For how we live.
Even frail people in their 80s and 90s roughly doubled their strength in ten weeks of training. But muscle size barely moved — the honest expectation is a big gain in function and a modest one on the scale.
In 2,292 older adults, weak quadriceps tracked with higher mortality — but muscle size, measured by CT and DXA, did not. The finding reshaped how sarcopenia is defined and moved the target from bulk to strength.
The official figure is 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight a day — but that number is a floor to prevent deficiency, not a target for optimal health, and that distinction drives most of the argument.
In 34,485 older adults, each 0.1 m/s of walking speed tracked with better survival. At age 75, predicted 10-year survival ran from 19% to 91% across the range — but speed reflects health, not the reverse.
The NAD+ precursors sold to slow ageing reliably raise NAD+ and are well tolerated. What the randomised trials do not show is a benefit to muscle, metabolism or how old you are.
Frailty has firm diagnostic criteria and predicts falls, hospital stays and death. It is also, unusually, treatable: resistance training raised muscle strength 113% even in nursing-home residents in their late 80s.
Twenty-one years of cancer follow-up, multimorbidity data to 2021, and a randomised trial in frail older adults. In each, metformin did not beat placebo. Lifestyle change did.
In half a million people, weaker grip tracked with higher mortality — a strong marker. But it reads out whole-body strength and health, not a number you move by training your hands.
Appetite fades with age and malnutrition is common and under-screened. Supplement drinks produce small, real weight gains — and cut deaths mainly in those already undernourished, not everyone.
A large trial in adults up to 89 found structured activity cut the risk of losing the ability to walk. In frail nursing-home residents near 90, strength training more than doubled muscle strength.
Pooled randomised data show incretin drugs shed lean mass in about the same proportion as lifestyle weight loss. The evidence gap is people who train seriously, and it has not been filled.
Across 89,573 accelerometer-monitored adults and 678 conditions, no disease showed a significant difference between activity concentrated in one or two days and activity spread through the week.
Sarcopenia got a formal definition and diagnostic cut-offs. The clinical guidelines that followed back resistance exercise strongly — and are far more cautious about protein powders, vitamin D and drugs.
A NHANES analysis of 5,736 US adults over 60 found the benefit of higher protein directionally present and statistically imprecise. A meta-analysis of protein at breakfast found nothing at all.
A review of two decades of research found ten studies on alkaline water and muscle outcomes — and every single one excluded adults over 65, the exact population the marketing targets.
A smartwatch bioimpedance sensor tracked body-fat percentage against DXA with about 14% average error — but muscle-mass agreement was weak, and even sitting versus standing shifted the reading.
A meta-analysis of 20 trials found a two-kilogram gain in one-rep max and no effect on bone density. A small crossover trial found functional strength gains largely independent of muscle mass.