Abstract
The decline in skeletal muscle mass and strength, also called sarcopenia, accelerates with age, leading to negative health outcomes and poor quality of life. Diet is important to promote health and plays a key role in muscle aging. Plant-based foods have recently received attention as sources of phytochemical components to attenuate loss of muscle mass and strength in older adults. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the benefits of botanical extracts and their phytochemical compounds for muscle health in older adults. Randomized controlled trials were identified via systematic searches of four electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and KoreaMed) up to June 2021 and were quality assessed. The results of muscle strength, mass, and physical performance were pooled using a random-effects model. Fourteen studies involving 528 subjects aged between 50 and 80 years met the inclusion criteria. Dietary phytochemicals significantly increased handgrip strength [0.90 kg; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26–1.53, p = 0.01] and physical performance (timed up-and-go test: − 0.5 s, 2.73 times; 95% CI − 0.84 to − 0.15, p < 0.01; 30-s chair stand test: 95% CI 0.88–4.59, p < 0.01; 6-min walk test: 29.36 m; 95% CI 14.58–44.13, p < 0.0001) but had no effect on improvement in muscle mass. Publication bias evaluated by funnel plots and Egger’s regression test demonstrated no evidence of substantial publication bias (p > 0.05). The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that phytochemicals are a potential nutritional strategy to improve muscle health in older adults.
Highlights
With the rapid increase in life expectancy and the number of older adults over the last century, the number of older people with age-related diseases and disabilities has increased [1]
This systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed the current trends in clinical research of dietary phytochemicals for the treatment of sarcopenia and, secondly, evaluated the benefits of phytochemical supplementation on muscle health in older adults (≥ 40 years)
The findings demonstrated that dietary phytochemicals exerted overall significant effects on muscle strength (MS) (HGS) and physical performance (TUG, 30-s chair stand test (30-SCST), and 6-min walk test (6MWT)) when pooling the results of included studies
Summary
With the rapid increase in life expectancy and the number of older adults over the last century, the number of older people with age-related diseases and disabilities has increased [1]. Several recent in vitro and in vivo have drawn attention to dietary phytochemicals, either alone [19,20,21] or in combination [20, 22], as non-pharmacological strategies for older adults with low levels of muscle health or sarcopenia. These phytochemicals are predominantly found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and herbs and may simultaneously act on multiple cellular targets with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity [23]. This systematic review analyzes the current trends in clinical research of dietary phytochemicals for sarcopenia and evaluates the effects of supplementation on MM and muscle function in the older population
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