A new study looks the specific mode of exercise for managing high blood pressure, isometric resistance training (IRT). So, let’s start with what is IRT? It is a type of strength training.

You may be familiar with IRT exercises, often just called isometrics by trainers and coaches, something like pushing against a wall or holding a plank pose. In more traditional strength training, like a squat or a push up, muscles shorten and lengthen during the movement, in IRT, muscles don’t change length.

IRT is not recommended by several international guidelines for the management of high blood pressure, mostly due to concerns over its safety because the static nature of IRT causes blood pressure to increase markedly during exercise, particularly when performed using large muscle groups or at high intensity, compared to traditional strength exercise or aerobic exercise.

However, this new research on the effectiveness of isometrics on managing high blood pressure, published August 12, 2021, in the Hypertension Research, the official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension, found isometric exercise to be safe and effective in meaningfully reducing blood pressure in people with high blood pressure.

The Curse of High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure affects 1.13 billion people around the globe and in 2019 it accounted for 10.8 million deaths. Worldwide, it’s the leading risk factor for mortality.

IRT is a very accessible and easy to perform intervention. It is good to know such a simple intervention could have such a strong effect on reducing blood pressure.

The post Reducing High Blood Pressure With Isometric Resistance Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Time-restricted eating (TRE) is the bright shiny toy everyone wants on their diet list these days. Yeah, you can call it intermittent fasting. Salk scientists studying TRE in mice, looked into how it promotes multiple health benefits besides weight loss. The study also shows that these benefits may depend on sex and age.

While weight loss is a big deal, especially in young male mice (at least for science guys and gals), this paper, published in Cell Reports, the researchers wanted to see if TRE was beneficial in other ways.

Their findings show that while age and sex do affect the outcomes of TRE, the eating strategy delivers multiple health benefits for young and old of both sexes, and indicates that TRE may be a valuable intervention for type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and liver cancer, and even infectious diseases such as COVID-19, in humans.

“For many TRE clinical interventions, the primary outcome is weight loss, but we’ve found that TRE is good not only for metabolic disease but also for increased resilience against infectious diseases and insulin resistance,” says Satchidananda Panda, a professor in Salk’s Regulatory Biology Laboratory and holder of the Rita and Richard Atkinson Chair.

Glucose intolerance is the first step on a slippery slope to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver cancer – one of the few cancers whose incidence and death rates have increased, rather than declined, in the past 25 to 30 years. Further, over 40 percent of Americans are already diabetic or prediabetic, with the American Diabetes Association predicting 1.5 million new cases each year.

These trends make finding a simple treatment for glucose intolerance a major priority.

The researchers also found that TRE may protect both males and females from sepsis-induced death – a particular danger in ICUs, especially during the pandemic. After administering a toxin that induced a sepsis-like condition in the mice, the researchers monitored survival rates for 13 days and found that TRE protected both male and female mice from dying of sepsis.

TRE didn’t just protect against fatty liver disease, diabetes, and death from sepsis; it even enabled male mice to preserve and add muscle mass and improve muscle performance (the effect did not hold for females).

This finding is particularly significant for the elderly, for whom improved muscle performance can help guard against falls.

Summary

Title: Sex- and age-dependent outcomes of 9-hour time-restricted feeding of a Western high-fat high-sucrose diet in C57BL/6J mice

Date: August 17, 2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109543

Abstract: Time-restricted feeding (TRF) is a nutritional intervention wherein food intake is limited to a consistent 8- to 10-h daily window without changes in nutritional quality or quantity. TRF can prevent and treat diet-induced obesity (DIO) and associated metabolic disease in young male mice fed an obesogenic diet, the gold standard preclinical model for metabolic disease research. Because age and sex are key biological variables affecting metabolic disease pathophysiology and response to therapies, we assessed their impact on TRF benefits by subjecting young 3-month-old or middle-aged 12-month-old male and female mice to ad libitum or TRF of a Western diet. We show that most of the benefits of TRF are age-independent but are sex-dependent. TRF protects both sexes against fatty liver and glucose intolerance while body weight benefits are observed only in males. We also find that TRF imparts performance benefits and increases survival to sepsis in both sexes.

Main Purpose: A study of how TRF can delay metabolic dysfunction and promote healthy aging in middle-aged pre-clinical male and female mouse models of metabolic disease.

