Longitudinal Changes in Resting Metabolic Rates with Aging Are Accelerated by Diseases.

Marta Zampino,Majd Alghatrif,Eleanor Simonsick,Luigi Ferrucci,Pei-Lun Kuo

doi:10.3390/nu12103061

Marta Zampino, Majd Alghatrif + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12103061

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Abstract

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) declines with aging and is related to changes in health status, but how specific health impairments impact basal metabolism over time has been largely unexplored. We analyzed the association of RMR with 15 common age-related chronic diseases for up to 13 years of follow-up in a population of 997 participants to the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. At each visit, participants underwent measurements of RMR by indirect calorimetry and body composition by DEXA. Linear regression models and linear mixed effect models were used to test cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of RMR and changes in disease status. Cancer and diabetes were associated with higher RMR at baseline. Independent of covariates, prevalent COPD and cancer, as well as incident diabetes, heart failure, and CKD were associated with a steeper decline in RMR over time. Chronic diseases seem to have a two-phase association with RMR. Initially, RMR may increase because of the high cost of resiliency homeostatic mechanisms. However, as the reserve capacity becomes exhausted, a catabolic cascade becomes unavoidable, resulting in loss of total and metabolically active mass and consequent RMR decline.

Highlights

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) changes over the life span and has been related to changes in health status
RMR is widely determined by the most metabolically active tissues, such as muscle, heart, brain, and liver, and, as the function and metabolic activity of these organs and tissues decline with aging, RMR declines with aging [4]
A lower RMR is observed in women, and this finding too has not been completely explained by differences in body composition

Summary

Introduction

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) changes over the life span and has been related to changes in health status. The decline of RMR with aging has been partially, but not completely, explained by changes in body composition, and by the decline of lean mass more than by that of fat mass. This phenomenon is evident in the years prior to death, when the drop of both lean and fat mass accelerates [5,6]. It has been suggested that the changes in body composition and parallel changes in RMR are due to the emergence of pathology, the specific mechanism and directions of this association are still not understood

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