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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 18 2018, @02:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-I-could-turn-back-time dept.

Sarcopenia, a decline in skeletal muscle in older people, contributes to loss of independence.

[...] Sarcopenia can be considered for muscle what osteoporosis is to bone," Dr. John E. Morley, geriatrician at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, wrote in the journal Family Practice. He pointed out that up to 13 percent of people in their 60s and as many as half of those in their 80s have sarcopenia.

As Dr. Jeremy D. Walston, geriatrician at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, put it, "Sarcopenia is one of the most important causes of functional decline and loss of independence in older adults."

Yet few practicing physicians alert their older patients to this condition and tell them how to slow or reverse what is otherwise an inevitable decline that can seriously impair their physical and emotional well-being and ability to carry out the tasks of daily life. Sarcopenia is also associated with a number of chronic diseases, increasingly worse insulin resistance, fatigue, falls and, alas, death.

A decline in physical activity, common among older people, is only one reason sarcopenia happens. Other contributing factors include hormonal changes, chronic illness, body-wide inflammation and poor nutrition.

But — and this is a critically important "but" — no matter how old or out of shape you are, you can restore much of the strength you already lost. Dr. Moffat noted that research documenting the ability to reverse the losses of sarcopenia — even among nursing home residents in their 90s — has been in the medical literature for 30 years, and the time is long overdue to act on it.

[...] Dr. Morley, among others, points out that adding and maintaining muscle mass also requires adequate nutrients, especially protein, the main constituent of healthy muscle tissue.

Protein needs are based on a person's ideal body weight, so if you're overweight or underweight, subtract or add pounds to determine how much protein you should eat each day. To enhance muscle mass, Dr. Morley said that older people, who absorb protein less effectively, require at least 0.54 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight, an amount well above what older people typically consume.

Thus, if you are a sedentary aging adult who should weigh 150 pounds, you may need to eat as much as 81 grams (0.54 x 150) of protein daily. To give you an idea of how this translates into food, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter has 8 grams of protein; 1 cup of nonfat milk, 8.8 grams; 2 medium eggs, 11.4 grams; one chicken drumstick, 12.2 grams; a half-cup of cottage cheese, 15 grams; and 3 ounces of flounder, 25.5 grams. Or if you prefer turkey to fish, 3 ounces has 26.8 grams of protein.

"Protein acts synergistically with exercise to increase muscle mass," Dr. Morley wrote, adding that protein foods naturally rich in the amino acid leucine — milk, cheese, beef, tuna, chicken, peanuts, soybeans and eggs — are most effective.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:28PM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:28PM (#736675) Journal

    The benefits are probably ruined by the "low-fat" varieties or lots of added sugar. I make yogurt at home 1 gallon at a time and it's great.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:42PM (3 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:42PM (#736683) Journal

    I tried to make yoghurt at home, but half of the batches I got curds and whey instead of yoghurt. It seems to be a bit of a tricky process.

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    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:47AM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday September 22 2018, @02:47AM (#738453) Journal

      Someone else told me they had some trouble with the basic thermophilic yogurtmaking process, and I don't see why since it is dead simple. Near-boil some milk, let it cool to about 115°F, stir in some store yogurt, and hold it at that temperature for at least 8-12 hours (I like to go to 15-16 hours, and others might do it for over a day).

      When I do this, I can get some lumpiness in the yogurt and a layer of whey juice at the top, but I wouldn't describe it as curds and whey. It tastes like yogurt.

      However, in my recent Thermophilic vs. Mesophilic test [soylentnews.org], the mesophilic (room temperature) yogurt came out much smoother. Maybe you need to try this approach. Check the strains on the cup of yogurt you use as a starter. If it has a bunch of them, some of them should probably work properly.

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      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:45PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 22 2018, @05:45PM (#738604) Journal

        Sorry, but I was never willing to put a lot of time into debugging the process. I just wanted to comment that it's by no means as simple as you were indicating.

        For that matter, various groups of people have, historically, used approximately similar approaches and turned out a wide variety of consumable end products, ranging from cheeses through kumis. But Kefir is a lot easier to make, at least in my experience. Possibly it depends partially on the ambient temperature.

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        • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday September 22 2018, @06:17PM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday September 22 2018, @06:17PM (#738614) Journal

          I have had no failures and I've done maybe 10 gallons so far. The prep time spent for each gallon is about 10 minutes. The hardest part is waiting for the
          hot milk to cool back down. Previously, I used an oven capable of working at low temperatures to ferment the yogurt, now I use an Instant Pot which has a dedicated "yogurt" button (one mode boils the milk, the other holds it at the correct temperature for many hours).

          The process is very simple:

          1. Heat milk to just under boiling (you can boil it).
          2. Let it cool to 115 F.
          3. Hold it at 115 F for 8+ hours.

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