Research Type: Journal Article

Findings Indicate: TRE confers multiple health benefits besides weight loss. The study also shows that these benefits may depend on sex and age.

Limitation: For out purposes, the obvious limitation of this study is the limitation of animal models applied to humans.

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Watching Seb Ostrowics over at Weightlifting House on YouTube is one of my guilty pleasures. A bowl of Frosted Flakes, ice cold milk, and the droopy, sonorous musings of a weightlifting nerd are all it takes to reduce my cholesterol and keep me away from Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Ostrowics’ Just How Much Better Are Weightlifters Than CrossFitters is a little erudite, a little respectful, and a lot of geeky lifting love.

Let’s start with the basics, according to Ostrowics in the video below, Naim Suleymanoglu, known as the Pocket Hercules, and probably the best lifter, pound-for-pound, of all time, had a 142.5 kg snatch but Matt Fraser, one of CrossFit’s greatest competitors, and probably its best weightlifter, had a best snatch of 143 kg.

It’s just that Sulemanoglu weighed about 45% less than Fraser and was a teenager when he did his lift.

Ostrowics goes on to compare lifts by various CrossFit competitors, including the 200 lb snatches by Tia-Clare Toomey and Annie Thorosdottir at this year’s CrossFit Games, with those of weightlifting competitors.

So, the gist of it goes something like this, CrossFitters lift big but the comparable lifts, often bigger, by weightlifters, are by men and women who are half the size of the CrossFitters.

But, the CrossFitters, while not in the same class as compettive, elite lifters, make every other wannabe lifter look lame. CrossFit weightlifting isn’t ever going to be Olympic level weightlifting but the numbers ain’t bad.

As for form, well, Guilherme Malheiros looked pretty awesome at the CrossFit Games 2021. Toomey, too, but there are plenty of examples of straining and groaning and bending at weird angles for other competitors.

I guess weightlifters would run afoul of the same form issues if they ever kipped. Just watch Ostrowics, it’s not a trite treatise.

The post The Lifting Game: Weightlifters Versus CrossFit Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whether you are an athlete, are going to be king of your gym or show natural ability in certain types of physical fitness activities, genetics have been suggested as playing a role in the capacity for greater performance.

A study in Journal of Human Kinetics looked at one particular gene variant, the PPARA Intron 7, also known by its cuddlier name of rs4253778, in Polish, Lithuanian, and Italian male gymnasts to see if this genotype was prevalent in power and strength-oriented athletes.

PPARA is a member of the nuclear steroid hormone receptor superfamily, which is impressive soundling already. It is known to be involved in managing glucose levels and metabolizing, burning up, fats.

I simplify what is probably a really hard job for something that has the nickname rs4253778, but let’s just say that PPARA is involved in making muscles burn fuel efficiently and quickly and is mainly available in tissues with higher mitochondrial rates – liver, heart, kidney, skeletal muscle, and brown fat.

In other words, and according to other reasearch, PPARA is likely to be found in power-athletes because of the short and very intense anaerobic levels of effort they put out.

Suffice, the researchers in this study, figured that if PPARA was more prevalent in their elite-level athlete subjects versus a control group, then it is likely that it is because the genetics play role in why those subjects are elite-level athletes.

Not the only genetic market, mind you, but still, another notch on the old genetic belt for those blessed with the gifts of organic biochemistry.

The results of the study tend towards, yes, if you have a greater concentration of PPARA among a group then, they are likely to be power athletes who need to perform at high intensities for shorter intervals of time.

Some day, genetic testing may be the baseline test that determines who gets pushed into a certain discipline, or gently coaxed, and how they are trained and what they are fed. Until then, some of us will continue to blame our genetics for having to buy drawstring pants.

