I posted this several months ago and am embarrassed to admit, I JUST NOW, today, realized, the PEMF machine my husband has in his home is actually shown in studies to stimulate muscles (and therefore help to build them up, without exercise). Sarcopenia (the loss of muscle) is a HUGE problem for people with cirrhosis, so I truly believe this is one more reason why everyone should get this machine. To learn more, fill out THIS FORM and we will get in touch with you.
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A gal who booked an Info Session last night asked me what causes the "muscle wasting" (aka Sarcopenia) she is experiencing, and I had to tell her I didn't know, but I'd look it up.
Well, I just looked it up... and it appears to come from a lack of protein, lack of exercise, oxidative stress, and, inflammation... all of which a person with cirrhosis has, do a large degree. See yellow highlights below. I got a little freaked out when I first did a search on this, as I saw several articles on the first page of google that seemed to indicate that, when a person starts losing muscle mass, they seem to have a higher death rate. I didn't know this until today.
From THIS PAGE (full article pasted at the bottom of this post)
Sawyer and his team studied 112 patients with cirrhosis who were awaiting liver transplants at the University of Alberta Hospital and discovered 40 per cent of them had muscle wasting or low muscle mass. Cirrhosis is the final phase of chronic liver diseases, characterized by scarring of the liver and poor liver function. Those with low muscle mass lived for about 19 months if they couldn't get a transplant, while those with normal muscle mass lived for about 34 months without a liver transplant.
"Patients with cirrhosis who have low muscle mass are actually more sick than what current scoring systems are telling us and many of them die while waiting on the liver transplant lists," says Sawyer.
"Patients with low muscle mass will get put on the list thinking they can wait for around three years, but really they can only wait for about one-and-a-half years.
The good news is, the Detox Water definitely helps at least one of these factors (in a big way), and also when my husband had cirrhosis back in 2011, he did have the muscle wasting and seemed to be able to turn it around with extreme nutrition, using Visalus products. You don't have to use Visalus, you can buy supplements on your own, but it's easy to "OD" on supplements when you're taking a whole bunch of different pills, and in a million years I would never know how to get the combination of things right. Somehow they seem to have figured out what is the ideal combination of things to really help the liver (there are over 30 things in Visalus vitamins that are really good for people with cirrhosis).
With any vitamins or supplements, you do have to be careful and monitor yourself when you add anything new to your diet. Something that doesn't make an average person sick can make a person with cirrhosis sick, because your liver has lost it's ability to process just about everything, including nutrients. But I can tell you that my husband had extremely good luck taking Visalus in 2011, he seemed to bounce back really well, and that's just about all he did at that time, in terms of "alternative" methods (in addition to the diuretics and digoxin his doctors gave him).
From THIS PAGE....
Preventing Sarcopenia
January 2007
By Will Brink
One of the greatest long-term threats to our ability to remain healthy and function independently with advancing age is a steady loss of lean muscle mass, a condition known as sarcopenia.
While doctors have long warned about the loss of bone mass (osteoporosis) that accompanies aging, scant attention has been paid to the equally debilitating loss of muscle mass commonly seen in older people.
Today, however, sarcopenia is increasingly recognized as a serious health problem that afflicts millions of aging adults and places an ever-greater strain on our health care system.1 Age-related loss of muscle mass and strength not only robs elderly people of the ability to perform even the most basic tasks of daily living, but also vastly heightens their risk of suffering devastating injuries and even death from sudden falls and other accidents. The good news is, all health-conscious adults can take immediate steps to implement a program that will greatly lessen their risk for sarcopenia.
In this article, we will review the nature of sarcopenia, its causes, and ways to both prevent and manage this condition. Since sarcopenia has no single cause, its prevention and treatment require an integrated approach that incorporates dietary strategies, hormone replacement, nutritional supplementation, and exercise.
Understanding Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and functionality. It generally appears after the age of 40 and accelerates after the age of approximately 75. Although most often seen in physically inactive people, sarcopenia is also common in those who remain physically active throughout their lives. Therefore, while engaging in regular physical activity is essential to avoiding sarcopenia, inactivity is not the only contributing factor to this condition. Like osteoporosis, sarcopenia is a multifactorial disease process that may result from sub-optimal hormone levels, inadequate dietary protein, other nutritional imbalances, lack of exercise, oxidative stress, and inflammation.2,3
Sarcopenia and osteoporosis are related conditions, and one often accompanies or follows the other. Muscles generate the mechanical stress required to keep our bones healthy. When this muscle activity is reduced, it increases our susceptibility to a loss of bone mass, often initiating a vicious circle of declining health and functionality.
Moreover, this loss of muscle mass can have additional far-ranging effects beyond an obvious loss of strength and functionality. Muscle acts as a metabolic reservoir.4 After a traumatic event, for example, muscle produces proteins and metabolites required for survival and recovery. In practical terms, this suggests that frail elderly people with decreased muscle mass may have poorer outcomes after major surgery or traumatic accidents, since they lack the metabolic reservoir of muscle mass to support the immune system and other bodily systems during the recovery process.
