Milk or Soy Milk with Resistance Exercise Explored for Sarcopenia Management in Elderly

Age-associated sarcopenia, characterized by progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, significantly impacts the quality of life and increases morbidity in older adults. This condition is often linked to complex physiological changes, including altered hormonal balance, chronic low-grade inflammation, and disrupted protein metabolism. Current standard-of-care often involves resistance exercise, but nutritional strategies, particularly protein supplementation, are crucial to counteract muscle atrophy, where myokines and cytokines play central roles. There remains a need for accessible, effective, and integrated nutritional interventions to augment the benefits of exercise in managing sarcopenia.

This randomized controlled trial recruited elderly people ≧65 years old with sarcopenia from nursing homes in Taipei, Taiwan, between June and December 2017. Participants were assigned to three groups: a control group, a milk supplement group, and a soy milk supplement group. The milk and soy milk groups received 200 mL milk or soy milk two times per day. All participants engaged in a structured resistance exercise training program, conducted three times per week for 30 minutes per session. After a 12-week intervention period, researchers measured anthropometry, sarcopenia index, blood biochemical markers, nutrition status index, inflammation index, insulin resistance index, and dietary intake using various assays like ELISA and blood chemistry panels.

The provided abstract for this study does not contain specific quantitative results regarding the impact of milk or soy milk supplementation combined with resistance exercise on sarcopenia indices, anthropometry, blood biochemical markers, nutritional status, inflammation, or insulin resistance after the 12-week intervention period. Therefore, no specific findings, statistical outcomes, or p-values can be reported from the provided text. The abstract outlines the study's design and methods but omits the data analysis and conclusions, preventing a detailed summary of what they found.