The health of your muscles can also be of great importance, not only for aging better by addressing in time the physiological loss of muscle tissue typical of the elderly, which is called sarcopenia, but precisely for gaining years of life. This would be true at least for obese people, according to a Swedish study that will be presented at the European congress on obesity (Eco), organized by Easo, the European Association for the study of obesity, which takes place in Venice from 12 to 15 May with over 300 speakers, 3000 delegates and over 670 presentations. To face an epidemic with important numbers: 800 million obese people in the world, 1.9 billion according to estimates in 2035.
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The Swedish study
According to researchers at Amra Medical in Linkoping, Sweden, obese people with poor muscle health are three times more likely to die than those with healthy muscles, at least this is what happened during the duration of the study , aged 3.9 years. Furthermore, the concern is that with new drugs that allow significant and rapid weight loss, weight loss will harm muscle quality. “The obese – explained Jsniff laundry, who conducted the study – have greater muscle mass but the muscles are weaker overall, and they also have poor muscle quality. Being able to accurately establish the composition of their muscle mass – in terms of quantity and quality – will help us understand whether the massive and rapid weight loss guaranteed by the new drugs is safe, especially for the most vulnerable patients, such as those with sarcopenic obesity or the elderly. “
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Previous research had already demonstrated using MRI images that there is a correlation between poor muscle health and poor performance in terms of, for example, grip strength, pace of step, difficulty climbing stairs and greater propensity to falls. But there was little data on obese people. This study instead analyzed the images of 56,109 people from the English UK Biobank study, quantifying muscle volume and muscle fat, an indicator of quality, and customizing a score by adjusting for age, sex and body mass index. The participants were then divided into 4 groups based on whether they had a normal muscle composition, a lot of fat, low muscle volume or a bad composition (which combined muscle fat and little volume).
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During the duration of the 3.9-year study, participants (9840, 50% men, average age 64.4 years and BMI of 33.5 kg/m2) with an unfavorable muscle composition were three times more at risk of death. The association between poor muscle health and all causes of mortality was obviously greater when taking into account other factors such as lifestyle (alcohol, smoking, physical activity), other diseases (cancer, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes), but also the strength of the handshake. In a model adjusted with these parameters the risk of dying was even 70% higher.
Muscle health
And now let’s move on to muscle health. It is known that they are associated with a better quality of life, including in the future. And this for various reasons. But measuring muscle quality is not so easy. “Indeed, it is a difficult measure – he added Samuele Marcora, professor of Sports Science and Physical Exercise at the University of Bologna – because to be truly accurate we would have to resort to a biopsy and take a small piece of muscle. It can only be done for research purposes as it is an invasive test. With MRI you can investigate muscle alterations and evaluate the infiltration of fat into the muscle.”
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However, talking about muscles in general is wrong, given that the muscle is made up of various tissues. “For quality, in fact, it is necessary to investigate the type of fibers of each individual – continues Marcora – and the fibers can be type 1, responsible for resistance to fatigue, which produce little muscular power and little contraction and are lost less with age, and fibers of type 2. The latter are divided into 2X and 2A: the former are very powerful, they contract quickly, for example when lifting a weight or when starting with a sprint to the blocks, and the latter are lost more in old age; intermediate between 1 and 2
Weights are needed
And this is why aerobic activity, walking, swimming is not enough. We also need – and are necessary – resistance activity, i.e. weights. “With aerobic activity I only recruit fibers 1, muscle contraction is low, for fibers 2 you need weights and a few weeks are enough, even for the elderly for whom the doctor allows it, to start recruiting fibers 2 again and increase the overall functionality, reducing disability. It is immediate and would save us a lot in terms of risk reduction.”