If you’re reading this, please raise your hand if you’ve heard the phrase “Americans eat too much salt” or, alternatively, that we should “cut back our salt intake”? Show of hands? Ah, yes- seems like everyone has heard that or even possibly said that perhaps. However, what does the evidence say about salt intake and […]
By Austin Baraki, MD, SSC This past week I was alerted to a new article in the journal Physical Therapy by Falvey et al. titled “Rethinking Hospital-Acquired Deconditioning: Proposed Paradigm Shift” (abstract, thanks to Dr. Scotty Butcher for the tip). It is an excellent piece in one of the leading Physical Therapy journals that provides […]
By Austin Baraki Sorry for the delay, folks! I’ve been busy graduating from medical school :). We’ve made it to the fourth, final, and most important article in our series. Before we begin, let’s briefly review what we’ve covered so far. In our first article we defined sarcopenia as a loss of skeletal muscle mass […]
By Austin Baraki Recall from our prior articles that a decline in skeletal muscle mass is just one criterion for sarcopenia; in addition, there must also be a loss of strength or physical performance (1). This second criterion was added because the relationship between muscle cross-sectional area (i.e. size) and force production (i.e. strength) is […]
By Austin Baraki In our first article we defined sarcopenia as a loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. We discussed how disuse, poor nutrition, neuromuscular changes, hormonal status, and chronic inflammation contribute to loss of skeletal muscle protein. In today’s article we’ll examine the other side of the equation that affect skeletal muscle protein […]
This article begins a multi-part series discussing the growing problem of sarcopenia in our aging population. We will discuss our current understanding of sarcopenia, ways to identify it, and how to treat (and hopefully, prevent) it most effectively. This series is meant to complement this fantastic lecture given by Dr. Jonathon Sullivan (M.D., Starting Strength […]