To prevent sarcopenia, you can't just rely on walking, but you should also add resistance exercises such as sit-stand, squats, and elastic bands according to your own ability; the picture is a situational photo.
Many elders believe that walking every day can prevent sarcopenia. Zhang Yaoyuan, an orthopedic surgeon at Hsinchu Dongyuan General Hospital, pointed out that walking alone may not be enough. To prevent sarcopenia, you must start with four things, including adding resistance training, supplementing protein with each meal, ensuring that you eat enough, and not randomly supplementing high doses of vitamin D on your own. If you find that it becomes more and more difficult to stand up, lift things, or walk slower, you should also pay attention to whether your muscle strength has declined.
Zhang Yaoyuan shared in a Facebook post that his elders believe that if he walks every day, he will not suffer from sarcopenia. In fact, sarcopenia is not just about "looking thinner and losing muscle mass", but more importantly, it is a decrease in muscle strength and poor body function. For example, you used to be able to stand up from a chair easily, but now you need to hold on to the table; it becomes more and more difficult to lift things, your walking speed becomes slower, and you even start to fall easily. These may be signs that you need to pay attention to. The current consensus on sarcopenia also regards "decreased muscle strength" as a very important judgment indicator.
Zhang Yaoyuan explained that as age increases, muscles will indeed gradually lose, but aging does not mean that we have to accept a decline in muscle strength. Exercise, nutrition and daily activity habits are all areas where we can intervene early. He suggested that the elderly might as well do the following four things to preserve their muscles:
The first thing: don’t just walk, also do muscle strength training.
Walking is great, but if you want to maintain muscle, walking alone may not be enough. Elderly people can add resistance exercises such as sit-to-stand training, squats, elastic bands or moderate weight-bearing according to their physical abilities to stimulate muscles and maintain strength.
Recent research and guidelines still regard progressive resistance training as one of the most important ways to improve sarcopenia.
The second thing: remember to have protein in every meal.
As we get older, our appetite decreases, and it’s easy to only eat noodles, vegetables, and vegetables for one meal. As a result, we get enough calories but not necessarily enough protein. Fish, eggs, milk, and meat are all sources of protein. For a plant-based diet, soy products such as tofu, dried tofu, edamame, and soy milk can also be used well.
The point is not to eat any specific food, but to consume enough throughout the day and spread it over different meals as much as possible.
Thing 3: Eating “enough” is as important as eating “right”.
Some elders know that they need to supplement their nutrition but cannot eat. This may be due to bad teeth, difficulty swallowing, chronic diseases, emotions or medications, which may cause them to eat less and less.
Elderly people can try to eat smaller meals more often, adjust the texture of food, or include tofu, eggs, dairy products and other ingredients that are more nutritious and easy to eat into their meals. If weight loss continues or there is a significant loss of appetite, further nutritional evaluation is also recommended.
Thing 4: Don’t supplement vitamin D by yourself
Vitamin D is related to bone and muscle function, but not every elder needs to take extra high doses of vitamin D as long as they are worried about sarcopenia.
The current evidence is still not completely consistent on "relying on vitamin D supplementation alone to improve sarcopenia". If the elderly themselves have deficiency, osteoporosis or other related risks, they can decide whether to supplement after a doctor's evaluation.
