heart health and muscle mass

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m wondering if you’ve heard of this and can comment on it? It seems to be very good news (I’ve searched here for the author’s name, “attica study” and other terms included in the article, and so if this is a rerun, I apologize).

Keeping Aging Muscles Fit Is Tied to Better Heart Health Later

How much muscle you have now could indicate how healthy your heart will be later, according to an interesting new study of muscle mass and cardiovascular disease. The study finds that, for men at least, entering middle age with plenty of muscle lowers the subsequent risk of developing heart disease by as much as 81 percent, compared to the risks for other men.

These results add to the growing evidence that building and maintaining muscle is essential for healthy aging …

2

I don’t have much to comment on here, as this is generally consistent with much of the evidence we have in this area. If I had to guess, I’d say this is likely to be an complex relationship, including:

  1. Indirect effects / associations between the lifestyle habits that tend to promote muscle mass (i.e., nutrition & exercise), and cardiovascular health

  2. Direct effects of higher levels of muscle mass secreting beneficial myokines (basically, hormones) during contraction/exercise

  3. A lack of other disease states or lifestyle habits that tend tot promote muscle catabolism (e.g. alcohol use disorder/smoking, chronic heart/liver/kidney failure, COPD, cancer, autoimmune disease, HIV, etc.)

1 Like
3

Thanks Austin, this makes sense.