Sarcopenia may be one of those words you don’t hear too often. Nevertheless, it is a medical condition that commonly affects older adults. If your loved one has it, it can significantly reduce their ability to live an active and independent life. Companion care at home can help.
What is Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia is the medical term for muscle loss. A person with this condition gradually loses muscle mass, function, and strength. While it can be part of a natural part of aging, it can also be exacerbated by several risk factors and lifestyle choices.
Naturally, a person’s body slows down its production of proteins needed to keep muscles strong and functional. This can lead to many muscles shrinking and losing the strength they once had. Changes in hormones with age can also affect muscle fibers, leading to weakened muscles that cannot perform as they once did.
While everyone loses some muscle mass as they age, those with sarcopenia lose it much more quickly, and it dramatically affects their daily living activities and the ability to live independently.
Sarcopenia Symptoms
Your loved one will naturally become weaker as they age, especially if they don’t take steps to continue to strengthen their muscles, so some muscle weakness does not indicate that they have sarcopenia. With sarcopenia, you will notice these symptoms and how they affect daily living.
- Trouble climbing stairs. They may need to stop and rest after just a few stairs.
- An inability to get up from a seated position.
- Loss of stamina. It may not take much activity to completely wipe them out. A short trip to the grocery store may completely exhaust them.
- A much slower pace while walking.
- Struggling to perform daily living activities such as laundry, washing the dishes, or cleaning the house.
- Balance issues that lead to more frequent falls.
Sarcopenia Risk Factors
While simply getting older is the chief reason that some people develop sarcopenia, other risk factors combined with an advanced age can accelerate it or increase the effect it has on your loved one.
- Having a high BMI (Body Mass Index). Obesity can lead to sarcopenic obesity.
- Being physically inactive.
- Having a chronic health condition such as diabetes, cancer, or COPD.
- Being insulin resistant.
- Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis
- Either being malnourished, or subsisting on a diet that doesn’t provide needed nutrients like protein.
- Hormone reduction.
Living with Sarcopenia
If your loved one has sarcopenia, their doctor may recommend some lifestyle choices that require better eating habits, losing weight, and building up muscle mass by doing specific exercises. Your loved one may still find it difficult to do some things at home on their own, and companion care at home services may be just what they need in order to remain independent.
Companion care at home services can assist with home care tasks that your loved one currently lacks the strength to manage, such as laundry, floor cleaning, and meal preparation.
A companion care at home provider can also help keep your loved one’s spirits up and spend time with them if they are at a point where getting out and being active is difficult. They can help reduce the feelings of isolation that the side effects of sarcopenia can create.
If you or an aging loved one is considering Companion Care at Home in Goodyear, AZ, please contact the caring staff at Home Care Resources today. Call (602) 443-4700
Home Care Resources is a top provider of home care services in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, Paradise Valley, Peoria, Sun City, Sun City West, Surprise, Goodyear, Cave Creek, Care Free, Fountain Hills, and surrounding areas.
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