Blacknbengal
Well-Known Member
Special Report: Fight Age With Muscle
The latest research is changing how doctors look at muscle mass. No longer seen simply in terms of performance or vanity, muscle mass serves as the body's armor against several age-related diseases as well as heart problems, diabetes, and even cancer.
"The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank."
?William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2.7
Just as most men believe they possess a keen sense of humor, most men assume they are reasonably strong. Their muscle mass ? the aggregate of muscle tissue they have built over a lifetime, enabling them to support their bones, fill the legs of their jeans, and lift the heavy end of a sofa ? is at least adequate, relative to other men their age. Before my meeting with Gianni Maddalozzo, PhD, an exercise physiologist at Oregon State University, I was one of those men. After our meeting, I still think I have a pretty good sense of humor.
Maddalozzo's research focuses on the study of osteoporosis and muscle strength in adults ages 40 to 80. Most of his subjects suffer from advanced sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass that occurs naturally ? and inevitably ? with age. Sarcopenia, in other words, is the scientific term for a phenomenon that Shakespeare identifies with the sixth age of man: the gray, traditionally enfeebled years of the "shrunk shank."
Rest of story
The latest research is changing how doctors look at muscle mass. No longer seen simply in terms of performance or vanity, muscle mass serves as the body's armor against several age-related diseases as well as heart problems, diabetes, and even cancer.
"The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank."
?William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2.7
Just as most men believe they possess a keen sense of humor, most men assume they are reasonably strong. Their muscle mass ? the aggregate of muscle tissue they have built over a lifetime, enabling them to support their bones, fill the legs of their jeans, and lift the heavy end of a sofa ? is at least adequate, relative to other men their age. Before my meeting with Gianni Maddalozzo, PhD, an exercise physiologist at Oregon State University, I was one of those men. After our meeting, I still think I have a pretty good sense of humor.
Maddalozzo's research focuses on the study of osteoporosis and muscle strength in adults ages 40 to 80. Most of his subjects suffer from advanced sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass that occurs naturally ? and inevitably ? with age. Sarcopenia, in other words, is the scientific term for a phenomenon that Shakespeare identifies with the sixth age of man: the gray, traditionally enfeebled years of the "shrunk shank."
Rest of story