In older adults, sarcopenia or age-related muscle loss was found to be a contributing factor to diabetes, stated new research.

‘Age-related muscle loss or sarcopenia is found to be a contributing factor to diabetes in older adults.’

"Age-related muscle loss may be an under-recognized target for interventions to prevent the development of diabetes in older adults," said the study's first author, Rita R. Kalyani, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "We found that relatively lower lean body mass with aging was related to a higher incidence of diabetes in men but not women, and partially related to body size." 




The researchers studied 871 men and 984 women, with an average age of 60 years at the initial visit, from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, who were followed up to 15 years. They used Dual X-ray Absorptiometry and found that lower lean body mass with aging is associated with incident diabetes in men but not women.
"Future studies that use more direct methods to assess skeletal muscle mass may give further insights into these relationships and the sex differences that we observed," Kalyani said.
Source-Eurekalert