Don't underestimate the problems caused by muscle loss. "Falling is the second leading cause of death for elders. Do you old people have these four high-risk factors? It is pointed out in the article that sarcopenia will not only lead to the decline of muscle strength, but also the risk of death after falling, just like osteoporosis. Therefore, once an elder falls, he will never leave the bed again. Nine times out of ten, it is related to sarcopenia.
Wu Jiandong, a Chinese doctor, said that to avoid sarcopenia, two iron laws are "eating protein" and "exercising". In sports, whether going to the gym to do weight training or playing Tai Ji Chuan, it has a good effect. "In fact, squatting and not squatting are the same thing," Wu Jiandong said.
Older people are afraid to do sports, often because they are afraid of falling or hurting their knees because of wrong posture. Wu Jiandong said that training is not that difficult, and the usual "standing up" and "sitting down" are just muscle exercises. Therefore, before sitting down or standing up, the elders might as well hang for a few more seconds to exercise their muscles that they don't usually use.
Image source: the elderly with sarcopenia in iStock can be divided into two categories. Wu Jiandong further explained that the elders with sarcopenia can also be divided into two categories, one is malnutrition and the other is obesity.
Ultrathin myopathy
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the problem of muscle loss is recorded in the ancient Neijing, such as "losing meat", "breaking muscle", "weakness" and "heavy meat". Traditional Chinese medicine believes that spleen dominates the muscles of limbs, and weakness of spleen and stomach is easy to cause malnutrition.
For this kind of patients, Wu Jiandong said that we should start with "strengthening the spleen and stomach". For example, ginger can strengthen the spleen and promote diuresis, and ginger peel has a slight diuretic effect. Jiang Ye can slightly secrete gastric acid, which is helpful for digestion, but not excessive gastrointestinal tract, which is why some people can be relieved by drinking a little ginger soup when they are nervous, sick or vomiting. For mild diarrhea, drinking ginger soup is also effective, because it can inhibit the excessive contraction of smooth muscle.
Obese sarcopenia
There is a kind of elder who likes to lie down for a long time, seldom exercises, has poor qi and blood circulation, and has a weak spleen and stomach, so he can't transport water and dampness. Therefore, obese sarcopenia is mostly caused by phlegm-dampness block. Wu Jiandong pointed out that this kind of "puffiness" sarcopenia patients usually have higher body fat rate and lower muscle mass.
Such patients, who want to get rid of phlegm and dampness in the body, can eat more foods that can strengthen the spleen and promote diuresis, and eliminate phlegm and phlegm, such as water chestnut, laver, jellyfish, loquat, ginkgo, jujube, lentils, red beans, broad beans, coix seed, yam, crucian carp and so on. You should also eat more foods that can enhance yang and promote blood circulation, such as water chestnut.