Ageing and muscle:: the effects of malnutrition, re-nutrition, and physical exercise

Because of the metabolic changes caused by ageing, malnutrition is accompanied by a preferential loss of fat-free mass in the elderly, and it exaggerates the physiological loss of body cell mass, muscle mass and muscle function observed in the aged. Exercise training has positive anabolic effects even in the frail elderly, and may improve the effect of re-nutrition in malnourished elderly patients. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 4:295-300. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams Wilkins.