Reading the book about Olga Kotelko

[Larry Johnson]

I'm doing a lot of reading on sarcopenia and other muscle-related topics lately.  I'm 65, which is the threshold of the steep decline in muscle mass, so I've developed an almost unhealthy interest in the topic.  As part of my reading I've begun Bruce Grierson's book What Makes Olga Run? Olga Kotelko died at 95 a couple of years ago (of a cerebral hemorrhage), but up until her last year of life she was involved in track and field competitions.  The notable thing is that she maintained a great deal of her muscle mass into her 90s.  I remember reading a few years ago that researchers at  McGill University were running tests on her to try to determine why sarcopenia largely spared her.  Kotelko herself expressed as much curiosity as anyone else about why her muscle mass and athletic performance declined so little, but guessed that it was a combination of genetics and continued activity.

[Guest phillip.redden]

I will look this up on amazon....thanks

[mccoy]

I admit I didn't know about Olga Kotelko. I looked her up and she seems to be a unique case. 

 

 

Olga Kotelko (2 March 1919 – 24 June 2014) was a Canadian nonagenarian track and field athlete.^[1] She held over 30 world records^[2] and won over 750 gold medals in her age category for the Masters competition, age 90-95, and was considered "one of the world's greatest athletes" as a result.^[3] She held every track and field world record she attempted for her age group.^[4]

 

[mccoy]

 

 

I'm doing a lot of reading on sarcopenia and other muscle-related topics lately.  I'm 65, which is the threshold of the steep decline in muscle mass, so I've developed an almost unhealthy interest in the topic.

 

Larry, as far as I know the simple intervention proposed to keep sarcopenia in check is physical (resistance) exercise. But maybe it's not so easy in the practice, due to weakened ligaments and connective tissue. The small weights used by exercising elders may not provide enough mechanical stress to induce Muscle Protein Synthesis.