Health and Well-Being
6 Steps to Prevent Sarcopenia and Osteoporosis Via Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Muscle and bone health are critical for mobility and longevity.
Muscle and Bone Health
Living a quality life can be difficult or impossible without muscle and bone health. These two structural organs are critical to moving and keeping our internal organs intact. When these organs weaken as we age, we might face severe health conditions affecting our quality of life, mobility, and longevity.
The biggest problem of the aging population is structural decline affecting their mobility and longevity. Sarcopenia and osteoporosis are closely related conditions. Their combined effects can lead to fractures causing extra suffering to patients.
For example, a Lancet report informs that “Globally, in 2019, there were 178 million new fractures (33.4% increase), 455 million prevalent cases of acute or long-term symptoms of a fracture, and 25.8 million years lived with disability since 1990.”
I aim to provide practical tips by combining these two critical conditions in an article to create awareness. Solutions for these two conditions look similar. First, I’d like to give brief background information on these conditions so that the solutions can make sense.
A Brief Introduction to Sarcopenia and Osteoporosis
Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia refers to losing muscle mass and strength. Even though this condition might happen at any age, it typically occurs in the aging population. There are several causes of sarcopenia. Most of them are related to lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and sleep.
Muscle is both a mobility and longevity organ. Maintaining lean muscle mass is essential at any age but is more critical as we get older. Skeletal muscle is necessary for our posture to support daily activities.
Muscle growth and maintenance depend on three concepts. They are gaining anabolic sensitivity, activating mTOR, and balancing hormones.
Signals from exercise, proteins, growth factors, and hormones activate mTOR. Anabolic sensitivity refers to the timely response of muscle synthesis to stimuli from amino acids and resistance workouts. Its opposite state is anabolic resistance.
The most significant risk of sarcopenia for older adults is falling and leading bone structures, especially when these people also experience osteoporosis. Therefore sarcopenia and osteoporosis are closely related.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis refers to weakening bones that might get broken when an accident happens. Bones can get more fragile as we age due to various health conditions.
Before osteoporosis happens in the body, patients might first face a condition called osteopenia. This condition refers to the gradual reduction in bone density. However, it might not lead to osteoporosis if precautions are taken timely.
Osteoporosis might not show apparent symptoms. However, professionals might observe symptoms of bone disorders such as skeletal pain, joint pain, back pain, sprains, infections, and overall weakness in the body.
Medical professionals can diagnose bone disorders by using observation and measurement tools. Observations might indicate changes in posture, movement imbalances, weakening muscles, loss of height, swelling, and redness.
Besides blood and urine tests, family physicians and specialists can request bone tests such as x-rays, MRI scans, CAT scans, radionuclide bone scans, bone densitometry, and biopsy.
As confirmed by NIH, “With millions of Americans at increased risk for bone fracture, it’s good to know that osteoporosis is a preventable and treatable disease.”
Practical Tips to Improve Muscles and Bones and Lower the Risks of Sarcopenia and Osteoporosis
As the health of muscles and bones are related, in this section, I provide practical tips to improve them via healthy lifestyle choices.
This article excludes underlying health conditions and genetic defects leading to sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
In addition to numerous metabolic conditions, unfortunately, excessive and rapid weight loss can also lead to sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
I touched on common oversights in an article titled Here Are 4 Reasons You Can’t Reduce Visceral Fat and Lose Muscle Mass Instead. I also covered seven weight loss mistakes.
The following six sections cover the known root causes and common risk factors of sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
1 — Consume an adequate amount of bioavailable proteins, collagens, and healthy fats.
Protein is an essential macronutrient for muscle building and maintenance. It is also necessary for bone health. Thus, muscles and bones require an adequate amount of bioavailable protein at any age.
Muscles and bones include large amounts of proteins. Bones also require a type of protein called collagen. Connective tissues also hold collagen. Not only bones but also our skin requires collagen to stay intact.
Cleveland Clinic informs that “our bones are made primarily of collagen. When our body’s collagen production decreases, our bones weaken, making them more susceptible to fracture. Studies show that taking collagen peptides may help treat and prevent osteoporosis.”
