Preventing Muscle Atrophy: Strategies for Maintaining Strength and Function

A common condition many people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) face is muscle atrophy. Muscle atrophy can severely impact the movement and mobility of people who are already trying to heal from an injury or live with a degenerative disease. If you’re dealing with muscle atrophy, you are not alone. Additionally, it’s important to be aware of strategies to control and mitigate further atrophy. Today, we’ll go over everything you’ll want to know about muscle atrophy and how you can treat it.

What Is Muscle Atrophy?

Muscle atrophy is the deterioration of muscle tissue and mass. As a muscle or muscle group is not used, the body will begin to break it down, leading to what we know as muscle atrophy. It can be caused by inactivity of the muscle (disuse atrophy), deterioration of the body from internal or external factors (pathologic atrophy), or communication from the nerve to the muscle being hindered or stopped (neurogenic atrophy). This can occur for a number of reasons including injuries, malnutrition, age, chronic illnesses such as multiple sclerosis (MS), and even sedentary lifestyles. 

Symptoms of muscle atrophy include: 

• A visible difference in one limb’s size to another 
• Weakness in the affected muscle group 
• Tingling sensations or numbness 
• Loss of mobility and coordination  

How to Maintain Strength with Muscle Atrophy 

Even if you have developed muscle atrophy, there are steps you can take to help maintain strength and even regain some mobility or muscle mass back. The two most important factors in regaining muscle mass after atrophy are going to be your diet and any exercise you can handle. They can also be good preventative measures if you have a condition that often leads to muscle atrophy, such as a spinal cord injury with paralysis or MS.

Diet and Muscle Atrophy

As we mentioned before, starvation and malnutrition can actually lead to someone developing muscle atrophy. Similarly, your diet can help with the effects of muscle atrophy and increase your strength. When you’re dealing with muscle atrophy, there are two main areas in your diet you’ll want to watch out for: 

• Firstly, you want to make sure that you’re not falling into a calorie deficit for your weight and height. 
• Second, make sure to incorporate high amounts of protein-rich foods in your diet. 

These two habits together help promote the production of muscle mass. Not falling into a calorie deficit will keep your body from breaking down muscle fibers and reducing your muscle mass. Proteins have amino acids which are responsible for promoting muscle growth and repair. By maintaining a proper caloric intake and ingesting an adequate protein supply, you establish favorable internal conditions that encourage muscle growth as a defense against atrophy.

Exercise and Muscle Atrophy 

According to Mayo Clinic’s Nathan K. LeBrasseur, Ph.D., “Without question, exercise is the most powerful intervention to address muscle loss, whether it occurs in the context of advancing age or debilitating chronic or acute diseases.”

Muscle atrophy occurs when a muscle group isn’t being used, so the body begins to break it down. By using the affected muscles, you can help prevent or reverse muscle atrophy. We are aware that if your atrophy is caused by an injury or degenerative disease, exercising may be a daunting task. However, there are several tools out there built specifically to help keep you active through these injuries and conditions. 

If you’re at risk for muscle atrophy due to an injury, disease, or even age, you may already be working with a physical therapist. They will be able to guide you through safe exercises you can do to help keep your muscles strong and maintain or gain mobility. One method your physical therapist may employ is passive movement. This technique involves the physical therapist manually moving the paralyzed or stiff limb in order to teach the muscles how to move again, helping to increase mobility and promoting healing. 

Another tool that we at MYOLYN specialize in is Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) exercise. FES is a method of using electrical currents to stimulate muscles to encourage movement and exercise. At MYOLYN, we offer the MyoCycle, an FES exercise device used for lower limb stimulation to prevent atrophy and promote mobility and independence. The MyoCycle allows you to continue exercise even with paralysis or limited mobility. Movement is essential to keep your body from atrophying your muscles; that’s why FES tools like the MyoCycle are integral in helping people remain independent and mobile while living with paralysis or limited mobility.  

Can Muscle Atrophy Be Reversed?

While it can be a complicated answer and dependent on the individual, for the most part, muscle atrophy can be reversed. Disuse muscle atrophy is the most respondent to reversal out of the different types of muscle atrophy. Pathological atrophy can also be reversed or at least managed through diet and exercise. 

Neurological atrophy tends to be the most severe type of atrophy and can be more difficult to reverse due to the direct damage to your nerves; however, tools such as the MyoCycle help retain or even build muscle mass to minimize the impacts of this. 

Some of our clients have had great success in reversing muscle atrophy with the MyoCycle. One of our success stories, Todd, had this to say about the MyoCycle, “Having a physical routine centered on my MyoCycle workout gives me the verve, the confidence, and the optimism to live fully with energy and, most importantly, with the independence I’ve always had.” To read more about our success with reversing muscle atrophy, read the full stories of our clients: Todd, Helen, and Peter. 

MYOLYN Can Help You Prevent Muscle Atrophy in Your Everyday Life

We want to make exercising an easy activity that you can incorporate into your day-to-day life to help prevent and reverse muscle atrophy. That’s why we offer the MyoCycle Home for use at home. The MyoCycle gives you the freedom to exercise and gain muscle strength all in the comfort of your own house. We want to make this tool accessible to everyone who needs it, so we offer insurance filing, grants, and financing so that you can start exercising without worrying about the price. If you want to see and experience the benefits of MyoCycle, reach out to us today for more information.