Dietary Interventions For Sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle with normal aging.  What dietary interventions can help improve muscle mass in these patients?  Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Inadequate nutritional intake and altered response of aging muscles to anabolic stimuli from nutrients contribute to the development of sarcopenia. Nutritional interventions show inconsistent results in sarcopenic older adults, which might be influenced by their basal nutritional status.

OBJECTIVE: To test if baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and dietary protein intake influenced changes in muscle mass and function in older adults who received nutritional intervention.

METHODS AND DESIGN: Post-hoc analysis was performed in the PROVIDE study that was a randomized controlled, double blind trial among 380 sarcopenic older adults. This study showed that those who received a vitamin D and leucine-enriched whey protein medical nutrition drink for 13 weeks gained more appendicular muscle mass (aMM), and improved lower-extremity function as assessed by the chair stand test compared with controls. To define low and high groups, a baseline serum concentration of 50 nmol/L 25(OH)D and baseline dietary protein intake of 1.0 g/kg/d were used as cut offs.

RESULTS: At baseline, participants with lower 25(OH)D concentrations showed lower muscle mass, strength and function compared with participants with a high 25(OH)D, while the group with lower protein intake (g/kg/day) had more muscle mass at baseline compared with the participants with higher protein intake. Participants with higher baseline 25(OH)D concentrations and dietary protein intake had, independent of other determinants, greater gain in appendicular muscle mass, skeletal muscle index (aMM/h2), and relative appendicular muscle mass (aMM/body weight × 100%) in response to the nutritional intervention. There was no effect modification of baseline 25(OH)D status or protein intake on change in chair-stand test.

CONCLUSIONS: Sufficient baseline levels of 25(OH)D and protein intake may be required to increase muscle mass as a result of intervention with a vitamin D and protein supplement in sarcopenic older adults. This suggests that current cut-offs in the recommendations for vitamin D and protein intake could be considered the "minimum" for adults with sarcopenia to respond adequately to nutrition strategies aimed at attenuating muscle loss.

It may not be surprising that patients with higher baseline vitamin D and protein intake showed greater muscle gains when given the enriched drink intervention.  It is curious that at baseline, while the higher vitamin D intake group had greater muscle mass, it was the lower protein intake group that had greater muscle mass.  The higher protein intake group had more women that the lower group, less weight and less fat, so there are a number of factors to consider.  The bottom line though is that gain of muscle above baseline required sufficient vitamin D and protein.