The Harvard School of Public Health mentions that “our bodies gradually make less collagen as we age, but collagen production drops most quickly due to excess sun exposure, smoking, excess alcohol, and lack of sleep and exercise.”
We can obtain collagen from food such as bone broth. Even though plants don’t directly include collagen, they seem to have collagen-producing ingredients for the body to produce, as informed by the Harvard School of Public Health.
We can also supplement collagen with over-the-counter products. For example, I documented my experience in a story titled Here’s My Testimony of Hydrolyzed Collagen.
After protein and collagen, we also need an adequate amount of healthy fats for muscle and bone health. As I documented in a previous article, omega-3 fatty acids are essential for overall health.
This paper informs, “accumulating evidence indicates that dietary fats can influence bone health. The omega-3, in particular, may be beneficial, as they have been shown to inhibit the activity of osteoclasts and enhance the activity of osteoblasts in animals.”
2 — Consume nutrient-dense food, covering essential minerals and vitamins.
Muscles and bones need micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins. The body can produce some micronutrients by synthesizing them from other ones.
However, it cannot create some micronutrients. Therefore, we call them essential minerals and vitamins. Some vitamins and minerals play a critical role in muscle and bone health.
Obtaining minerals and vitamins from whole foods (either animal or plant products or both) is necessary for health. Some minerals are essential for muscle and bone growth, recovery, and maintenance.
Addressing nutritional deficiencies can improve hormonal balance and metabolic health by making the body insulin sensitive and contributing to muscle and bone health.
The most critical minerals for them are magnesium, calcium, zinc, boron, copper, and manganese. Bones also require silicon and vitamins such as Vitamin D and Vitamin K/K2.
Vitamin D is crucial for calcium metabolism. We also need it for multiple other reasons, as I explained in a previous article. Even though we can get Vitamin D from food and supplements, the best source of this vitamin is sunlight.
However, sunlight might be risky for some skin types; therefore, it is necessary for those people to get it from food or supplements.
In general, if we miss food groups containing essential minerals and vitamins, we must supplement them with support from qualified healthcare professionals.
3 — Perform anabolic and aerobic workouts.
To maximize the benefits of the exercises, we need both anabolic and aerobic workouts in different ratios, depending on our goals, needs, and fitness levels.
Anabolic exercises can contribute to building and maintaining muscles. These types of exercises include whole-body weightlifting, calisthenics, and using resistance machines in the gym.
Regular resistance training can increase muscle mass, bone mineral density, and bone size and protect against muscle mass and bone density loss. So resistance training in healthy people can prevent the occurrence of sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
I believe women can do resistance training, too, as I mentioned in a story titled Here’s Why Women Need Resistance Training and How Can They Achieve It.
Aerobic, also known as cardio workouts, is a type of exercise that challenges the cardiovascular system by increasing the heart rate and breathing intensity, creating more blood flow to the tissues to oxygenate them.
Typical cardio exercises are walking, jogging, running, skipping gropes, swimming, jumping on trampolines, and climbing stairs. When combined with resistance training, cardio workouts might lower the risk of muscle and bone density loss.
Even though exercise is stressful and might generate acute inflammation, in the long run, when done correctly and persistently, it can lower oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. However, excessive exercise can increase stress and cause accumulated inflammation, affecting both muscles and bones.
Regular movement can also improve hormonal balance and metabolic health by making the body insulin sensitive and contributing to muscle and bone health, as I cover in section #5.
4 — Sleep and rest to lower stress and chronic inflammation.
As for overall health, reducing stress can also contribute to improving muscle and bone health. The essential factor in lowering stress is getting adequate and restorative sleep daily. All sleep phases are essential for muscle and bone health.
Even though exercise and protein are necessary for muscle and bone health by activating mTOR, we build and maintain them during restorative sleep with hormonal balance, as I cover in the next section.
As documented in this paper, “both animal and human studies indicate that chronic psychological stress induces a decrease of bone mass and deterioration of bone quality by influencing the HPA axis, sympathetic nervous system, and different endocrine and immune factors.”
As I documented in my previous articles, the stress hormone cortisol might also lead to muscle loss when the body sense starvation. In addition, oxidative stress can lead to chronic inflammation, affecting both muscle and bone health.
