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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Now.

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Speaker 1: Last week I talked about human aging and how we

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Speaker 1: tend to age in these distinct waves, and today I'm

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Speaker 1: going to talk about something that's related to that, which

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Speaker 1: is sarcopenia. Now, sarcopinia was first identified by a guy

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Speaker 1: called Irwin Rosenberg way back in nineteen eighty nine to

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Speaker 1: describe the reduction and muscle mass related to age. And

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Speaker 1: it's typically seen as an aging process linked to people

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Speaker 1: above sixty five years, so it's called a geriatric condition,

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Speaker 1: and it's characterized by a progressive loss of muscle both

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Speaker 1: mass and strength, which then drives things like falling, a

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Speaker 1: reduced physical activity, reduced cognitive capacity, low quality of life,

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Speaker 1: and increased dependence and early death. But a research paper

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Speaker 1: that I've just read has shown that it is surprisingly

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Speaker 1: prevalent in our youth. Now, before we get into youth,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about the prevalence that we normally

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Speaker 1: see by decade. So big studies have shown that from

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Speaker 1: the age of forty to forty nine, about seven percent

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Speaker 1: of the population suffers from sarcopenia. Then when you get

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Speaker 1: the fifty to fifty nine, it goes up to ten

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Speaker 1: point six percent. Sixty to sixty nine, it's fifteen point

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Speaker 1: four percent. When you hit seventy to seventy nine, it's

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Speaker 1: more than a fifth, it's twenty one point two percent,

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Speaker 1: and then eighty years plus thirty six point five percent

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Speaker 1: of the population and suffer with syclopenia. Now, as I

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Speaker 1: said earlier, what is really alarming is now that we've

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Speaker 1: noticed an increased prevalence in young adults. And this very

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Speaker 1: concerning research paper called Sarcopenia in Youth was released last year,

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Speaker 1: and so that over ten percent of young adults in

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Speaker 1: their twenties and thirties already have signs of loss of

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Speaker 1: muscle and they're actually calling it youth on set syclopenia.

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Speaker 1: And it's driven by a number of factors that we

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Speaker 1: are going to discuss, and I one of the obvious

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Speaker 1: biggest culprits is the sentary lifestyle and the increasingly century lifetime,

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Speaker 1: more time spent on screens, less time moving, and young

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Speaker 1: people are obviously not building the mass that they should.

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Speaker 1: And this is a real concern because we know that

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Speaker 1: everybody traditionally, or or unless they're really doing something about it,

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Speaker 1: will traditionally lose muscle at the rate of between three

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Speaker 1: and eight percent per decade, and if they're not having

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Speaker 1: enough of that muscle when they're young, they just don't

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Speaker 1: have a lot to lose. Now, clearly the biggest contributed

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Speaker 1: to is going to be a lack of physical activity,

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Speaker 1: and they don't need me to tell you that. More

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Speaker 1: and more kids and young people are spending more time

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Speaker 1: on screens, whether that's on social media or gaming, and

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Speaker 1: when they're doing that, they're obviously not being physically active

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Speaker 1: and it's key that muscle has to be built and

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Speaker 1: maintained through resistance, So whether that's weightlifting and body weight exercises, running,

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Speaker 1: or just being generally physically active is needed to actually

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Speaker 1: build and maintain that muscle, and particularly without strength training,

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Speaker 1: muscles are going to weaken and shrink. So this user

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Speaker 1: or loser principle is especially true here and young adults.

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Speaker 1: The lack of exercise not only hinders muscle growth but

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Speaker 1: accelerates muscle deterioration, which then makes them much more vulnerable

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Speaker 1: to increase levels of sarcipedia in later life and all

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Speaker 1: the negative effects that go with that. And the scurry

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Speaker 1: statistic in Australia is that only two percent of teenagers

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Speaker 1: hit the recommended guidelines for physical activity, which for teenagers

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Speaker 1: is sixty minutes a day of moderate vigorous physical activity,

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Speaker 1: and that's certainly not happening across the board. But there

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Speaker 1: are other things that come into play that are linked

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Speaker 1: to the poor lifestyle, and one is insulin resistance and

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Speaker 1: metabolic syndrome. And this insulin resistance is really important because

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Speaker 1: this condition, insulin resistance curves when the cells in the muscles, fat,

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Speaker 1: and liver don't respond well to insulin and can't use

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Speaker 1: glucose from the bloodstream for energy, and as a result,

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Speaker 1: the body then requires more inchulin to help glucose enter

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Speaker 1: the cells. And then when these engine levels are constantly high,

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Speaker 1: that creates metabolic dysfunction, which can harm muscle metabolism. Body

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Speaker 1: struggles with insulin resistance, not just blood sugar that suffers

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Speaker 1: our muscle health deteriorates too. Insulin is really important in

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Speaker 1: protein synthesis, which is essential for building and maintaining our

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Speaker 1: muscle mass. So when you become insulin resistant, then muscle

