Ensure® Helps Increase Muscle Mass - Muscle Mass Supplements

Preventing age-related loss of muscle mass and strength is, in a way, the answer to maintaining your physical capability as you grow older and thus, a key to independent living. In order to prepare a preventive strategy, you must first understand how lifestyle and age affects your muscle strength and the capability to be physically independent. The loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with advancing age is called Sarcopenia.¹

Did you know that ‘Sarcopenia’ or age related muscle loss begins after the age of 30 years, reducing about 3-5% muscle mass each decade! This rate increases up to 8% once you cross the age of 40.²

Declining muscle mass and strength are expected components of ageing. However, the rate of decline differs across the population, suggesting that modifiable behavioral factors such as diet and lifestyle may be important influences on muscle function in older age.³

There is a growing body of evidence that links nutrition to muscle mass, strength and function in older adults, suggesting that it has an important role to play both in the prevention and management of sarcopenia.⁴

Once you reach a certain age the lack of a balanced diet may affect the muscle mass. Therefore, Abbott brings you Ensure, a complete, balanced nutrition to help you stay strong and active. Ensure provides you with 32 nutrients to help meet the daily nutrients requirements as a part of your daily diet and activity

Although sarcopenia is a multifaceted phenomenon, two aspects that positively affect the rate of body protein formation and breakdown to promote the maintenance/increase of human muscle mass. Those factors are resistance exercise and the intake of macronutrients namely, protein.³

Protein is the king of muscle food; body breaks it down into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle. There have been several surveys of diets and protein intakes in India by the National Nutrition Monitoring Board (NNMB) over the past years, in urban and rural areas, talking about the rising protein deficiency in India.⁵ There have been observational studies that links low protein intakes to losses of muscle mass and strength as we age.⁶

Formation of skeletal muscle mass is regulated by a host of factors, one of those being dietary protein. Although these nutrients are available from food, sometimes it is not enough to meet the individual requirements and hence, supplementation may seem to be a better option to help fill that nutritional inadequacy. The current recommendation for protein intake for all men and women aged 19 years and older is 1.0 g/kg/day. The recommendations were established by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) in 2010.7

When it comes to positively managing sarcopenia, it’s not just how much protein you eat, but also what type of protein you consume. Not all protein available have similar amino acid profile⁸

Dietary protein is made up many types of amino acids. The body can make some amino acids on its own, but the rest it must obtain from protein-rich foods. Of the 20 total amino acids there are, certain ones are considered “essential” because these are the specific kinds you aren’t capable of making yourself. Others are “nonessential” because the body can create them by synthesizing other amino acids.⁹

A 2010 study showed that consumption of certain essential amino acids stimulates muscle protein formation to a similar extent in both young and elderly individuals.¹⁰

Apart from protein, there are several other nutrients that play an important role in maintaining muscle strength, one such nutrient being Vitamin D that plays an important role in maintaining calcium balance and thereby assists bone formation. There have been several studies showing an association between reduced muscle strength or physical performance and low vitamin D and Calcium status.

Studies were conducted on the Asian population, one in healthy young volunteers and another one in elderly women, to compare the supplementation of daily or weekly dosage of vitamin D combined with calcium, versus calcium alone. These studies reported benefit of vitamin D supplementation during 3 to 6 months on muscle function.^{11, 12}

Vitamin D is important for normal skeletal muscle development and in optimizing muscle strength and performance. Supplementation with vitamin D in older adults has mostly shown reduction in falls risk and improvements in tests of muscle performance.¹³

Ensure, a complete balanced nutrition, provides you with not only protein, calcium, vitamin D but also other 29 nutrients including vitamins like A, C, E, and minerals like Zinc, and Magnesium to help you stay strong and active.