Studies indicate that chronic inflammation is linked to both the development of sarcopenia and osteoporosis. When the muscles are inflamed, the muscles get weaker, preventing movement. Inflammation can also lower the production of bone-forming cells.
Therefore restorative sleep and rest are critical to lower oxidative stress and prevent chronic inflammation from maintaining muscle and bone health.
We can lower oxidative stress with other lifestyle choices such as mindful living, meditation, relaxation, visualization, self-talk, working in a flow state, listening to music, dancing, laughter yoga, and other fun activities based on our hobbies.
5 — Balance and optimize hormones.
Hormones affect our cells, tissues, and organs, including muscles and bones. The balance of metabolic (e.g., insulin), stress (cortisol), sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone), and growth hormones are critical for muscle building and maintenance.
As a metabolic and anabolic hormone, insulin plays multiple roles in muscle growth. For example, it signals muscle cells to get blood glucose. Insulin also contributes to the activation of mTOR.
Building and maintaining muscles require insulin sensitivity to muscle cells. An insulin-resistant body struggle with maintaining muscles as most of the glucose turn to fat cells. Besides, making the body leptin sensitive can contribute to insulin sensitivity and maintain lean muscles.
Hormones also affect our bones. For example, NIH informs us about a condition known as hyperparathyroidism. This condition is caused by an elevated concentration of parathyroid hormone in the blood, resulting in the weakening of the bones through loss of calcium.
Hormones are highly complex and involved. However, the critical point is that we need to optimize and balance our hormones with high-quality nutrition, bioavailable protein, personalized workouts, restorative sleep, and regular checkups. Hormonal balance also requires some healthy fats to function well.
6 — Refrain from Toxins in Food, Substances, and Environment.
Apart from these five lifestyle modifications, we also consider toxins and pathogens that adversely affect muscle and bone health. Most toxins come from food and the environment.
Eating and drinking healthy and maintaining hygiene are critical, and usually, people adhere to these principles.
However, the low-hanging fruits for some people are quitting cigarette smoking, lowering alcohol consumption, and refraining from recreational drugs. Permanently quitting smoking and lowering alcohol use can lower the risks of osteoporosis and improve our overall health.
For example, NIH documented that “cigarette smoking was first identified as a risk factor for osteoporosis decades ago. Studies have shown a direct relationship between tobacco use and decreased bone density.”
As informed by NIH, we must also be careful with some medications and obtain support and guidance from qualified healthcare professionals. For example, “certain medications, such as cancer medications and glucocorticoid steroids, may increase the risk of developing osteoporosis.”
NIH also informs that “in women, chronic alcohol exposure can trigger irregular menstrual cycles, a factor that reduces estrogen levels, increasing the risk for osteoporosis. Also, cortisol levels may be elevated in people with alcoholism. Cortisol is known to decrease bone formation and increase bone breakdown.”
Furthermore, we also need to be careful with drugs and some medication. As pointed out by NIH, “certain medications, such as some cancer medications and
Therefore, I’d like to emphasize permanently quitting smoking and lowering alcohol use to prevent osteoporosis and improve our overall health.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Sarcopenia can affect people of all ages, but it is more common as we get older. Sarcopenia is also accompanied by functional decline, causing metabolic imbalances and making patients' lives more difficult.
Osteoporosis causes bone fractures, adversely affecting millions of people, especially aging women. Bone disorders and osteoporotic fractures are widespread. For example, according to NIH (National Health Institute), “each year, an estimated 1.5 million individuals suffer a fracture due to bone diseases.”
However, it is possible to address sarcopenia and osteoporosis by consuming bioavailable proteins and nutrient-dense food, undertaking personalized resistance and cardio training, getting high-quality sleep and rest, and professional support.
Meeting these fundamentals can reduce oxidative stress, prevent chronic inflammation and balance hormones supporting anabolic sensitivity to reduce the risks of sarcopenia and osteoporosis as we age.
As weight management plays a critical role in muscle and bone health, we also must be careful with the weight loss process. Too quick and excessive weight loss by cutting calories too much might lead to both sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
Healthy lifestyle habits can significantly improve our muscle and bone health and prevent sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
However, people with underlying health conditions must obtain timely support from qualified healthcare professionals. They can diagnose the condition and treat illnesses as required.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
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