Staying Stronger for Longer, Tanita Helps Battle Sarcopenia

Manchester, July 3, 2017 – Around twenty percent of Britain’s over-65s may be suffering from sarcopenia, a muscle wasting disease that reduces strength and can impair health, increase the risk of falls and impair mobility and the ability to carry out everyday tasks, warns Tanita, a world leader in body monitoring equipment. European research last year warned the number of seniors suffering the disease could leap 64 percent over the next 30 years, particularly among women, putting a huge strain on public health services such as the NHS.

Sarcopenic Obesity

Sarcopenia is the technical term for a low muscle mass (from the Greek for ‘poverty of flesh’) and usually refers to a loss of mass in the major skeletal muscles. This can be caused by a variety of medical conditions ranging from rare inherited disorders to a simple atrophy through the insufficient use of the muscles. A loss of muscle function as well as simple loss of muscle mass is incorporated in some definitions of sarcopenia. Sarcopenic Obesity (SO) describes the condition in which obesity co-exists with sarcopenia. In the absence of specific clinical conditions, there are two main causes of muscle loss: inactive lifestyles and ageing. These same conditions tend to lead to obesity and, since both are common in the modern world, SO is rapidly emerging as a major health issue.

Why does Sarcopenic Obesity Matter?

Muscle is beneficial to health in many ways. For example, fit muscles help create a virtuous cycle of active lifestyles, and healthy muscles aid independence in the elderly and protect them from life-threatening falls and fractures. Sarcopenic Obesity is of particular concern to metabolic health where it creates a double jeopardy. Fat and muscle (and lean tissue more generally) have opposing effects on glucose sensitivity, and hence the ratio of the two masses is an important determinant of metabolic health especially in relation to insulin resistance and the associated metabolic syndrome. Muscle utilises glucose whereas the fatty acids derived from excess adipose tissue inhibit the utilisation of glucose; hence the double jeopardy. Up to now, there has been a major focus on the ill effects of a large fat mass without a full consideration of the compensatory value of a large, healthy and exercised muscle mass.

Reasons for Loss of Muscle Mass and Function

Muscle atrophy (wasting) occurs as a side-effect of many clinical conditions that affect food intake and cause cachexia and tissue catabolism. Cancers, AIDS, heart failure, lung and renal diseases, severe burns and alcoholism are examples of such muscle-wasting conditions. Normal ageing also results in a loss of muscle mass and strength (sarcopenia) caused by a combination of a gradual failure in the ability of satellite cells to regenerate new muscle cells and a decrease in the actions of the growth factors that normally maintain a healthy muscle mass.

Between 50 and 80 years of age, muscle mass declines substantially and muscle strength approximately halves. This can be slowed by training and a good diet, but cannot be wholly avoided. Additionally, there are many neurological disorders that affect muscle function and may ultimately lead to muscle weakness (stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, etc).

The Importance of Maintaining a Healthy Muscle Mass

Muscle mass and function vary across a wide range within any population group even excluding the extreme ends of the spectrum represented by muscle disease at one end and elite athletes at the other. In young children, a healthy muscle mass and motor development supports participation in play and sports that can spark a lifelong love of recreational physical activity that is vital to maintaining metabolic health in the modern obesogenic environment.

In adulthood, a gain in the proportion of fat mass to muscle mass reduces a person’s power-to-weight ratio and makes everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs, more difficult. This creates a downward cycle in which a reluctance to take exercise (for instance, choosing to use escalators and elevators instead of stairs) encourages a further gain in body fat and a deterioration in metabolic health.

In the elderly, a healthy muscle mass is essential to maintain mobility, everyday functions and quality of life. It is especially important in maintaining good balance and hence avoiding the falls and fractures that contribute greatly to ill-health and death among older people.

The Metabolic Double Jeopardy

Fat and muscle (and lean tissue more generally) have opposing effects on glucose sensitivity and hence the ratio of the two masses is an important determinant of metabolic health especially in relation to insulin resistance and the associated metabolic syndrome.

Too much fat …

Excess adipose tissue predisposes people to insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through a variety of contributory pathways. … and too little muscle. Muscle represents the major ‘end organ’ that utilizes glucose and hence helps to maintain insulin sensitivity. A large, healthy and exercised muscle mass therefore helps maintain health.

Sarcopenic-Obesity in Adults

There is no definition of sarcopenic obesity in children. When adults gain weight it is usually gained in the proportion 75% fat to 25% lean tissue. Thus obese people are expected to have a higher lean body mass than normal or underweight people. This extra lean tissue is required to carry around the extra weight (extra skeletal muscle and denser bones) and to service it (a larger heart, liver and digestive tract). However, some obese people have an inappropriately low muscle and lean mass.

