Sarcopenia is the name given to the characteristic loss of muscle mass and strength that accompanies aging, though formal definitions under development tend towards including only those with the greatest degree of loss. This is something of a political problem in the research and medical community; the tendency to describe some level of aging as normal and therefore not treatable, while classifying greater degrees of exactly the same process and symptoms as a disease. Along with the failure of the immune system and loss of bone strength, sarcopenia is one of the most evident forms of age-related frailty. A good many research groups are involved in the attempt to find ways to slow or reverse this decline, most of which are focused on mechanisms of stem cell activity and tissue regeneration rather than fundamental damage after the SENS model of aging. Of the present options outside the SENS portfolio, gene therapies or antibody therapies that target the muscle growth regulators of myostatin and follistatin appear most promising in the short term, given the rapid progress taking place in the broader field of genetic editing.
Sarcopenia, an age-related decline in muscle mass and function, is one of the most important health problems in elderly with a high rate of adverse outcomes. However, several studies have investigated the prevalence of sarcopenia in the world, the results have been inconsistent. The current systematic review and meta- analysis study was conducted to estimate the overall prevalence of sarcopenia in both genders in different regions of the world.
Electronic databases were searched between January 2009 and December 2016. The population- based studies that reported the prevalence of sarcopenia in healthy adults aged ≥ 60 years using the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP), the International Working Group on Sarcopenia (IWGS) and Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) definitions, were selected. According to these consensual definitions, sarcopenia was defined by presence of low muscle mass (adjusted appendicular muscle mass for height) and muscle strength (handgrip strength) or physical performance (the usual gait speed). The random effect model was used for estimation the prevalence of sarcopenia.
Thirty-five articles met our inclusion criteria, with a total of 58,404 individuals. The overall estimates of prevalence was 10% in men and 10% in women, respectively. The prevalence was higher among non-Asian than Asian individuals in both genders especially, when the Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) was used to measure muscle mass (19% vs 10% in men; 20% vs 11% in women). Despite the differences encountered between the studies, regarding diagnostic tools used to measure of muscle mass and different regions of the world for estimating parameters of sarcopenia, present systematic review revealed that a substantial proportion of the old people has sarcopenia, even in healthy populations. However, despite sarcopenia being a consequence of the aging progress, early diagnosis can prevent some adverse outcomes.
Link: https://dx.doi.org/1...0200-017-0302-x
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