Adequate nutrition reportedly can help reduce the degree of muscle loss and improve muscle quality in hospitalized patients recovering from trauma. This study investigated the association between nutritional intake and changes in muscle quality and quantity in these patients. The handgrip strength (HGS) and body composition of 52 patients admitted to the trauma ward were measured at 1-week intervals. According to their dietary intake, they were categorized into the hypocaloric nutrition group (HNG; < 70% of recommended caloric intake) and the isocaloric nutrition group (ING; ≥ 70% of recommended caloric intake). Within one week, body mass index (24.3 ± 4.4 kg/m2 vs. 23.4 ± 4.5 kg/m2), body fat percentage (24.1% ± 9.8% vs. 17.2% ± 9.2%), and skeletal muscle mass (28.6 ± 4.9 kg vs. 27.5 ± 4.3 kg) significantly decreased in the ING compared with those in the HNG. Although the skeletal muscle mass decreased, the ING’s left HGS significantly increased (26.6 ± 9.6 kg vs. 28.5 ± 10.1 kg). The ING also consumed a significantly greater amount of protein (beyond the recommended amount) than the HNG (72.6 ± 43.2 → 100.8 ± 27.0% vs. 58.6 ± 25.9 → 49.5 ± 20.1%; p = 0.039). In bioelectrical impedance vector analysis, the vectors of the ING shifted more within the normal range of the 75% tolerance ellipse than those of the HNG (23% vs. 10%). These results suggest that, although the muscle mass quantitatively decreased during trauma recovery, adequate nutritional support helps preserve muscle quality.
The health benefits of dietary fiber are widely recognized, but its impact on muscle health remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the relationship between dietary fiber intake and muscle strength through a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Korea National Health and Examination Survey (KNHANES). Data from a single 24-h dietary recall and handgrip strength tests of 10,883 younger adults aged 19 to 64 years and 3,961 older adults aged ≥ 65 years were analyzed. Low muscle strength was defined as handgrip strength < 28 kg for men and < 18 kg for women. Multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the association of dietary fiber intake with muscle strength. Approximately 43% of Korean adults met the recommended intake of dietary fiber, and those with higher dietary fiber consumption also had higher total energy and protein intake. After adjusting for confounding variables, dietary fiber intake was found to be positively associated with maximal handgrip strength in younger women aged 19 to 64 years (β = 0.015; standard error [SE] = 0.006) and older men aged ≥ 65 years (β = 0.035; SE = 0.014). For older women aged ≥ 65 years, those in the lowest quartile of dietary fiber intake had a higher risk of low muscle strength than those in the highest quartile after adjustment of confounders (odds ratio 1.709; 95% confidence interval 1.130–2.585). These results suggest that adequate dietary fiber intake may reduce the risk of sarcopenia in older Korean women.
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Patients with chronic renal failure, many of which treated with hemodialysis, present a high prevalence of impaired muscle strength which suggest that muscle mass parameters may be used as markers for changes in muscle in these patients. Measurement of handgrip strength (HGS) is a common, simple, and quick measure of muscle function an indicator of overall muscle strength which has been associated with physical activity and several anthropometric traits. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are biochemical markers associated with inflammatory processes which are a common consequence of dialysis. Additionally, hemodialysis patients frequently present signs of malnutrition and depression. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate if muscle and biochemical markers could be used to predict the risk of depression in hemodialysis patients. Several anthropometric parameters, nutrient intake, depression state and the serum levels of ICAM-1 and IGF-1 were determined and Pearson’s correlation coefficient and/or Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used to test the correlation between them. Our results do not show a correlation between HGF, IGF-1 and ICAM-1 with the depression status of the patients, but mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC) was statistically and positively correlated with depression. Additionally, ICAM-1 levels were negatively correlated with HGS, MAMC, and IGF-1. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that HGS may be used as an indicator of cardiovascular diseases and MAMC may be a good predictor of the level of depression in hemodialysis patients, although further studies are required.
