Train, Grandma!

Meat and physical activity help to preserve muscles in old age

Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta

With age, our muscles weaken so much that it is sometimes difficult for an elderly person to get up from a chair, not to mention taking long walks. Scientists are looking for recipes for preserving or restoring muscle strength tirelessly, sometimes turning to stem cells for this, as is now fashionable. However, you can keep your own muscles in shape in a simpler way – by eating meat and simultaneously increasing muscle load.

Strength exercises and meat food support muscle strength in old women.
(Photo by Bettmann / Corbis.)

A distinctive feature of the study by specialists from Deakin University (Australia) is that in their conclusions they relied not on statistical data, but on an experiment. Robin Daly and his colleagues invited hundreds of women aged 60 to 90 years. Some of them were engaged in strength exercises for four months, while others, in addition to exercises, were on a special diet with an increased amount of red lean meat. Changes in muscle strength and size were measured in both of them, and it turned out that in the "meat" group, muscle strength increased by 18%, and muscle mass exceeded the indicators of pure "athletes" by 0.5 kg.

In addition, in women on a meat diet, the level of the hormone on which muscle growth depended increased by 10%, and the level of inflammatory molecules associated with both muscle degradation and chronic diseases fell by 16%.

The results of the study are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Daly et al., Protein-enriched diet, with the use of lean red meat, combined with progressive resistance training enhances lean tissue mass and muscle strength and reduces circulating IL-6 concentrations in elderly women: a cluster randomly controlled trial).

In fact, scientists used the same recipe with which athletes and other bodybuilders build muscle mass: protein shakes plus physical activity. Only in the case of old ladies, of course, the norms of both were greatly curtailed, and even then, the participants of the experiment did not have to perform on the wrestling mat. As for the amount of meat, the experiment provided for 3-4 meat dinners during the week.

The authors of the work believe that a meat diet with physical exercises should have a positive effect not only on the muscles, but also on the brain. (By themselves, physical exercises really help the nervous system to fight old age, and we have repeatedly written about this.) It is known that protein foods stimulate the growth factor IGF-1, which helps in restoring the growth of muscle and brain cells weakened in old age.

However, this same growth factor literally shortened our lives yesterday – because of our passion for protein foods. However, after 65 years, such a diet is only beneficial, that is, there is no contradiction here.

Prepared based on the materials of Deakin University:
Red meat and exercise could be the key to keeping body and mind in peak condition as we age.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru07.03.2014