Older men with sarcopenia are more likely to develop diabetes over time

New findings point to age-related muscle loss as a contributing factor
to diabetes in the elderly

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

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WASHINGTON–Older men who have lower lean body mass as they age are
more prone to developing diabetes, while similar findings were not
found in older women, according to a new study published in the
Journal of the Endocrine Society.

One in four adults aged 65 and older has diabetes, making them the
group with the greatest burden of diabetes. Skeletal muscle is the
largest insulin-sensitive tissue in the body and plays an essential
role in blood sugar regulation. Age-related muscle loss, called
sarcopenia, may contribute to the development of diabetes in older
adults.

“Age-related muscle loss may be an under-recognized target for
interventions to prevent the development of diabetes in older adults,”
said the study’s first author, Rita R. Kalyani, M.D., of the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. “We found that relatively lower
lean body mass with aging was related to a higher incidence of
diabetes in men but not women, and partially related to body size.”

The researchers studied 871 men and 984 women, with an average age of
60 years at the initial visit, from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study
of Aging, who were followed up to 15 years. They used Dual X-ray
Absorptiometry and found that lower lean body mass with aging is
associated with incident diabetes in men but not women.

“Future studies that use more direct methods to assess skeletal muscle
mass may give further insights into these relationships and the sex
differences that we observed,” Kalyani said.

Other authors include: E. Jeffrey Metter of the University of
Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tenn.; Qian-Li Xue and
Sherita Golden of the Johns Hopkins University; Mohammed Al-Sofiani of
the Johns Hopkins University and the King Saud University in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia; Hermes Florez of the University of Miami Miller School
of Medicine in Miami, Fla; and Josephine M. Egan, Chee W. Chia,
Stephanie Studenski, Nancy Chiles Shaffer, and Luigi Ferrucci of the
National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Md.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the Intramural Research Program of
the National Institute on Aging.

The manuscript, “The Relationship of Lean Body Mass with Aging to the
Development of Diabetes,” was published online.

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