Muscle Loss Starts Now - What You Need to Know About Sarcopenia with Dr Tanya Elliott

Hi, this is Marijo Tinlin from the Teaching Your Toddler Show. Today we have a very special guest. Tanya Elliott is here to talk to us about something that is very surprising for a lot of people, I think. She has a new survey out that reveals some startling facts about women and muscle loss.

Welcome to the show, Doctor Elliott. Tell us a little bit about this survey.

Dr Elliott:

Sure. Thanks for having me. So Viactiv, which is a leading women's supplement brand, commissioned a survey of 2,000 women to understand what their health priorities are. So first things first, the good news. Over 60% of women really are prioritizing their strength and mobility. They care about their health and they care about their strength and mobility.

The concerning thing about this is very few women knew what the word sarcopenia is. Now, I wonder, do you, Marijo, know what the word sarcopenia is?

Marijo Tinlin

I do only because of my mother, but yes, tell the rest of us.

Dr Elliott

Okay. Okay. Everyone knows what osteoporosis is, right? That's the loss of bone. Sarcopenia comes first. That's loss of muscle mass. And we're not talking about it enough. And the survey revealed that only 6% of women knew what sarcopenia was and what to do about it.

Right? So that's really concerning, and if you ask any, you know, friends or family members, they probably don't know what sarcopenia is either. So, as clinicians, we need to start talking about it more, and women need to be more aware of it, because preserving your muscle strength is incredibly important.

Loss of muscle starts in our 30s, and we lose about 8% of muscle per decade, and then step on the accelerator in your 50s and 60s, because that accelerates even more, that muscle loss accelerates even more, and that's why we end up.

with women with osteoporosis, and an increase in fall risk, and then having complications from hip fracture, right? So we need to start talking about the muscle first.

Marijo Tinlin

Yeah, and I understand, I've heard the saying, muscle doesn't age. So, like, you can just keep… if you lift weights and build your muscles, um, what are some of the ways that you can, uh, that you can prevent this?

Dr Elliott

I love that. I really love that phrase. That's really important. Like this is not a destiny, right? There are actually things that we can do about it. We can preserve and build muscle up until we die, right? And so one of the things that's important is coenzyme Q10. That's like the energy, the fuel for your muscles to be healthy and also for you to build new muscle.

And we naturally produce it, but we produce less of it with age. The good news is you can get it from foods. The not so good news is it's mostly found in organ meat. So unless you love like liverwurst sandwiches, you may not be able to get it from your food. Bioactive actually has a chew that.

tastes really good, so it's a nice alternative to pills for some people. But coenzyme Q10 is important for muscle strength and building, right? And then the second piece is eating enough protein, which often women don't do as much. You want to try, if you can, rule of thumb, around 30 grams of protein with each meal.

And then the last piece, the trifecta, is the strength training piece. And understanding that muscle endurance is different from, like, true strength training and building power and building muscle. So, like, muscle endurance are activities kind of like Pilates or yoga, focusing on the core.

I'm talking about really challenging your large muscle groups by lifting weights, and it's actually a much more efficient way to build and preserve your muscle.

Marijo Tinlin

And I think I heard you say that it can happen in women as early as 30 years old, so a lot of young moms listen to the show. What are some of those warning signs that they need to do something?

Dr Elliott

Yeah, and so it's really interesting, right, because in our 30s, maybe we have kids, we're a little bit more active, and so, like, lifting your kids and carrying your kids up and down the stairs, you're doing the strength training, that's great, maybe you don't have to do as much, but then as we get older and we're not lifting our kids anymore and we're sitting in front of a computer all day and we've got this sedentary lifestyle, right, that's when it shows.

more and more. So, some warning signs are you're really sore after, like, a light workout, or you try to open up a jar, and you're like, I can't open this! That's another… that's another sign. Um, or you just start feeling, like, a little bit more fatigued and low energy, and a lot of times.

people will say, oh, I'm just getting older. But the truth is, no, once you start actually doing the strength training regularly, you're like, oh my gosh, it's not that I was getting older, it's just that I wasn't working these large muscle groups. And, like, you'll see how amazingly transformative it is to, like, actually start paying attention to your muscles.

taking the supplementation you need, and then doing the strength training, you're like, oh, I wasn't getting older, I just wasn't… my muscles were falling asleep, they weren't doing anything, they were starting to atrophy.