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Speaker 1: protein breakdown exceeds the body's ability to rebuild it, which

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Speaker 1: then accelerates that muscle mass and furthermore, it's something called

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Speaker 1: metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that includes

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Speaker 1: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat, and

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Speaker 1: abnormal cholesterol. Drag Lyceride has been linked to reduce muscle

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Speaker 1: strength and mass in young adults. Now, another thing that

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Speaker 1: plays into it is vinamin D levels, and vinamin D

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Speaker 1: plays a real essential role in maintaining muscle health, which

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Speaker 1: a lot of people don't realize. It's not only crucial

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Speaker 1: for bone health, but it also regulates muscle function, and

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Speaker 1: studies have shown that low levels of vitamin DAY are

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Speaker 1: strongly associated with decreased muscle strength and physical performance, and

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Speaker 1: vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency is widespread, and particularly in

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Speaker 1: younger populations who spend less time outdoors because they're inside

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Speaker 1: on screens. This deficiency leads tom per muscle regeneration, making

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Speaker 1: it harder for the body to repair and maintain muscle

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Speaker 1: over time. Then the next contributing factor is our shithouse diet,

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Speaker 1: and we know from studies all around the world that

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Speaker 1: particularly young people have got worse diets and per nutrition

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Speaker 1: is one of the leading contributors to charcopenia, and particularly

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Speaker 1: diets that are high in ultra processed foods and low

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Speaker 1: im protein, and protein is obviously the building block of muscle,

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Speaker 1: and without enough of it, you just can't repair or

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Speaker 1: build muscle. And then when you're eating these diets that

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Speaker 1: are high and refined corp hydrate, sugars and unhealthy fats,

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Speaker 1: they also then contribute to metabolic disorders, including the insulin

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Speaker 1: resistance that I've talked about, which in turn then imper

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Speaker 1: muscle metabolism. So it's a kind of a bit of

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Speaker 1: a disaster, really, But it's not just a low protein

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Speaker 1: and high sugar and refined carbohydrates. It's that these essential

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Speaker 1: vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, vitamin day which

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, they're all critical for muscle function. And when

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Speaker 1: we eat a diet that's rich in whole foods and

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Speaker 1: plenty of protein and healthy fats, that actually helps to

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Speaker 1: support our muscle health and reduce the risk of sarcopenia. Now,

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Speaker 1: the next thing that is a contributing factor is hormonal imbalances,

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Speaker 1: and we wouldn't really expect to see a lot of

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Speaker 1: that in young adults, but we're seeing more and more

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Speaker 1: that young adults are experiencing hormonal imbalance, and that puts

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Speaker 1: them at a risk for sorcopenia. So hormones like test

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Speaker 1: their own growth hormone and tharroid hormones are all critical

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Speaker 1: for muscle protein synthesis and maintaining our muscle mass. And

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Speaker 1: when these hormones are out of balance, whether that is

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Speaker 1: because there's a medical condition, whether there's too much stress

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Speaker 1: or poor lifestyle choices, all of this means your body's ability,

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Speaker 1: excuse me, your body's ability to preserve and build muscle

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Speaker 1: is completely compromised. And as I alluded to you earlier,

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Speaker 1: the real concerning thing is seeing syclopaenia in youth because

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Speaker 1: this early muscle loss not only decreases physical capacity in

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Speaker 1: the present, but really is setting the siege for severe

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Speaker 1: complications later in life. You're going to get frailty, decrease, mobility,

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Speaker 1: and chronic diseases that are happening earlier. And remember you've

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Speaker 1: heard me bang on about mile kinds. They are nature's

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Speaker 1: best medicine, These molecules that are released from contracting muscle

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Speaker 1: that have a positive impact on every single organ and

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Speaker 1: organ system in your body. The less muscle you have,

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Speaker 1: the less of these maokines you produce. And that lack

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Speaker 1: of mayokine dramatically contributes to the risk of chronic disease.

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Speaker 1: So I think we have a new health crisis that

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Speaker 1: is starting to emerge, and we have to get on

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Speaker 1: the front foot with this one by encouraging in however

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Speaker 1: way we do it, encouraging more physical activity from an

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Speaker 1: early age and really focusing on resistance or strength training

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Speaker 1: in order to actually put on adequate muscle in use.

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Speaker 1: And then we really need to do something about the

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Speaker 1: shit house diet of our young people because that really

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Speaker 1: is compromising their ability to build muscle through those things

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Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier on and this is an entirely

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Speaker 1: preventable condition. But we really need to do something about

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Speaker 1: the lifestyle of our young people because early onset sarcopenia

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Speaker 1: is really going to lead to increased chronic disease, reduced

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Speaker 1: health span, and reduce lifespan. So we really need to

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Speaker 1: make our kids free range kids again and not bloody

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Speaker 1: battery kids. That's it for next week, folks, Catch you

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Speaker 1: next time.