Older Brits fearing for their health may be able to keep the frailty of old age at bay with a popular supplement among gym-goers. A new study has revealed the surprising benefits of pairing creatine supplements with resistance exercise in your twilight years which could ward off sarcopenia. The age-related musculoskeletal condition, often seen as general old age frailty, affects up to 50% of Brits over the age of 80 and usually sees a person’s day-to-day functionality, muscle strength and lean mass dropping. It can cause a variety of issues like lower quality of life and even cognitive decline, but it is reversible and the new study has unveiled a perfect combination to prevent and even treat sarcopenia.
Combining both creatine and resistance training was proven to preserve physical and mental functionality in old age, alleviate sarcopenia issues, and provide a range of other health benefits like an increase in lean mass. Creatine and resistance training is a pairing most gym-fans will be very familiar with, but using this combination in older age can do far more good, as reported by the Daily Record.
Researchers hope the study’s results, published in the Frontiers of Physiology journal, will prompt public health agents to encourage older people to eat creatine-rich foods and supplements while also pushing trainers to tailor their programs for older clients.
Creatine is found in meat, poultry, fish, and it’s also naturally made within the body through reactions in your brain and liver, but research suggests this alone may not be enough. Dietary creatine supplements have been popular among gym-goers for decades, where it’s been proven to help performance and lean muscle mass gains. However, it’s now also been revealed that creatine helps the immune system, vascular system, brain, and heart health, with some studies suggesting it could even play a role in mitigating neurodegenerative conditions like dementia, although more research is needed in this area before jumping to any definitive conclusions.
What research has proved so far is that creatine’s variety of benefits are multiplied if a person uses it when doing resistance training. This type of exercise improves muscle strength by making your muscles work against a weight or force, which can be your own body weight, enhancing muscle strength, bone density, and improving cardiometabolic health or even preventing mental health issues. It includes a range of popular gym-based exercises like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and bench presses.
Specifically, older Brits should be doing resistance training twice a week to maximize the benefits of their exercise regime, using up to 10 different exercises, doing 8-12 repetitions of each, ideally using multiple joints in explosive movements. Older women with sarcopenia could stand to benefit the most from this, even if they don’t exercise as frequently.
Source: Surrey Live