Marijo Tinlin

And before we talk a little bit more about the Vayactive, tell me if a woman has never, and I agree with you, when your babies are little, you're carrying them, you're really strong. I mean, I remember my upper body, I had two under two for a while, so I was wicked strong. But then what if you've never lifted? What do you do?

to, um, you know, to… how can you find workouts? How can you find ways to lift if you've never started before?

Dr Elliott

We need to make it more accessible. I think a lot of women are like, oh, strength training means I need to go to the gym, and I need to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then I'm going to bulk up, and I don't want to look that way, I don't want to be bulky, but that's not what happens. Like, you're not going to be Ar.

waking up and giving some attention to those large muscle groups. So how can you start? Sometimes I will tell my patients, just go in your pantry and take out, like, 2 jars, and hold those 2 jars and just do 10 squats, right? And then do 3 sets of that. So maybe each jar is about, like, 2 pounds or whatever, so now you're going, you know, 4 pounds.

Plus your overall, like, body weight, right? Another thing you could try to do is resistance bands, which are really, like, um, easy. They're portable, you can take them on vacation with you, you can do them, like, keep them in your office. I'll sometimes tell patients, you know, get, uh, adjustable weights, so they start at, like, 10 pounds and then they adjust 20, 30, 40, 50, and you can keep them--literally, I keep them under my desk in my office, and then anytime I have a break, like once an hour, right, I'm just, like, I'm doing my bicep.

And a squat, you know, or lunges, just holding those weights. So we have to make, like, strength training more accessible. Weighted vests, please don't waste your time. Unless you want to, like, wear a weighted vest and walk for, like, 4 hours, you're not going to…

tire your muscles out enough for them to actually, like, build up strength. So a way more efficient thing to do is to lift heavier weights, and then do that until you feel tired, like, you feel like you can't do another set.

Marijo Tinlin

That's amazing. I love how you just can weave that into your day. Everybody has enough time to do a few of those in between or even during a meeting, right? If you're off camera or something, right?

Dr Elliott

I think it's way more efficient than getting in your car, driving to a class, being in the class for an hour, getting back in your car, having to take a shower. You know what? Just like keep the weights, get, you know, even if it's 15, 20 minutes of like, you know, fewer reps, higher weights is just a way more efficient way to wake up and activate those muscles.

Marijo Tinlin

Thank you so much. So the supplementation that you are recommending, tell us a little bit more about that.

Dr Elliott

So, Coenzyme Q10 is like the energy powerhouse for our muscle cells, and so we need it… think about it, like, as fuel to feed the mitochondria, which is the energy center in our muscles, and then help us build more muscle.

like I said, we produce it, our body naturally, but then with age, we don't produce it as much. And then I always say, like, eat your vitamins and get things from your food supply, but like I said, it's typically found in organ meats and foods that people don't routinely have in their diet, so that's when I recommend supplementation. That kind of goes for, like, all supplementation.

First, see if you can get it from your food. If you can't, then consider a supplement that you can tolerate. And a lot of people don't like to take pills, so these ones come in a chew, and they happen to be pretty tasty. So I'm like, oh, great! My chew! Amazing!

Marijo Tinlin

There you go. Excellent. Yeah, I've always thought of Viactiv as the calcium chews, but I love to hear that there's more.

Dr Elliott

And they're really good, right? Those calcium chews, I was like, can I have some more of these, maybe? Like, the caramel, or the chai, like, I used to look forward to it.

Marijo Tinlin

Yes.

Like a snack.

That's right. Thank you so much for speaking to us today. Where can we go for more information?

Dr Elliott

You can follow VIACTIV on social media or check out VIACTIV.com.

Marijo Tinlin

Dr. Elliott, thank you again.

Dr Elliott

Yeah, thanks for having me.