====== Sarcopenia ======

>Sarcopenia, the decline in skeletal muscle mass and function without any underlying disease, is a major contributor to physical disability, poor quality of life, and death among the elderly  [...] 40%–50% of individuals over 80 years of age suffer from this loss of muscle mass and function [...] __The molecular mechanisms responsible for this age‐related condition remain unknown.__\\ \\ Source : [[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.13223|Aging Cell, Volume 19, Issue 10]]

Despite its widespread prevalence (there are currently thought to be more than 50 million sufferers worldwide) , the syndrome was only named in 1989,

Many causes have been proposed (genetic, environmental, systemic etc ) but it's now thought that it's likely to be the result of multiple, as yet unidentified, interacting factors.

//Note:// Sarcopenia is a separate syndrome from [[content:medicine:diseases:a-f:cachexia]] - which involves cytokine imbalances as its main mechanism. The symptoms can be substantially similar, and the two syndromes often occur together.