Age Factors

As you age, muscles get hard to build, easy to lose

According to a team from Nottingham University - Schools of Graduate Entry Medicine, it could be due to the body's failure to deliver nutrients and hormones to muscle because of poorer blood supply.

The researchers have already shown that older people cannot make muscle as fast as the young.

Now they've found that the suppression of muscle breakdown is blunted with age.

They believe that a 'double whammy' affects people over 65. However, the team thinks that weight training may 'rejuvenate' muscle blood flow and help retain muscle for older people.

The results may explain the loss of muscle in older people: when they eat they don't build enough muscle with the protein in food.

Besides, insulin - fails to shut down the muscle breakdown that rises between meals.

Normally, in young people, insulin acts to slow muscle breakdown.

Michael Rennie, professor of clinical physiology and Emilie Wilkes conducted the research with their colleagues at N-U.

These findings were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.