Protein and Other Dietary Factors
Major dietary factors that contribute to sarcopenia are inadequate protein intake, insufficient calorie intake, and chronic, low-level metabolic acidosis (or an abnormally increased acidity in the body’s fluids). Although it is generally believed that the average American consumes more protein than needed, inadequate protein in the diets of older adults is common. Further compounding this problem may be a diminished capacity to digest and absorb protein in the elderly. Several studies suggest that protein requirements for older adults are higher than for younger people, and should be higher than is often recommended.5-7 In short, many older adults may not consume enough high-quality protein to support and preserve their lean body mass.
While consuming an adequate amount of protein is important for older adults, consuming too much protein can result in a low-level, diet-induced metabolic acidosis, or abnormally increased acidity in the body. The typical American diet—which is high in animal proteins and cereal grains, and low in fruits and vegetables—can cause a low-grade metabolic acidosis that contributes to the decline in muscle and bone mass found in aging adults.8 One study found that adding a buffering agent (potassium bicarbonate) to the diet of postmenopausal women prevented the muscle-wasting effects of a “normal” diet.9 This led the researchers to conclude that the buffering agent may prevent continuing age-related loss of muscle mass and help restore lost muscle mass.
Therefore, older adults should strive to ensure an adequate intake of high-quality protein from a variety of sources, accompanied by an increase in fruits and vegetables, and a reduced intake of cereal grain foods. Buffering agents such as potassium bicarbonate can be incorporated in a supplement regimen, though they should not take the place of potassium-rich fruits and vegetables in the diet.
Importance of Optimal Hormone Levels
Aging is accompanied by declining levels of many essential hormones in the body, particularly tissue-building (anabolic) hormones such as growth hormone, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), and testosterone.2
For example, circulating growth hormone levels in older adults are just one third of those in teenagers.3Researchers have recently focused on insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and mechano growth factor as critical hormones in maintaining muscle and bone mass.10 Without adequate levels of these hormones, it may be impossible for anyone to maintain lean body mass, regardless of how they eat or exercise.
Aging adults have a reduced output of mechano growth factor, a hormone that helps build muscle in response to exercise.11 This could help explain why older adults have a much more difficult time building muscle compared to their younger counterparts. However, when older people were given growth hormone before engaging in resistance exercise, their mechano growth factor response improved markedly, as did their muscle mass.11
Testosterone is also critical to maintaining lean body mass. Especially when given to testosterone-deficient men, this essential hormone can have a broad range of positive effects. One study noted that in healthy older men with low-normal to mildly decreased testosterone levels, testosterone supplementation increased lean body mass and decreased fat mass. Additionally, testosterone improved upper and lower body strength, functional performance, sexual function, and mood in some individuals.12 Although women produce less of this hormone than men do, adequate testosterone is just as essential to their health and well-being.
Because hormonal factors can significantly affect muscle mass, all adults over the age of 40 should undergo annual blood testing to track their hormone levels. If necessary, hormone deficiencies can be addressed using bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Since hormone replacement therapy requires regular monitoring and is contraindicated in some individuals, you should consult a medical professional about your specific hormone replacement needs.
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And, from THIS PAGE...
WHAT IS SARCOPENIA?
Sarcopenia is a disease associated with the ageing process. Loss of muscle mass and strength, which in turn affects balance, gait and overall ability to perform tasks of daily living, are hallmark signs of this disease.
Scientists have long believed muscle loss and others signs associated with aging are an inevitable process. However, researchers are looking for ways in which we can slow the aging process, specifically in relation to loss of muscle mass and strength.
Loss of muscle mass, strength and function
Normal muscle mass on left, muscle wasting on right
Sarcopenia is, in its most literal sense, the loss of muscle mass, strength and function related to aging. We are now discovering this loss is a complex and multifaceted process. Most commonly seen in inactive people, sarcopenia also affects those who remain physically active throughout their lives1.
This indicates that although a sedentary lifestyle contributes to this disease, it's not the only factor.
In addition, as we age:
- hormone levels change
- protein requirements alter
- motor neurons die
- and we tend to become more sedentary
Prevention and treatment
These factors in combination are what are thought to cause sarcopenia. Scientists are searching for ways to treat and prevent progression of this disease process by developing treatments targeting individual factors.
In a review of literature, worsening sarcopenia followed trends in losses of muscle strength as well as impairment of daily functioning2. In one study, the prevalence of sarcopenia increased dramatically with age from 4 % of men and 3 % of women aged 70-75 to 16 % of men and 13 % of women aged 85 or older3.
Fig. 1 Life course changes in muscle mass and strength. Note environmental changes can lower the disability threshold2.
More importantly, when sarcopenia is coupled with other diseases associated with aging, its affects can be even more pronounced. Loss of muscle mass and strength is a significant risk factor for disability in the aging population4. When patients suffer from both sarcopenia and osteoporosis, the risk of falling and subsequent fracture incidence is higher5. Therefore, treating sarcopenia will in turn help to lessen its burden on co-existing diseases.
