who lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Scientific studies show that those who do exercise regularly, or even take up exercise later in life, find themselves bustling with more energy, enjoying physical activity and able to cope with work longer, while their sedentary contemporaries find themselves getting weaker, tire easily, and generally, needlessly, do not enjoy life as they should.

If you would like to know how to combat SARCOPENIA: - talk to us here at SOUTHSIDE PHYSIOTHERAPY!