Do not think that only obesity, diabetes, alcohol, high blood pressure and heart disease related, now the study found that in fact “muscle mass” too little afraid to increase the risk of heart disease! Especially in recent years, “fat loss” is popular, do not ignore the need to “gain muscle”, because muscle will affect other organs including the brain, cardiovascular and so on. When the loss of muscle mass, the overall condition of the body will become worse.
Muscle mass decreases with age over 40 years old
After the age of 40, muscle loss slowly decreases at a rate of 8% per decade, and increases to 15% per decade after the age of 70.
Nowadays, it is known from several studies that a decrease in muscle mass will be followed by a decrease in life expectancy, indicating the importance of doing more impedance exercises to increase muscle mass. According to a study in the Journal Epidemiology and Community Health, middle-aged people with higher body muscle mass can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke.
High muscle mass also reduces the risk of hypertension, diabetes and obesity
The research team followed a total of 1,019 participants over the age of 45, and all participants were healthy and did not have cardiovascular disease, all must receive up to ten years of follow-up and related tests, including blood glucose, blood pressure, blood lipids, bone, the results after ten years about a quarter of the people suffering from cardiovascular disease, and the incidence of men is about six times that of women.
Researchers counted these 272 cases suffering from stroke and other related cardiovascular diseases, after analysis found that when people with higher muscle mass compared to people with low muscle mass, the risk of cardiovascular disease was reduced by 81%. And the more muscle people, the lower the risk of heart disease after 10 years, less likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and other problems.
Want to increase muscle strength! Weight training + nutrition is essential
However, after taking into account factors such as dietary habits, household income, and education, the research team found that there was a significant difference between muscle mass and cardiovascular disease risk only in men, but not in women, probably because women have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than men before menopause.
The lead researcher, Dr. Stefanos Tyrovolas, stated. “The metabolic effects of muscle fiber include better glycemic control and less inflammatory response. This, combined with the fact that people with more muscle are usually more active and exercise, also helps keep the heart healthy.”
He believes the research confirms that “maintaining muscle mass through physical exercise and an active lifestyle may be the key to protecting the heart in middle-aged men and getting people more motivated to go to the gym.” To increase muscle strength nutrition and exercise are both essential, especially resistance exercise (weight training) is especially important to convert the nutrients eaten into muscle.
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