Muscle Atrophy

Muscle atrophy is when muscles waste away. The main reason for muscle wasting is a lack of physical activity. This can happen when a disease or injury makes it difficult or impossible for you to move an arm or leg.

You may have muscle loss if one of your limbs appears smaller (not shorter) than the other. Schedule a physical exam to determine the cause of the loss. Your doctor will determine what treatment you need. In some cases, muscle wasting can be reversed with a proper diet, exercise, or physical therapy.

Unused muscles can waste away if you are not active. However, this takes time. Even after it begins, this type of atrophy can often be reversed with exercise and improved nutrition.

Muscle atrophy can also happen if you are bedridden or unable to move certain body parts due to a medical condition. Astronauts are subject to some muscle atrophy after a few days of weightlessness.

Other causes for muscle atrophy include:

• lack of physical activity (for any reason)
• aging
• alcohol-associated myopathy (pain and weakness in muscles due to excessive drinking over long periods of time)
• burns
• injuries and broken bones
• malnutrition
• spinal cord injuries
• stroke
• long-term corticosteroid therapy

Diseases can cause muscles to waste away or can make movement difficult, leading to muscle atrophy. These include:

• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), which affects nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement
• dermatomyositis (a muscle disease)
• Guillain-Barre syndrome (an autoimmune disease that leads to nerve inflammation and muscle weakness)
• multiple sclerosis (MS, an autoimmune disease that can make it difficult to move)
• muscular dystrophy (an inherited disease that causes muscle weakness)
• neuropathy (damage to a nerve or nerve group, resulting in loss of sensation or function)
• osteoarthritis (the most common form of arthritis; causes reduced motion in the joints)
• polio (a viral disease affecting muscle tissue that can lead to paralysis)
• polymyositis (an inflammatory disease)
• rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune disease)
• spinal muscular atrophy (SMA, a hereditary disease causing arm and leg muscles to waste away)

You may have muscle atrophy if:

• one of your arms or legs is noticeably smaller than the other
• you are experiencing marked weakness in one limb
• you have been physically inactive

Contact your doctor to have a complete medical examination if you believe you may have muscle atrophy or if you are unable to move in a normal manner. You may have an undiagnosed condition that requires treatment. Your doctor will be able to provide you with dietary and exercise options.

How to reverse muscle loss:

Add protein to the diet

Try replacing some of the carbs in your breakfast with Greek yogurt or eggs to help spread your protein more evenly throughout the day, suggests Paddon-Jones.

Protein reigns supreme as a muscle-building macronutrient. But protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, and cheese—along with refined grains and salt—create acids inside your body that can start to eat away at muscle over time, notes a review article on diet and sarcopenia in the journalOsteoporosis International.

Daily exercise 

“Muscles need continual overload to respond and get stronger,” says Paul Gordon, PhD, professor and chair of health, human performance and recreation at Baylor University in Waco, Texas and co-author of a recent research review on resistance training and aging in The American Journal of Medicine.

If you’re brand-new to strength training, start with one day a week of moves that target your major muscle groups—legs, hips, back, abs, chest, shoulders, and arms—using weights that you can lift comfortably 15 to 20 times, Gordon advises. That way, you’ll learn the motions safely.

Sleep

You also need downtime afterward so your body can repair and build new muscle. Most of this recovery happens during sleep, says Matthew Edlund, MD, director of the Center for Circadian Medicine in Sarasota, Florida, and author of The Power of Rest—especially the deep stages, when your body releases muscle-building human growth hormone.

Moderate Alcohol

Booze can disrupt the flow of hormones that prompt your body to produce new muscle proteins, says Matthew Barnes, PhD, of Massey University in New Zealand