Could Muscle Strength in Older Adults Be Improved by Stimulating Nerves?

Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute Executive Director Brian Clark says the loss of muscle strength in older adults only has a modest association with loss of muscle mass, reports Medical Research . He cites a study whose aim was "to determine whether, and to what extent, older adults with clinically meaningful leg extensor muscle weakness exhibit differences in voluntary neural activation capacity when compared to stronger older adults." Clark says the research involved voluntary and electrically stimulated contractions of the quadriceps femoris to measure the nervous system's ability to completely activate the muscles. Supramaximal stimulation was undertaken, along with quantification of "added force" during maximal voluntary contraction, to measure neural inactivation levels. "This work presents evidence indicating that weak older adults have significant deficits in their nervous systems ability to fully activate their leg extensor muscles," Clark said. "While these data do not point to the underlying mechanism per se, they do suggest that medical treatments targeting the nervous system could be used to enhance muscle strength to prevent future heal risks in weak older adults."