The combination of a high fat mass with a low muscle mass is termed sarcopenic-obesity. Cutoffs defining sarcopenic-obesity together with the associated prevalence rates in the communities studied are now appearing in the literature.

There is strong evidence that moderate and high rates of physical activity are associated with lower risk of SO though the direction of causality is not proven. There are strong theoretical reasons that sarcopenic-obesity will be predictive of poor metabolic health and the evidence base in support of this is starting to emerge though further research is still required.

Until recently, the technological difficulties in assessing muscle mass, especially in large-sample and field settings has hampered research. These have now been overcome by BIA technology and it will be possible to refine studies of the obesity phenotype in relation to health outcomes. Methods such as BIA that can discriminate between fat, lean and muscle tissue will be required to elucidate the precise relationships between obesity, ageing and the major health outcomes.

Muscle loss is associated with slowness, weakness and general frailty which in turn lead to early fatigue and low physical activity that then reinforce the cycle of muscle wasting. This sarcopenia is a major determinant of some of the morbidities associated with old age. Geriatric medicine now recognises the key role of sarcopenia on the causal pathway to deteriorations in mobility and quality of life and in serious and life-threatening outcomes such as hip fractures.

When this sarcopenia is combined with excess fat, as is often present in the elderly, the result is sarcopenic-obesity that tends to have a higher prevalence in the elderly. It remains controversial as to whether sarcopenic obesity is a predictor of mortality in the elderly with some studies showing that it is and others not. It does, however, have a clear association with increased levels of disability and a reduced ability to perform the functions of daily living in the elderly.

Given the critical importance of sarcopenia to health in later life there is a need to encourage measurements of muscle mass in a variety of settings: in epidemiological studies (where little attention has previously been focused on muscle), in health monitoring throughout adulthood, and in therapeutic programmes aimed at improving strength, mobility and quality of life in older people. BIA offers a simple and cost-effective method for such monitoring that could be widely used across many health settings from primary health care to hospital settings.

The new Tanita Body Composition Analyser MC-980 PLUSA uses 8-electrodes and require subjects to hold two hand-grips while standing on the monitor. This allows segmental analysis of the composition of arms, legs and trunk. Further analysis provides key indicators of the subject’s muscle mass, body water and body fat status and can be shown on a Consultation Sheet.

Tanita MC-980 PLUS

The Tanita MC-980 PLUS is a Multi Frequency Segmental Body Composition Analyser with Windows and Sarcopenia Assessment.

A complete stand-alone monitoring and software package for business, the MC-980MA PLUS is the ultimate tool in providing comprehensive information for personalised health and fitness consultations. Incorporating the latest multi-frequency BIA technology with the flexibility of an upgraded Microsoft® Windows® 8 OS and expanded memory function, this monitor provides fast, convenient and accurate information.

The new Sarcopenia Assessment feature allows the identification, prevention and monitoring of elderly clients. The MC-980MA PLUS provides a full clinically accurate body composition analysis in less than 30 seconds and has an easy-to-follow colour interactive touch screen display. The in-built software runs in 14 languages and detailed consultation sheet shows the client’s full results, provides a firm basis for a full consultation, personalised goal setting and progress report. The USB ports allow simple data input or output as well as accessories to be connected including printers, bar code scanners and data capture devices.

What you need to know about Active Ageing

With an ageing population, Tanita is actively participating in many schemes and research projects to enhance senior health. Research shows there are many health benefits of staying active and maintaining well-balanced body composition as we age including:

- Increase in energy and improved quality of life

- Reduction of stress and risk of depression

- Better balance and reduction of risk of falls

- Prevention or delay for many diseases and disabilities

- Staying social and building relationships

So what counts as physical activity?

Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving and increases your heart rate. It can include any number of activities from walking, dancing or any leisure sport. Research has shown that at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity (fast walking, swimming, riding a bike etc) every week will have a direct impact on health and wellbeing.

One way of achieving 150 minutes of activity is to carry out 30 minutes on at least five days a week. It is recommended that in addition to the 150 minute target, adding exercises that focus purely on muscle strengthening such as weight training or yoga should be carried out at least twice a week.

Getting started

The latest studies show that it’s never too late to start exercising and gain the long term health benefits. If starting from a sedentary lifestyle, it is a good idea to try activities you enjoy or simply by walking at a comfortable pace and then start increasing intensity and frequency. Setting progressive goals and getting other people involved will help keep your motivation levels high.

Remember, by reducing time sitting on the sofa watching TV, in the car or reading while sitting and increasing physical activity and muscle strength will directly improve health, reduce the risk of falls and lower the risk of other illnesses.