Summary

Title: Does the PPARA Intron 7 Gene Variant (rs4253778) Influence Performance in Power/Strength-Oriented Athletes? A Case-Control Replication Study in Three Cohorts of European Gymnasts

Date: July, 2021

DOI: 10.2478/hukin-2020-0060

Abstract: Athletic ability is influenced by several exogenous and endogenous factors including genetic component. Hundreds of gene variants have been proposed as potential genetic markers associated with fitness-related phenotypes as well as elite-level athletic performance. Among others, variants within the PPARA gene that code for the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α are of potential interest. The main goal of the present study was to determine PPARA (G/C, rs4253778) genotype distribution among a group of Polish, Lithuanian and Italian international level male gymnasts and to compare our findings with those of previous research on the frequency of the PPARA intron 7 C allele/CC genotype in power/strength-oriented athletes. A total of 464 male subjects (147 gymnasts and 317 controls) from Poland (n = 203), Italy (n = 146) and Lithuania (n = 107) participated in the study. No statistically significant differences were found in any of the analyzed cohorts. However, a significantly higher frequency of the CC genotype of the PPARA rs4253778 polymorphism was observed when all gymnasts were pooled and compared with pooled control using a recessive model of inheritance (OR = 3.33, 95% CI = 1.18-10, p = 0.022). It is important to know that we investigated a relatively small sample of male European gymnasts and our results are limited only to male participants. Thus, it is necessary to validate our results in larger cohorts of athletes of different ethnicities and also in female gymnasts to find out whether there is a gender effect.

Main Purpose: The aim of the study was to look at the a sample of Polish, Lithuanian, and Italian international-level male artistic gymnasts to look at the distribution of the PPARA genotype as an indicator of inherent power and strength.

Research Type: Journal Article

Findings Indicate: The PPARA genotype distribution was significant in the gymnasts as compared to pooled control groups.

Limitation: The sample size is small, it is male-only, it is isolated to a small region in Europe, and physiological traits are not influenced by the PPARA gene.

The post Do Genetics Make for Better Strength and Power Athletes? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The aorta is our healthy blood highway, effectively transporting our bloody supply to our peripheral tissues. When we are young, most of our large arteries are termed, elastic, but they stiffen as we age.

Aortic stiffness, when our blood vessels resisted changes in shape and the ability to adapt to the vagaries of blood pumping through our body at high pressure, is the result of many biochemical factors.

And, aortic stiffness is a part of aging. Changing lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity may help offset age-related increases in aortic stiffness.

Although aerobic exercise generally has favorable effects on aortic structure and function, the research in this area has been mostly about exercise alone may not be sufficient to improve aortic stiffness in older adults with obesity.

In a study to assess the effects of aerobic exercise training with and without reducing calories on aortic stiffness, which was measured via cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) to obtain detailed images of the aorta, the researchers wanted to determine whether adding caloric restriction for weight loss would lead to greater improvements in vascular health compared to aerobic exercise alone in older adults with obesity.

In the subjects that performed the exercise plan and had a moderate calorie restriction, over a five-month period, the researchers found a weight loss of nearly 10% of total body weight or about 20 pounds with significant improvements in aortic stiffness.

However, one of the aortic stiffness numbers changed much in the exercice-only or exercise and intensive calorie restrictions groups, although both calorie-restricted groups lost more inches off of their waist, reduced total fat mass, and percent body fat compared to the exercise-only group.

And in a heartening result for some of us who like to eat, despite the intensive calorie-restricted group consuming twice as little calories, the weight loss was similar to the moderate calorie-restricted group. Everything in moderation, as my nana used to say.

It doesn’t read for sexy Instagram posts about keto diets, intermittent fasting for 23 hours a day, and doing CrossFit chippers into your 70s but staying healthy isn’t really meant to be something that everyone can achieve.

Maybe, we just overcomplicated and hype the whole thing to sell more personal training or gym memberships, and maybe that is not a great way to go.

Summary

Title: Effects of Exercise and Weight Loss on Proximal Aortic Stiffness in Older Adults With Obesity

Date: August, 2021

DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.051943

Abstract: This randomized controlled trial included 160 sedentary adults, ages 65-79 years with obesity (BMI=30-45 kg/m2). The average age of the participants was 69 years; 74% were female; and 73% were white. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups for 20 weeks: 1) exercise only with their regular diet; 2) exercise plus moderate calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 250 calories/day); or 3) exercise plus more intensive calorie restriction (reduction of approximately 600 calories/day). The results found that weight loss of nearly 10% of total body weight or about 20 pounds over the five-month study period was associated with significant improvements in aortic stiffness — only in the participants assigned to the exercise plus moderate calorie restriction group.

Main Purpose: Aortic stiffness is when the walls of the arteries lose their elasticity, particularly in aging indivduals, leading to greater cardiovascular risk. Measures aortic stiffness as a result of aerobic exercise with and without a reduction in calories through dieting. The aim was to determine whether calories restriction and exercise would have a greater benefit on vascular health in older adults with obestiy than aerobic exercise alone.

