Lifestyle approaches to prevent and retard sarcopenia: A narrative review

Sarcopenia, with its high prevalence and its adverse health outcomes, amongst older adults is considered a major public health problem. Its primary, secondary and tertiary preventions are therefore very important. Our objective was to review the effects of lifestyle factors, including not only dietary habits and exercise but also social use of substances such as alcohol and tobacco, on the incidence of sarcopenia and on its health outcomes. We found that the effect of lifestyle on muscle parameters or physical function has been investigated in many trials of heterogeneous design and quality. However, based on data from interventional studies, we can be confident that loss of physical function and its consequences can be counteracted by physical activity. There are some interesting data, mainly evident from observational studies, suggesting that healthier dietary patterns may improve muscle health. The combination of exercise with dietary supplement has more conflicting results and the effect of other lifestyle changes, such as cessation of alcohol or tobacco use, is difficult to establish clearly. Further high-quality trials are needed to substantiate the mechanism of action of each intervention as well as to determine the optimal modalities of these in older adults.