Information provided in this
presentation is intended for your
general knowledge only and does not
constitute medical advice. I am a medical
physician at the Reno orthopedic clinic
and the owner and developer of Dr. Ni's OC2.
OC2 is a combination of
vitamin d3 calcium citrate magnesium and
creatine monohydrate for total frame
support. Hi my name is Dr. Naomi
Albertson and today I want to talk to
you a little bit about muscle loss. Most
of us don't think much about age-related
muscle loss. We don't think about muscle
loss. As we age we recognize that things
might get a little bit harder, maybe it's
a little harder to go up and down a
flight of stairs or even participate in
your favorite activities. But we don't
really think about "why?"
Well the culprit is age-related muscle
loss. Not only does our muscle mass
decrease with age, but the quality of our
muscle also decreases. We undergo a
process called myosteatosis, which
is that our muscle is becoming
infiltrated with connective tissue as
well as fat tissue.
Additionally we lose our type two
myofibrils and the nerves that go to our
muscles decrease as well leading to poor
motor control increased risks of falls and
decreased muscle mass. If that doesn't
sound like enough to worry about, the
contraction time of muscles also
decreases, as does muscle relaxation
time. And muscle recovery becomes slower
and often incomplete as we age. Also
muscle loss is not uniform. We tend to
lose more muscle strength from our legs
than our upper extremities. In addition,
hormonal changes and pro-inflammatory
cytokines and igf-1 are responsible for
further muscle loss. So this is all a lot
to think about and what I'm trying to
stress here is that we should
all be concerned about muscle loss as we
age, and we should be doing everything we
can to prevent that muscle loss. So I
know this all sounds pretty scary but
there are things that we can do to
prevent muscle loss. Among other things,
it's really important that you get
enough protein in your diet with every
meal to support normal muscle turnover
and repair. Getting plenty of
exercise is critical. We want to keep
those muscles exercising as much as we
can to maximize normal strength and
minimize the effects of aging.
Additionally, concentrating on your leg
strength is critical because of what I
told you earlier, that we actually lose
more muscle strength from our legs than
our upper extremities. And if you're
older than 65, the research has clearly
shown that the stronger your legs are
the less likely it is that you will have
a fall and resulting fracture. This is a
problem that we see as an epidemic in
medicine and it is critical that we try
to minimize falls in our older patient
population.
Finally let me say a few words about
creatine. Creatine is a substance that's
found naturally in your muscles. It
produces energy when your muscles
require it for contraction. Athletes have
safely used creatine for decades because
they know that that energy stored in
their muscles released when they need it
most is going to increase their strength
and performance. There is plenty of
research to show that creatine use in
addition to a regular exercise program
does increase muscle mass and strength
and decrease muscle associated loss with
aging. These changes can occur even in
people older than age 70.
Additionally, creatine has been shown not
only to increase strength but also to
help with recovery. So if you're older
than 35, which is when muscle losses
begin, creatine is definitely something
you should consider as part of your
regimen to maximize strength and
minimize age-related muscle loss.