How Muscle Mass May Affect Your Risk of Dementia
Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and cognitive
decline are some of the scariest facets of old age. While these
illnesses may not trouble the younger minds, it will be wise to take
them into consideration starting from an early age, as prevention is
much easier and much more achievable than trying to ease symptoms after
diagnosis. While research is ever evolving, there’s sadly still no final
cure for these conditions, which are currently considered irreversible.
But a recent study, linking muscle mass to cognitive decline, may be a
good reason for some optimism and a sense of control over our cognitive
health.
Study results
In this study, researchers set out to find
whether having low muscle mass could predict cognitive decline in three
fields: memory, executive function, and psychomotor speed (speed of
thought). The study was conducted on 8,000 adults aged 65 years and
older.
Interestingly, the researchers found that low muscle mass only affects
executive cognitive functions. “Low muscle strength has been recently
associated with greater risk of dementia,“ says lead author Stephanie
Chevalier. Executive cognitive functions are important to our daily
lives, and are mainly responsible for our attention span, the way we
organize our thoughts, and when we make decisions, helping us in
Different daily tasks such as shopping.
Why we should be happy about it
Muscle mass is a modifiable factor, meaning
we have the power to alter it ourselves. In other words, we may now
have the power in our hands to decrease the risk of developing a decline
in executive cognitive functions.
Revealing the connection between a low muscle mass and cognitive decline
can also assist as a measuring tool to help doctors identify people who
have a greater risk of cognitive decline.
However, it is important to emphasize that cognitive decline is only
associated with muscle mass, and not muscle strength or physical
activity level. Chevalier recommends “exercise - particularly resistance
exercise - and good nutrition with sufficient protein to help maintain
muscle mass over the years.
But as always with science, new findings are always shadowed by what we
still don’t know. And in this case, researchers are still not certain
whether a low muscle mass is a sign or cause of executive cognitive
decline.
How everything connects
Another related study has found that lower
hand grip strength is tied to an increased risk of dementia. Each
11-pound reduction in grip strength was associated with an 18% greater
chance of cognitive decline, according to the study.
We recently discussed low hand grip strength as a measure of muscle loss
that affects dementia. You can read about it here. It is important to
note though, that further studies are needed since grip strength is
associated both with the muscular system and the neural system. It’s not
likely to be enough to make predictions about cognitive decline, but
one thing is for sure - physical fitness is a viable way to reduce
Alzheimer’s and dementia risk.