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While it would be wonderful to live a life where pains and aches can be switched off with a push of a button, dreams don’t always reflect reality.
As we approach our 40s, the muscles in our body start to become less and less efficient. This, along with poor lifestyle habits, can lead to a weaker body that’s less capable of performing day-to-day activities, such as maintaining a potent intimate relationship.
This age-related muscle atrophy is known as sarcopenia, and it can lead to a host of other health problems that can make daily life difficult. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent or slow down the loss of muscle mass as we age.
Before we dive into ways to treat sarcopenia, let’s first understand the condition in its entirety so that we can tailor our preventive approach to this debilitating condition.
What is Sarcopenia?
Sarcopenia is a degenerative muscle condition that impairs a person’s musculoskeletal system as they age.
This loss of muscle can severely hamper one’s quality of life. In particular, this condition increases the risk of falls and bone fractures. It also contributes to overall bone fragility.
Sarcopenia typically begins in middle age and progresses at a slow but steady pace. According to one study, this disorder progresses at a rate between 3% to 8% every decade and accelerates once a person has hit their 60s.
By the time a person reaches their 70s or 80s, people afflicted by the disease may have already lost a significant amount of muscle mass and strength.
This condition is rare in middle-aged adults, but its prevalence spikes once a person passes the age of 60.
According to one published article, 5% to 13% of aged individuals who fall between the range of 60–70 years are affected by sarcopenia. However, this rate shoots to 11–50% for those aged 80 or above.
With all the adverse effects of this condition in mind, it pays to take preventive measures as early on as possible.
The good news is that sarcopenia isn’t an inevitable part of aging, and there are ways to prevent or slow its progression, especially with a doctor’s guidance.
4 Ways to Prevent Muscle Mass Loss
Here are four powerful ways you can naturally and clinically slow down the progression of muscle mass loss.
1. Resistance Training
Regularly engaging your muscles is an excellent way of maintaining muscle strength. It activates muscle groups that don’t often get utilized in daily activities.
For people experiencing muscle loss, focus on maintaining a good number of reps over the intensity. About 15 to 20 reps per set is an ideal estimate.
You don’t have to increase the intensity of the workout, just be sure to continuously maintain your current weight threshold. Doing so will ensure that your muscles are working and your body is energized.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can consider signing up at your local gym and talking with a gym instructor to help you out.
They may be able to customize a health regimen for you that targets all the essential core muscle groups in your body.
Some exercises that beginner exercise programs may include are the following:
- Resistance band training
- Pushups
- Planks
- Situps
If you find it difficult to perform these exercises, contact a doctor to help you figure out another way to induce muscle growth.
2. Improved Diet
Nutrition plays a major role in muscle development and maintenance. While it’s important to have a balanced diet, there are some minerals and vitamins that you’ll want to prioritize to improve your muscle mass.
Omega-3, a compound found in seafood like mackerel and salmon, activates essential muscle cells from the insulin and amino acids that get released from the body during exercise. Daily intake of around 2mg of this fatty acid helps promote muscle synthesis and growth.
Protein is another essential component of a healthy diet. Protein contains essential amino acids that help repair the fibrous tears in the muscle, allowing for muscle protein synthesis and faster recovery. Boiled chicken, steak, and meat-based products are excellent sources of this nutrient.
By incorporating healthy food into your diet, you can ingest all the nutrients needed to fight off muscle-degenerative conditions, increase muscle mass naturally, and support improved male sex drive.
3. Proper Supplementation
A healthy diet is good to start, but you can take it a step further by introducing supplements into your daily routine.
Vitamin D and its receptors are essential for maintaining muscle health and skeletal health. However, it’s not common in many food groups, leaving a high number of people deficient in this vitamin.
Moreover, creatine helps improve a person’s strength and recovery period. It’s naturally found in foods like fish, but supplements are a viable substitute for people who want to reap the athletic benefits immediately.
4. Clinical Therapies
In some cases, deteriorating muscle mass could be a result of underlying hormonal deficiencies. While there aren’t any medications that can entirely reverse this condition, there are supportive treatments available.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a common treatment for people with hormonal deficiencies. This therapy uses a combination of synthetic hormones to help restore levels to normal thresholds, thereby improving the symptoms of age-related muscle atrophy.
Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a specific type of HRT that has been shown to increase muscle strength in people suffering from disorders like hypogonadism. It involves a periodic injection of synthetic testosterone alongside other forms of remedies to treat low testosterone and improve sexual health.
Regain Your Sexual Vitality with Medical Guidance from the Top Men’s Clinic in Jacksonville
Sarcopenia can be a debilitating age-related condition that can make you lose muscle mass faster than you’d like. However, it’s not something you or your loved one will have to struggle with for the rest of one’s life.
There are many ways to curb age-related muscle loss, from applying a few lifestyle changes to getting clinically treated for any hormonal deficiencies.
If you need clinical aid, contact the Jacksonville male clinic known as Prime Men’s Medical Center now to schedule an appointment to have a consultation with their experienced and specially trained medical staff. We are a leading men’s clinic providing ED therapy, PE therapy, Low Testosterone therapy, RestoreWave therapy, hormone therapy, and much more.
