Prevent Age-Related Muscle Loss, Frailty and Risk Factors for Falls

Every adult loses muscle mass with age.¹

This is not just a cosmetic issue.

Age-related muscle loss increases the risk for falls, fractures, loss of independence, and ultimately, loss of life.

This decline in muscle mass, which begins as early as the 4^th decade, is called sarcopenia.² It leads to increased nursing home placement and hospitalization rates.³ And as muscle mass falls, the risk of disability greatly increases.^4,5

Exercise can help prevent age-related muscle loss, but is only one of the components necessary to maintain adequate muscle strength.

Two key nutrients have been shown to rebuild lost muscle in aging individuals:

Beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) increases and preserves muscle mass in adults of all ages, especially those older than 65.^6-8

Vitamin D3 supports muscle strength and helps to prevent the falls that often trigger an early decline into frailty.^9-12

HMB and vitamin D3 help maintain and restore muscle mass even as we age.

Why Sarcopenia is So Dangerous

Starting around age 40, an estimated 8% loss of muscle mass is seen per decade. After age 70, muscle mass decreases by about 15% per decade.¹

This drastic decline leaves individuals not only weaker, but also in less control of their bodies—and more prone to falls and other injuries.

The word for this loss of skeletal muscle mass is sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia triggers a vicious cycle, in which decreased muscle strength limits physical activity, which leads to further muscle loss. Eventually, a condition called frailty can set in, leaving a person weak and vulnerable to external stressors that would otherwise be minor (such as a mild injury or illness).

As frailty worsens and function declines, each subsequent stressor speeds the road to lost independence and increases the risk of early death.

As we'll now see, clinical evidence supports HMB and vitamin D3 supplementation as a way of heading off sarcopenia and frailty.

HMB Preserves Muscle Mass, Prevents Muscle Atrophy

Beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, or HMB, is a natural, bioactive product of metabolism of the amino acid leucine.¹³

HMB is essential to maintaining the balance between muscle catabolism (breakdown) and anabolism (buildup or restoration).^14-20

HMB levels decline with age, a drop that correlates precisely with diminished lean muscle mass and strength.²¹ This finding leads to an important question: Can supplementing with HMB protect—or even restore—lean muscle mass in older people?

Multiple human trials have shown the value of HMB for preserving and improving muscle mass.

Overcoming a Major Cause of Sarcopenia

A 2015 meta-analysis included data from seven trials involving a total of 287 older adults. It found that supplementing with HMB preserved muscle mass in older adults and may be useful in preventing muscle atrophy.²²

One of those studies involved healthy older adults who voluntarily subjected themselves to 10 days of complete bed rest²³—a known cause of sarcopenia.^24,25

Subjects supplemented with either a placebo powder or a powder providing 1.5 grams of HMB twice daily, starting five days prior to the bed-rest period and continuing until the end of the rehabilitation phase.

The control group experienced a reduction in total lean body mass of about 4.4 pounds. In contrast, HMB-supplemented subjects lost just 0.37 pounds (not a significant difference from baseline).²³

In this study, HMB supplementation preserved lean body mass in the face of a powerful stimulus for sarcopenia: sustained bed rest.

Boosting Lean Body Mass During Exercise

Other researchers set out to determine if HMB could help boost lean body mass when used in addition to resistance training.

For the study, a group of 70-year-old individuals participated in a resistance training exercise program five days a week. During that time, they took 1 gram of HMB or placebo three times a day.⁶

After eight weeks, the supplemented subjects experienced an increase in lean body mass of 1.76 pounds, while the placebo recipients lost 0.44 pounds—despite the fact that they were exercising five days a week! Those who supplemented with HMB also lost more body fat than the placebo subjects.

This study showed that HMB supplementation can augment strength training in older adults in a way similar to that already proven in younger people.⁶

Overall, these studies consistently show that supplementation with HMB improves lean body mass in older adults while contributing to better body fat distribution.

Vitamin D3 can complement that action by enhancing muscle strength.

Vitamin D3 Boosts Strength and Performance

Vitamin D3 supplementation improves muscle strength and performance.^26,27 Studies show that it's possible to increase muscle strength simply by boosting vitamin D levels.

A muscle strength/frailty study enrolled 160 postmenopausal women, aged 50-65, who all had a history of falling.²⁸ Falls are a common destabilizing factor that can arise from both inadequate muscle mass and poor coordination and balance.²⁹ Vitamin D3 shows promise for combatting both factors.

Researchers in this study randomly assigned women to receive vitamin D3 (1,000 IU/day) or placebo.²⁸ After nine months, those who took the vitamin D experienced a 25.3% increase in leg muscle strength.²⁸ During the same period, women in the placebo group lost 6.8% of their lean mass.

The vast difference between the supplemented and unsupplemented women indicates vitamin D's ability to not only preserve—but also improve—muscle strength.

Finally, a 2014 meta-analysis of data from 30 randomized controlled trials involving more than 5,600 people evaluated the effects of vitamin D3 supplementation on muscle performance. The results showed that vitamin D3 had a significant positive effect on overall muscle strength. This is an important finding, since loss of overall muscle strength can increase the risk of mortality.²⁶

The greatest benefits were seen in those who had the lowest vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study (less than 12 ng/mL) and in older vs. younger subjects.²⁶ This is good news for those already supplementing with higher-dose vitamin D3.

Combatting Some Underlying Factors of Sarcopenia

There are four primary factors that contribute to sarcopenia. Together, either HMB or vitamin D3 mitigate each of these underlying factors. Take a look:

Factor #1: Skeletal muscle protein imbalance.

Muscles constantly undergo cycles of breakdown (catabolism) and restoration (anabolism). Muscle mass is simply the sum of catabolic breakdown and anabolic restoration.³⁰ With aging, the formation of new muscle is greatly reduced, while muscle protein breakdown continues unabated. This imbalance results in decreased muscle mass, or sarcopenia.

→HMB exerts pro-anabolic (muscle build-up) and anti-catabolic (anti-breakdown) properties.²⁰

Factor #2: Shifts in hormone signaling.

Declining sex hormone levels during aging reduce muscle mass, contributing to sarcopenia.

→Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that supports both sex hormone synthesis and muscle contractile strength.^31,32

Factor #3: Mitochondrial dysfunction.

Falling numbers and activity of energy-producing mitochondria contribute heavily to sarcopenia.³³

→Vitamin D3 signaling improves mitochondrial function and dynamics, factors that can increase muscle strength.³⁴

Factor #4: Inflammatory factors.

As muscles break down, levels of pro-inflammatory markers rise. People with sarcopenia have higher levels of chronic inflammation than those with normal muscle mass.³⁵

→Vitamin D3 has potent immunomodulatory properties and has been linked to improvements in inflammatory markers.³⁵

Summary

Sarcopenia is a leading contributor to frailty and early death in older adults.

Two supplements have been shown to combat sarcopenia by maintaining or boosting muscle mass and performance.

HMB promotes muscle growth and function while preventing muscle breakdown. Human studies show that supplementation with HMB contributes to improvements in strength and lean muscle mass.

Supplementation with vitamin D3 has been shown to boost exercise performance and muscle strength.

These two nutrients are available in a combination powder suitable for convenient mixing in any drink of choice and taken once daily.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension® Wellness Specialist at 1-866-864-3027.

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