Research Type: Journal Article

Findings Indicate: In oder adults with obesity, combining aerobic exercise with moderate calorie reduction leads to greater improvements in proximal aortic stiffness than exercise alone.

Limitation: None

The post Lose 250 Calories Because Exercise Alone is Not Enough appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In December 2015, Eddie Hall achieved the then world record deadlift at the World Deadlift Championships 2015, with a 463 kg (1,021 lb) deadlift. In 2016, The Beast, as Eddie is known, set a new world record in the deadlift with a lift of 500 kg (1,102.31 lb) at the World Deadlift Championships 2016 besting the world record he had previously set at 465 kg earlier that same day.

The Beast then proceeded to pass out and everyone watching was ready to join him after seeing what he did. It is one of the most impressive strength feats in recent history, a benchmark for strength athletes to strive for.

Challenge accepted. The 2018 World’s Strongest Man, Hafthor Bjornsson, aka Thor, aka The Mountain, Gregor Clegane in Game of Thrones, pulled 501 kg (1,104.52 lb) off the ground in his gym in Iceland.

Not in competion, mostly on social media, and to the chagrin of Hall and other strongman contenders who don’t see the lift as a legitimate world record because it was achieved outside of competition.

You want to argue with any of them, on either side, you’re welcome to try and get in the mix but not me. Have you see the size of these guys?

In Manchester, England, a post-COVID crowd yearning for the freedom to bust blood vessels in their eyeballs, came together to witness the World Deadlift Championships 2021.

No Hall or Bjornsson, both of whom are in boxing training, prepared to fight each other once Hall’s bicep tear heals. Such is the world we live in. Well, never mind. Their loss.

There were some giants on stage, and on the cards, a new world record deadlift, 505 kg (1,113.33 lb). Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be this time, as you can see below.

But, we are not disheartened because it looks like we are entering a new era in the deadlift wars because, despite the failures, the record is well within reach of all those strongman pros who are not sparring or skipping rope or some other pugilistic stuff.

The post The 505kg Deadlift Mark Remains Untouched appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

An interesting study review article in Nature, The Degree of Frailty as a Translational Measure of Health in Aging, looks at the impact of the different levels of frailty and their effect on aging, particularly whene it comes to late-life diseases.

Sounds boring, but it is not because physical exercise, the stuff that gets a Breaking Muscle types excited, is a lifestyle factor that can change the game.

Frailty has a clinical definition, and it is a term that covers a range of symptoms that make older people vulnerable to injury and death. It is not a disability and it is not comorbidity.

People may have frailty with other conditions, or morbidities, but they may also be frail without any morbidity, not need medical intervention, but likely to require care even with minor illnesses.

Examining frailty, in animals and humans, can lead to better measures of its degree of impact and provide a better understanding of the diseases of old age.

But, you don’t want to get to an older age and realize the measures of frailty for yourself. Lifestyle and social factors play a role in determining frailty as you age.

High-fat diets, socio-economic issues, poor maternal health, radiation therapy, low social position, and lack of personal wealth all play a part in maing frailty worse.

On the other hand, a balanced diet, caloric restriction, eduction, social engagement, personal wealth, and physical exercise can keep you fit. Which begs the question, who are personal trainers ($55-$200 an hour) and box gyms (+$100 a month) really targeting?

It seems like the real need is among those that don’t have the means or the neighborhoods where you’ll find a lot of Lululemon leaisurewear.

Summary

Title: The degree of frailty as a translational measure of health in aging

Date: August, 2021

DOI: 10.1038/s43587-021-00099-3

Abstract: Frailty is a multiply determined, age-related state of increased risk for adverse health outcomes. We review how the degree of frailty conditions the development of late-life diseases and modifies their expression. The risks for frailty range from subcellular damage to social determinants. These risks are often synergistic—circumstances that favor damage also make repair less likely. We explore how age-related damage and decline in repair result in cellular and molecular deficits that scale up to tissue, organ and system levels, where they are jointly expressed as frailty. The degree of frailty can help to explain the distinction between carrying damage and expressing its usual clinical manifestations. Studying people—and animals—who live with frailty, including them in clinical trials and measuring the impact of the degree of frailty are ways to better understand the diseases of old age and to establish best practices for the care of older adults.

