Weight training important for older people

Researchers in Nottingham have found out why even the sturdiest folk tend to lose muscle as they grow older, especially from their arms and legs.

The natural tendency is for muscles to diminish in older age, which heightens the risk of falls and accidents. Researchers have already demonstrated that older people tend not to make muscle as they did when they were young.

In the latest research scientists have found that muscles break down more easily with age as the mechanism that stops this happens, especially when eating, doesn't work so easily. When older people eat they find it harder to build enough muscle with the protein from the food. When you eat a meal insulin is released which in younger people works to prevent muscle breakdown that occurs between mealtimes and at night.

The research team at the University of Nottingham Schools of Graduate Entry Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, led by Professor Michael Rennie, thinks that weight training may be the answer to the problem of older people losing muscle. The training may revitalise the flow of blood to muscle and thus enable older people keep their muscle power. This,in turn, would increase the flow of nutrients and hormones to the muscles.

The professor said: "The results were clear. The younger people's muscles were able to use insulin we gave to stop the muscle breakdown, which had increased during the night. The muscles in the older people could not."

He added: "In the course of our tests, we also noticed that the blood flow in the leg was greater in the younger people than the older ones. This set us thinking: maybe the rate of supply of nutrients and hormones is lower in the older people? This could explain the wasting we see."

The finding that increasing age blunted the flow of blood to the leg muscles after feeding, with and without exercise, was confirmed by Beth Philips, a PhD student and colleague of Professor Rennie.

Professor Rennie confirmed this, saying: "Indeed, she found that three sessions a week over 20 weeks "rejuvenated" the leg blood flow responses of the older people. They became identical to those in the young."

The findings of this latest research confirm the increasing awareness that as we grow older we need to keep up our exercise and activity levels and this applies both mentally and physically.

Now older people need to add muscle training to our list of vital age busting things to do!

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