Inflammation Relates to Resistance Training–induced Hypertrophy in Elderly Patients

Abstract

Muscle mass is not significantly lost during short-term hospitalization of relatively high functioning and active geriatric patients although our findings are potentially affected by changes in hydration status. Resistance training during hospitalization increases skeletal muscle mass, and patients with high levels of systemic inflammation demonstrate less ability to increase or preserve muscle mass in response to resistance training during illness.

Changes in muscle mass during acute short-term hospitalization of elderly patients: A mini-review

“…Furthermore, previous studies have found negative associations between CRP and muscle mass, lung function, and also the recovery of physical function and muscle strength in elderly patients . Attenuated resistance training‐induced hypertrophy has also been found in elderly patients with high degree of inflammation . From this, it would seem that muscle tissue, whether subjected to training or disuse, is negatively affected by high levels of systemic inflammation.…”

“…Theoretically, this means that in the patients where in‐hospital atrophy actually occurs, true changes in muscle mass will be disguised as an unaltered or even an increase in muscle mass. In a recent study using DEXA, no changes in whole‐body muscle mass were found during acute short‐term (~7 days) hospitalization of elderly patients . However, because changes in hydration status could not be accounted for, it is possible that a loss of muscle mass was missed.…”

“…Based on the research mentioned previously, it at least seems reasonable that some patients do; however, studies that have directly investigated in‐hospital changes in muscle mass are extremely sparse. In fact, the small body of evidence actually suggests that there is no significant loss of whole‐body muscle mass during short‐term hospitalization . Contrary, a significant loss of muscle mass was found in an observational cohort study of elderly who were hospitalized for more than eight non‐consecutive days within a year .…”

“…Contrary, there was no muscle‐preserving effect of treatment with non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during 2 weeks of immobilization and 6 weeks of retraining in elderly with low‐grade inflammation . This could possibly be due to the already low levels of inflammation in these subjects (eg, CRP ~1 mg L −1 ), which were markedly lower than the typical levels found in elderly patients . However, no changes in muscle mass could be detected in neither the control group nor the NSAID‐treated group in a randomized controlled trial on hospitalized elderly patients .…”

“…The electively admitted patients showed a decrease in muscle mass [standardized mean difference (95% confidence interval): −0.44 (−0.61, −0.27)], whereas the acutely admitted showed no change [−0.25 (−0.58, 0.09)]. Although only two studies were used in the analysis of acutely admitted patients, other studies that were not included show similar results . Several factors may explain these findings.…”