Main Purpose: A review of the nature of frailty, and how degrees of frailty can be used as a measure of health. An exhortation to researchers to do more clinical research of both animals and humans with the notion that this may lead to better predictive assessments of longevity and morbidity.

Research Type: Journal Article

Findings Indicate: Physical exercise moves the dial on frailty and moving the dial on frailty can change the predictions about longer term health and mortality.

Limitation: None

The post Frailty Is the Disease, Physical Exercise Is the Cure appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Department of Physiology and Center for Muscle Biology study¹ published in the FASEB Journal found that resistance-like exercise regulates fat cell metabolism at a molecular level.

Findings from a new University of Kentucky College of Medicine and College of Health Sciences study add to growing evidence that resistance exercise has unique benefits for fat loss.

The Department of Physiology and Center for Muscle Biology study¹ published in the FASEB Journal found that resistance-like exercise regulates fat cell metabolism at a molecular level.

The study results in mice and humans show that in response to mechanical loading, muscle cells release particles called extracellular vesicles that give fat cells instructions to enter fat-burning mode.

Extracellular vesicles were initially understood as a way for cells to selectively eliminate proteins, lipids and RNA. Recently, scientists discovered that they also play a role in intercellular communication.

The study adds a new dimension to how skeletal muscle communicates with other tissues by using extracellular vesicles, says John McCarthy, Ph.D., study author and associate professor in the UK Department of Physiology.

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of how weight training initiates metabolic adaptations in fat tissue, which is crucial for determining whole-body metabolic outcomes,” McCarthy said. “The ability of resistance exercise-induced extracellular vesicles to improve fat metabolism has significant clinical implications.”

Reference:

1. Ivan J. Vechetti, Bailey D. Peck, Yuan Wen, R. Grace Walton, Taylor R. Valentino, Alexander P. Alimov, Cory M. Dungan, Douglas W. Van Pelt, Ferdinand Walden, Björn Alkner, Charlotte A. Peterson, John J. McCarthy. Mechanical overload-induced muscle-derived extracellular vesicles promote adipose tissue lipolysis. The FASEB Journal, 2021; 35 (6)

The post How Lifting Weights Burns Fat appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

University of Copenhagen scientists, however, have discovered it may in part result from changes to the structure of our DNA. These changes are referred as epigenetic.

Their study is called, Epigenetic Rewiring of Skeletal Muscle Enhancers After Exercise Training Supports a Role in Whole-Body Function and Human Health, and it’s worth a read.

Epigenetic Changes from Physical Activity

DNA is the molecular instruction manual found in all our cells. Some sections of our DNA are genes, which are instructions for building proteins – the body’s building blocks – while other sections are called enhancers that regulate which genes are switched on or off, when, and in which tissue.

Our Danish scientist friends found, for the first time, that exercise rewires the enhancers in regions of our DNA that are known to be associated with the risk to develop disease.

“Our findings provide a mechanism for the known beneficial effects of exercise. By connecting each enhancer with a gene, we further provide a list of direct targets that could mediate this effect,” says Professor Romain Barrès from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, the senior author of the research, which was published in Molecular Metabolism.

Exercise Improves the Brain

The scientists had a hypothesis: endurance training changes the activity of gene enhancers in skeletal muscle by remodelling the processes. They discovered that after completing an endurance training program, their training subjects’ enhancers in the skeletal muscle had been altered.

They were able to connect the many enhancers that exhibited this alteration to genetic databases to discover that many of them have been identified as hotspots of genetic variation between individuals – hotspots that have been associated with human disease.

In particular, they found that exercise remodels enhancer activity in skeletal muscle that are linked to cognitive abilities, which opens for the identification of exercise training-induced secreted muscle factors targeting the brain.

The post 6 Weeks of Exercise Leads to Genome Changes Linked to Disease appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia is the most dominant weightlifter of his generation and he is well on his way to being the first man to break the 500 kg total in weightlifting.

At the Tokyo Olympics, in the 109+ kg category, Talakhadze broked the world record for the snatch with 223 kg and then he broke the world record for the clean and jerk with 265 kg and then, as you would expect, he broke the world record for a total of 488 kg.

