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Photo: Alistair Berg / Getty Images
From birth to early adulthood, people build muscle mass.
The turning point is reached around the age of 30.
Then the curve drops - first slowly, then faster and faster.
As muscles shrink, the body puts on fat.
Without countermeasures, between 30 and 50 percent of the maximum muscle mass will be gone by the age of 80.
In 10 to 20 percent of people over 75 years of age, this age-related decline is so rapid that it becomes a danger - and doctors see it as an independent disease.
You speak of sarcopenia, a pathological decrease in muscle mass and muscle strength.
Those affected can no longer cope with the seemingly simplest things on their own: get up, get dressed, climb stairs, carry shopping bags or open a jam jar.
Seniors whose muscle mass, muscle strength and walking speed are below certain limit values are considered "sarcopes".
Anyone who cannot walk ten meters in 12.5 seconds, for example, and who needs more than 15 seconds to get up from a chair five times in a row without supporting themselves, will likely get the diagnosis.
Many of the people affected consider such a decline to be an inevitable phenomenon of old age.
But researchers have recognized that the shrinkage is by no means predetermined.
You can train your muscle cells well into old age - and in this way regain joy in life that you thought was lost.
In fact, seniors who have well-trained muscles are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular or metabolic diseases and are more agile in spirit.
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