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Previous studies have suggested that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, predominantly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have several health benefits. However, their effect on changes in skeletal muscle mass and strength has not been established, owing to differences in study designs. This systematic review aimed to investigate the recent evidence regarding the role of dietary EPA and DHA in muscle mass changes and their association with muscle strength. Databases including PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for randomized controlled trials and single-arm interventions that investigated the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on skeletal muscle mass, strength, and body composition in adults aged 18 years and older. A total of 18,521 studies were retrieved from the databases and manual searches; 21 studies were quality assessed, and the findings were summarized. Studies were categorized into 3 main categories according to the type of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation: pure compounds such as oil tablets, formulated forms with protein, leucine, and vitamin D, and ingredients added to enteral nutrition support products. Overall, the majority of the study results appeared to indicate that omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for muscle health. However, meta-analysis was not conducted because of the heterogeneity of the study participants, evaluation method of muscle indices, and intervention periods among the studies. High-quality studies are required to validate our conclusions. However, this systematic review of the effects of EPA and DHA on skeletal muscle and body composition provides evidence that can be applied in both clinical and industrial settings.
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Early prevention of sarcopenia can be an important strategy for muscle maintenance, but most studies target subjects at slightly pre-sarcopenic state. Our previous paper describes the effect of protein supplements rich in leucine and vitamin D on muscle condition, and in this paper, we performed a sub-analysis to evaluate who benefitted the most in terms of improvement in muscle health. A 12-week randomized clinical trial of 120 healthy adults (aged 50 to 80) assigned to an intervention group (n = 60) or control group (n = 60) were analyzed. Subjects in the intervention group received, twice per day, a protein supplement containing (per serving) 800 IU of vitamin D, 20 g of protein (3 g of total leucine), 300 mg of calcium, 1.1 g of fat, and 2.5 g of carbohydrate. The subjects were classified into ‘insufficient’ and ‘sufficient’ groups at 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) value of 30 ng/mL. The skeletal muscle mass index normalized to the square of the skeletal muscle mass (SMM) height (kg/m2) increased significantly in the ‘insufficient group’ difference value of change between weeks 0 and 12 (Δ1.07 ± 2.20; p = 0.037). The SMM normalized by body weight (kg/kg, %) was higher, but not significantly, in the insufficient group (Δ0.38 ± 0.69; p = 0.050). For people with insufficient (serum 25[OH]D), supplemental intake of protein and vitamin D, calcium, and leucine and adequate energy intake increases muscle mass in middle-aged and older adults and would be likely to exert a beneficial effect on muscle health.
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Through a survey on dietary intake of children and adolescents with brain lesions, the present study aimed to analyze the current status of nutrient intake and examine the effect of high-protein nutrient drink on their nutritional and muscle statuses. The study participants were 90 juvenile participants aged 8–19 years, with brain lesions. The participants were provided with a protein nutrient drink for 12 weeks and a questionnaire survey on dietary intake was performed to analyze the level of nutrient intake before and after ingestion. The physical measurements were taken to determine the improvements in nutrient and muscle statuses. The results showed that, before the intake of protein nutrient drink as a supplement, the participants exhibited lower height, weight, and body mass index than those of the standard levels of healthy individuals, and the level of nutrient intake through diet was lower than those of the required and recommended levels of nutrient intake for Koreans. Conversely, after the intake of protein nutrient drink for 12 weeks, the level of nutrient intake and physical statuses such as weight showed significant improvements. In addition, the muscle status had undergone approximately 10% of change during the intervention with no significant difference. Thus, to ensure an adequate level of nutrient supply to children and adolescents with brain lesions, there is an urgent need to develop a guideline of nutrient intake. The findings in this study are expected to serve as the basic data for such guidelines.
