Lean Muscle Mass Fights Cancer
We’ve heard that exercise helps prevent breast and colon cancers. A new study suggests that people with more lean muscle mass have a better chance of battling cancer.
Generally, people who are obese are thought to have substantial lean muscle mass too, because their bodies have been working hard to carry all that weight around. But a new condition has been identified, called sarcopenic obesity, which simply acknowledges that some people can be overweight but have little lean muscle mass. Not only does this make it harder for them to burn off the calories they consume, but it may make them less able to fight off cancer.
Researchers at the University of Alberta scanned the bodies of 250 obese cancer patients. Those with the lowest percentage of lean muscle mass died an average of 10 months earlier than obese patients who had more muscle mass, after controlling for other variables.
Vickie Baracos, PhD, lead researcher for the study, noted that this was also important because lean muscle mass affects metabolism and could have an impact on how drugs and chemotherapy are tolerated.
“People with sarcopenic obesity may have as little or less muscle mass than very thin people,” says Baracos, who is a professor of oncology and adjunct professor of nutrition at the University of Alberta. While in some people there may an underlying condition that prevents them from building muscle mass, in general, sarcopenia is an avoidable condition of aging brought on by poor nutrition and a lack of exercise.
If you’re undergoing cancer treatment, ask you doctor about physical therapy to build or rebuild muscle either during or after your therapy. Some cancer treatments, especially those for breast cancer, cause you to gain fat. Building muscle is one way to help avoid that.
Eating enough protein is essential to maintaining muscle. There are also several supplements which can help maintain or build muscle mass:
- CLA (conjugated linoelic acid)
The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: Clearly, you don’t want to wait until you’ve got cancer to start pumping iron and eating right to build lean muscle mass. Good nutrition with adequate protein, along with regular exercise, can help prevent sarcopenia, the wasting of muscle as we age. Supplements can speed our efforts with more muscle, less soreness and the energy to keep at it.
