The researchers aimed to determine the prevalence of sarcopenia among RA patients through a cross-sectional study. The study involved 388 consecutive female outpatients with RA admitted to the Kyoto University Hospital Rheumatic Disease Center in 2014.
Muscle mass was examined along with muscle strength and bone mineral density.
Prevalence of sarcopenia among patients was 37.1 percent. Low muscle mass was seen among 49 percent of the patients and among those over the age of 65, 51 percent were diagnosed with sarcopenia and 60.1 percent with low muscle mass. Prevalence of sarcopenia was higher in older age.
Patients with sarcopenia had greater RA activity, greater joint destruction, higher bone mineral density, and more cases of bone fractures. Furthermore, treatment with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) for RA was less frequent among patients with sarcopenia.
Additional research is required to better understand the links between rheumatoid arthritis and sarcopenia. So far, the researchers suggest that older age, disease duration, and nutrition play large contributing factors to a higher risk of sarcopenia in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Additionally, the use of bDMARDs to treat rheumatoid arthritis may work as a suppressant of sarcopenia in patients – but more research is required to determine this as well.
Although one cannot slow down aging, it’s important that you work on your nutrition as a means of promoting muscle mass growth and muscle strength and work closely with your rheumatologist to find an effective treatment to manage RA and reduce your risk of sarcopenia.
Also read:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis Exercises and Yoga Poses to Alleviate Joint Pain
- How to recover from muscle atrophy with diet and exercises