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We aimed to examine associations between muscle strength and obesity and serum lipid profile in Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease (RaNCD) cohort study. This study was conducted on 6,455 subjects aged 35–65 years old from baseline data of RaNCD in Iran. The associations between grip strength and adiposity measurements were explored using linear regression with adjustment for age, height, smoking status, alcohol intake, social class, and prevalent disease. The mean of body mass index (BMI) and muscle strength was 27.2 ± 4.6 kg/m2 and 33.3 ± 11.5, respectively. Muscular strength increased with increasing BMI and waist circumference (WC) in both sexes. Multivariate regression analysis revealed a 3.24 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.29, 4.19) kg difference between BMI in top and bottom in men, and 1.71 (95% CI, 0.98, 2.34) kg/m2 in women. After multivariable adjustment, a difference of 2.04 (95% CI, 1.12, 2.97) kg was observed between the top and bottom WC quartiles in men and 1.25 (95% CI, 0.51, 1.98) kg in women. In men, with increase of low-density lipoprotein and cholesterol, the mean muscle strength was significantly increased. Muscle strength may be associated with body composition and lipid profiles. Muscle strength can be an appropriate indicator for predicting some of the problems caused by body composition disorders, which requires further longitudinal studies.
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Isolating the effects of a single nutrient or food in relation to health outcomes including increased skeletal muscle mass is a challenging task because dietary constituents are highly correlated and synergistic. Hence, diet pattern analysis may be used to investigate the role of certain diets in health outcomes. The present study investigated the dietary patterns and their relationship to skeletal muscle mass in Korean adults. Data were extracted from the 2008–2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. To explore the dietary patterns of the study subjects, factor analysis was performed using data obtained from a 24-hour recall. The skeletal muscle index according to dietary pattern scores was then investigated to estimate the changes in skeletal muscle mass. Three patterns were initially identified from the factor analysis. Of these vegetables and fish (VF) pattern was the primary factor with high reliability and was a common factor in sex-separated analyses. The VF pattern scores were positively associated with increased skeletal muscle mass in both men and women. Further analysis according to quartile levels of VF pattern scores showed a positive association between skeletal muscle mass and VF pattern in men but not in women. These results suggest that dietary patterns focused on vegetables and seafoods may contribute to increased skeletal muscle mass in Korean men but that sex difference should be considered in nutrition care for skeletal muscle health.
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Due to poor nutrition and abnormal energy metabolism, cancer patients typically experience the loss of muscle mass. Although the diabetic conditions or dyslipidemia have been reported as a causal link of cancer but the consequence of such conditions in relation to gain or loss of skeletal muscle mass in cancer patients has not been well documented. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of lean body mass and systemic parameters related to lipid metabolism in non-diabetic cancer patients using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2008-2011. As results the level of serum total cholesterol (total-C) was negatively associated with both total lean body mass and appendicular lean body mass in cancer patients after adjustment for sex, physical activity, energy intake and comorbidity. The associations between consumption of dietary factors (energy, carbohydrate, protein and fat) and lean body mass were disappeared after adjusting comorbidities of cancer patients. Multivariate-adjusted linear regression analysis by quartiles of serum total-C showed that higher quartile group of total-C had significantly lower percent of lean body mass than reference group in cancer patients. The data indicate that serum lipid status can be the potential estimate of loss of skeletal muscle mass in cancer patients and be referenced in nutrition care of cancer patients under the onset of cachexia or parenteral/enteral nutrition. This data need to be confirmed with large pool of subjects and should be specified by stage of cancer or the site of cancer in future studies.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether elective course work based nutrition education in university can change students' body composition and eating habits associated with obesity and its related health risk in first-year college students. A total of 38 students agreed and participated in the study. Participants received a series of lecture about obesity, weight management, and concepts of nutrition and food choices for 13 weeks. The students' BMI and body composition, including body fat and muscle contents, were measured. A 24-hour diet recall for two days was performed for food intake analysis, and the questionnaires for dietary behaviors were collected at the beginning and the end of the study. Paired t-test and χ2-test were used for statistical analysis. Data showed that most of the anthropometric parameters including body weight were not significantly changed at the end of the coursework. Interestingly, skeletal muscle contents in both obese (BMI ≥ 23) and lean (18.5 ≤ BMI ≤ 22.9) subjects were significantly increased. Total energy intake was decreased in total subjects after the study. Also, general nutrition behavior of the subjects including enough hydration and utilization of nutrition knowledge were significantly improved during the study period. The total number of responses to doing aerobic exercise was slightly increased after the study, but the average frequency of exercise in each individual was not changed. These results suggest that class-work based nutrition education on a regular basis could be a time and cost effective method for improving body composition and nutritional behavior in general college students.
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