References
1. Brink W (2007) Preventing Sarcopenia. LifeExtension Magazine
2. Mithal A, Bonjour J-P, Boonen S, Burckhardt P, Degens H, El Hajj Fuleihan G, Josse R, Lips P, Morales Torres J, Rizzoli R, Yoshimura N, Wahl D.A., Cooper C, Dawson-Hughes B(2011) Impact of nutrition on muscle strength and performance in older adults. Osteoporosis International (in press)
3. Castillo EM, Goodman-Gruen D, Kritz-Silverstein D, Morton DJ, Wingard DL, Barrett-Connor E (2003) Sarcopenia in elderly men and women - The Rancho Bernardo Study. Am J Prev Med 25: 226-231
4. Volpi, E, Nazemi R, Fujita S, (2004) Muscle tissue changes with aging. Curr Opin Nutr Metab Care July, 7(4):405-410
5. Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis, Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People," Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on April 13, 2010, Age and Ageing 2010 39(4):412-423
1. Brink W (2007) Preventing Sarcopenia. LifeExtension Magazine
2. Mithal A, Bonjour J-P, Boonen S, Burckhardt P, Degens H, El Hajj Fuleihan G, Josse R, Lips P, Morales Torres J, Rizzoli R, Yoshimura N, Wahl D.A., Cooper C, Dawson-Hughes B(2011) Impact of nutrition on muscle strength and performance in older adults. Osteoporosis International (in press)
3. Castillo EM, Goodman-Gruen D, Kritz-Silverstein D, Morton DJ, Wingard DL, Barrett-Connor E (2003) Sarcopenia in elderly men and women - The Rancho Bernardo Study. Am J Prev Med 25: 226-231
4. Volpi, E, Nazemi R, Fujita S, (2004) Muscle tissue changes with aging. Curr Opin Nutr Metab Care July, 7(4):405-410
5. Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis, Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People," Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on April 13, 2010, Age and Ageing 2010 39(4):412-423
From THIS PAGE...
PUBLIC RELEASE:
Cirrhosis patients losing muscle mass have a higher death rate
These patients should be bumped up on liver transplant lists
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta reviewed the medical records of more than 100 patients who had a liver scarring condition and discovered those who were losing muscle were more apt to die while waiting for a liver transplant. These cirrhosis patients were placed at a lower spot on the transplant list because they had a higher functioning liver and were seemingly less sick than others with the same condition, based on scoring systems physicians commonly use today.
Michael Sawyer, the principal investigator in the recently published review, says the results demonstrate physicians need to consider muscle mass when assessing where a patient with cirrhosis needs to be placed on the transplant list. Muscle mass, which can be seen through CT images commonly ordered for cirrhosis patients, needs to be considered in conjunction with other factors doctors currently look at, says Sawyer, who is a researcher in the Department of Oncology with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and a practising oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute.
The review conducted by Sawyer and his colleagues was just published in the peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, in the United States. An editorial about this research was also published in the February issue of the journal.
Sawyer and his team studied 112 patients with cirrhosis who were awaiting liver transplants at the University of Alberta Hospital and discovered 40 per cent of them had muscle wasting or low muscle mass. Cirrhosis is the final phase of chronic liver diseases, characterized by scarring of the liver and poor liver function. Those with low muscle mass lived for about 19 months if they couldn't get a transplant, while those with normal muscle mass lived for about 34 months without a liver transplant.
"Patients with cirrhosis who have low muscle mass are actually more sick than what current scoring systems are telling us and many of them die while waiting on the liver transplant lists," says Sawyer.
"Patients with low muscle mass will get put on the list thinking they can wait for around three years, but really they can only wait for about one-and-a-half years.
"Those in the medical field have been looking for better methods to assess patients with cirrhosis and this may be that missing piece to the puzzle. If we can combine this measure of muscle mass with the current scoring system, it will provide a better way of predicting survival rates of patients awaiting liver transplants."
The team's research was funded by the Alberta Cancer Foundation, who said the findings will improve care for patients. The study originally looked at the incidence of low muscle mass in both cirrhosis patients and patients with liver cancer. The liver cancer findings are yet to be published.
"Dr. Sawyer's research is an example of how new knowledge and the understanding of disease is vital to advancing clinical care," says Myka Osinchuk, CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation. "It is gratifying to know that Dr. Sawyer and his team have taken this research to another, unexpected level and are challenging the medical field to a new way of thinking."
Sawyer and one of his teammates, Aldo J. Montano-Loza, who works in the Division of Gastroenterology in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, have already received further funding from the American College of Gastroenterology to continue their work.
Sawyer is hopeful this additional way of assessing cirrhosis patients awaiting transplants will be incorporated into medical practice within the next three to four years.
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The team recently presented their findings at research conferences in both Canada and Europe.
Hope this helps!
Ellie
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