That’s a good 15 kg ahead of his total at the Rio Olympics in 2016 which puts him on pace to break through the 500 kg total ceiling at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Talakhadze was a good 44 kg (103.6 lbs) ahead of silver medalist Ali Davoudi of Iran. So, there’s that. And, he didn’t seem to break a sweat, hitting every lift, and seeming like he had it all figured out way in advance.

In fact, he waited until his fellow competitors had all lifted first before jumping in and doing his thing meaning that he has a little streak of cruelty in him, probably enjoying the turning of the knife in all the lifters he leaves behind him in the rearview mirror.

The post 1, 2, 3 World Records for Lasha Talakhadze and Olympic Gold Dominance appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Erwan Le Corre is a pioneer in natural movement and the founder of MovNat. He is also a US National Record Holder. Recently, Le Corre, a Breaking Muscle favorite contributor, held his breath for 6 minutes and 46 seconds, beating the previous record for Static Apnoea (STA).

STA is a discipline of freediving and is defined as a pure breath-hold discipline. For the record, Le Corre was face down in a pool in Tampa, Florida, with an official moderating crew to record his record attempt.

Le Corre told his followers on Instagram about the record, thanking everyone who supported him, but also admitting that he was not fully prepared or convinced that he would succeed.

Le Corre has only been training STA for eighteen months and achieved his success a month away from his 50th birthday. He credits his success to the support of his family but also to his three decades of natural movement practice.

The record was verified US Freediving Federation under the rule of the Confederation of Underwater Activities (CMAS).

A post shared by Erwan Le Corre (@erwanlecorre)

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The implications is also relevant in more general terms because of the role of gut microbiota (GM), probiotic supplementation, and the impact on muscular development.

Research into the gut-muscle axis finds some interesting connections between the role of inflammation and gut microbiota in the development of muscle failure in older populations.

The implications is also relevant in more general terms because of the role of gut microbiota (GM), probiotic supplementation, and the impact on muscular development.

GM is a universe of bacteria, billions upon billions of varieties, and more than a thousand species of fungi, viruses, phages, parasites, and archea in your gastrontestinal tract.

GM is recognized as playing a part in healthy absorption of nutrients in the gut, as well as providing immunity from infections, among other benefits. In the study summarized below, the researchers were studying the loss of muscle mass and strength as we age which is extenuated by inflammation and conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The gut-muscle axis hypothesis is based on the notion that inflammation, imbalances in gut bacteria, and malnutrition are partially responsible for muscle failure in IBD patients, specifically, and as a general rule.

The figure above shows the key drivers in the development of the gut-muscle axis. What we know is that this axis is an interesting area of research and that it leads us to understanding how GM supplementation can lead to better muscle function.

So, while the study is specific to a clinical condition, it doesn’t change the biological implications. Metabolic processes, oxidative stress, and mitochondria functions are associated with GM, as is immune response.

The benefits of probiotic supplementation to improve muscle mass and function is going to be interesting to study and observe. It is primarily an issue of general health but could lead to improvements in performance-enhancement interventions in

Summary

Title: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Sarcopenia: The Role of Inflammation and Gut Microbiota in the Development of Muscle Failure

Date: February 25th, 2021

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.694217

Abstract: Sarcopenia represents a major health burden in industrialized country by reducing substantially the quality of life. Indeed, it is characterized by a progressive and generalized loss of muscle mass and function, leading to an increased risk of adverse outcomes and hospitalizations. Several factors are involved in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia, such as aging, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and insulin resistance. Recently, it has been reported that more than one third of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients suffered from sarcopenia. Notably, the role of gut microbiota (GM) in developing muscle failure in IBD patient is a matter of increasing interest. It has been hypothesized that gut dysbiosis, that typically characterizes IBD, might alter the immune response and host metabolism, promoting a low-grade inflammation status able to up-regulate several molecular pathways related to sarcopenia. Therefore, we aim to describe the basis of IBD-related sarcopenia and provide the rationale for new potential therapeutic targets that may regulate the gut-muscle axis in IBD patients.

Main Purpose: Focuses on the key players in the gut-muscle axis.

Research Type: Literature review.

Findings Indicate: The gut-muscle axis is an interesting area of resaerch. An understanding of the pathophysiology of the gut-muscle axis in this instance is related to the association of GM supplementation as a treatment for IBD and related improvements in muscle mass and muscle funcion.

Limitation: The paper does not appear to have any limitations as such.

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