But I'm not a Body Builder...
Clinical research is demonstrating the benefits of exercise and nutrition in a everyday problems many face. Examples of people who might benefit from nutritional supplements include the elderly, patients recovering from conditions where prolonged bedrest or muscle inactivity has occured. These could include: accident victims, conditions requiring mechanical restraint such as casts for sprains, broken bones and surgery, prolonged illness, strokes or many other conditions. Muscle atrophy refers to the wasting or loss of muscle tissue resulting from disease or lack of use.
Bed-ridden people can undergo significant muscle wasting. Astronauts, free of the gravitational pull of Earth, can develop decreased muscle tone and loss of calcium from their bones following just a few days of weightlessness. Even minor muscle atrophy usually results in some loss of mobility or power. Active vs. inactive muscle People may lose 20 to 40 percent of their muscle -- and, along with it, their strength -- as they age. Scientists have found that a major reason people lose muscle is because they stop doing everyday activities that use muscle power, not just because they grow older. Exercise and nutritional supplements help build and/or maintain muscle mass. Weightlifting During Dialysis Combats Muscle Wasting: StudyApril 16 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with end-stage renal disease, doing high-intensity weightlifting exercises during dialysis sessions helps counteract muscle wasting by building muscle mass and strength, an Australian study says. The researchers concluded that exercise for patients should be standard practice at dialysis centers. The study is published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Muscle wasting is common in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and a major risk factor for premature death. "Our findings suggest that patients who regularly perform resistance training exercise during hemodialysis treatment can significantly improve muscle mass, strength, quality of life, and other aspects of health status that are important to people with kidney failure," lead author Bobby Cheema, of the University of Sydney, said in a prepared statement. The study included 49 ESRD patients who were divided into two groups. One group received usual care, while the other group used equipment such as dumbbells and ankle weights to do high-intensity weightlifting exercises while seated in the dialysis chair during their three-times-weekly dialysis sessions. After 12 weeks, the patients in the exercise group had improved muscle mass, muscle strength, improved quality of life, and a reduction in pro-inflammatory markers, which are associated with death from cardiovascular disease and other causes. "Exercise was carried out safely within the hemodialysis sessions, without any interference with routine care, and no need to change dialysis procedures," Cheema said. SOURCE: American Society of Nephrology, news release, April 4, 2007 Amino acid, carb supplement may combat muscle wasting in elderlySupplements containing essential amino acids and carbohydrates appear to reduce the muscle wasting experienced by people confined to bed for long periods of time, shows a small trial. The supplements could be useful for trauma victims (severe trauma diminishes the body's ability to make new muscle) and hospitalised elderly people, say the University of Texas researchers. Writing in this month's issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (vol 89, no 9, pp 4351-4358), they report giving 13 healthy male volunteers, all confined to bed for 28 days, either a drink containing essential amino acids and carbohydrates or a placebo three times a day. Using data produced by state-of-the-art real-time muscle-protein synthesis measurements, biopsies, magnetic resonance and X-ray imaging, and strength tests, the researchers found the supplemented group retained all of their original leg muscle mass while the members of the placebo group lost about a pound of leg muscle on average. Those given the supplements also lost only about half as much leg strength as those given the placebo. "We thought it was the most astounding thing that even though our subjects did no exercise, they were able to maintain muscle mass," said the university's medical branch assistant professor Douglas Paddon-Jones, lead author on the paper. A similar supplement regime could reduce muscle loss in elderly people. "The elderly have less muscle to spare than the rest of us," Paddon-Jones said. "When they get sick or injured and wind up in a hospital bed for a prolonged period, many of them lose so much muscle mass and strength that they don't get back up. For a lot of people, this supplement could make a real difference." The subjects in this study were aged between 26 and 46. The researchers plan further investigations to determine whether nutritional supplements - alone and in combination with resistance or walking exercise- can indeed significantly reduce muscle loss in elderly men and women during prolonged bed rest. Studies have also found fish oil supplements may help to prevent the wasting and weight loss associated with some types of advanced cancer while creatine, used by bodybuilders to increase muscle mass, could also have similar clinical applications. Nutritional supplements may combat muscle loss
Through an NSBRI bed-rest study, an amino acid and carbohydrate supplement is being studied to determine its value as a nutritional countermeasure to muscle loss. To study space travel's effect on muscles, Dr. Robert Wolfe of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston enlisted healthy subjects to stay in bed 28 days during a National Space Biomedical Research Institute study. "One cause of muscle atrophy in space is lack of muscular activity. That's why bed rest is a good model because it minimizes activity, and like astronauts, you lose muscle mass primarily in the legs," said co-investigator Dr. Arny Ferrando, a professor of surgery at UTMB and Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston. "When muscles are inactive, as they are in space, they don't make new proteins. If muscle breakdown rates are the same, that means you lose muscle." Researchers are attempting to increase protein synthesis rates with supplements of amino acids, which are the raw materials of protein. Participants received the supplements three times a day, and researchers compared the protein synthesis/breakdown rates and muscle mass before and after the bed-rest study. This data was compared to results from a control group that received a placebo drink instead of the supplements. "Early results suggest that the amino acid supplement is able to maintain synthesis rates and body mass," Ferrando said. During the study, subjects must remain in bed and can get up only briefly to use a bedside commode. They eat and bathe from their beds, and daily activities encompass watching television, reading books and using a bedside computer. Midway through the study, researchers determine muscle mass and function by testing the subjects' strength and body composition. They gather the most vital data, the protein synthesis and breakdown rates, by using stable isotope analysis. With the stable isotope technique, researchers attach a harmless tracer to specific amino acids that travel through the bloodstream. Then, they take blood samples to determine the amount of amino acids that enter and exit the leg. "If 80 amino acids are coming into the artery and 60 are going out of the vein, we know that 20 were probably made into proteins in the muscle," said Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones, also of UTMB and a co-investigator performing these studies. "We complete the muscle analysis by removing a small piece of muscle and determining how many amino acids have been incorporated into proteins. Over time, we can calculate the rate at which the synthesis and breakdown occurs." Space conditions also elevate the body's level of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases the breakdown rate of proteins. "Under stress, the body breaks down proteins to make energy for survival," said Ferrando, a member of NSBRI's nutrition and fitness research team. "However, this process also causes muscle atrophy." To study the supplement's effects on muscle loss due to elevated levels of cortisol, researchers infused the stress hormone into the participants' blood during the stable isotope tests. The researchers mimic the cortisol concentrations found during space flight, then determine protein synthesis and breakdown rates of the subjects taking the supplement and compare this to the rates of the control group. Ferrando and Wolfe are also collaborating with other NSBRI researchers who use the subjects' body fluids to study changes in bone, immune function and cell damage induced by bed rest. Findings from this research on nutritional supplements could benefit patients on Earth. "Muscle atrophy is common in many populations: the elderly, kids with burns, patients in intensive care or people who have had major operations. We're looking at this phenomenon in terms of space flight, but the study has many other implications," Ferrando said. (The NSBRI, funded by NASA, is a consortium of institutions studying the health risks related to long-duration space flight. The Institute’s 95 research and education projects take place at 75 institutions in 22 states involving 269 investigators.) |
Athletes and professional body builders are not the only ones benefiting from nutritional supplements that build muscle mass. 
Disuse atrophy occurs from a lack of physical exercise. The majority of muscle atrophy in the general population results from disuse. Persons with sedentary jobs, with medical conditions that limit movement, or who have decreased activity levels can lose muscle tone and develop atrophy. This type of atrophy can be reversible with vigorous exercise.