 You want to know how to stay jacked into your 70s and 80s? Bro, scientists tell you it's all about protein. Protein intake of 1.2 grams, 1.5 grams, 0.82 grams, 1.3 grams. But a new study done by scientists, scientists, indicates less protein could help you maintain muscle mass as you age. But before you start slapping steaks out of grandpa's mouth, you're going to want to hear the whole story. Welcome to Lifespan News. I'm Emmett Short. Today, we're talking about protein and muscle mass. Now, for the big controversy, researchers publishing in Age and Aging have found that rather than being protective, an increase in dietary protein is associated with an increased chance of sarcopenia. What is sarcopenia? It's a well-known disorder that occurs with aging and people with sarcopenia lack adequate muscular function and it leads to frailty and a high risk of falls and a decreased quality of life. Speaking of decreased quality of life, don't go vegan just yet. OK, let's break down some previous research and look at how this study was conducted. So previous research has found the phenomenon of anabolic resistance, where muscle protein is more difficult to synthesize for older adults. This led the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism to recommend that older adults consume 1 to 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of desired body weight a day. Right in line with the bro scientists. By the way, the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism's acronym is ESPEN. That makes no sense to me. Where did the P come from? Why is there no M? I like these guys because they're telling me to eat protein, but I am not a fan of their acronym. Anyway, this new study used data from the Twins UK cohort, a magical registry of almost 15,000 identical and fraternal twins and triplets and the researchers narrowed in on about 3,300 older adults that had detailed muscular data. As is usual for this kind of study, there was a lot of murky causal data. Aging, of course, is the primary association, but education, body mass index and income were all found to have associations with muscle strength, muscle mass and sarcopenia. Yeah, income and education. So take this all with a big grain of salt. The study found there was no significant association between muscle strength and protein intake one way or the other. Remember, we're talking about over 60 year olds here, but protein intake below the ESPN recommendation, so a low protein diet was significantly correlated with more muscle and less sarcopenia, strangely. Add that to the data showing higher protein intake than ESPN recommended was correlated with less muscle mass and more cases of sarcopenia. And we got ourselves a little mystery here. The statistical relationship between protein intake and sarcopenia was even further confirmed when analyzed according to shared twin factors like genetics, early life history and a bunch of other variables. The researchers did speculate about causality. One idea was that causality might be reversed, that people who suffer from sarcopenia might be eating more protein to try to treat their condition. The researchers thought this was unlikely because sarcopenia is seldom diagnosed, but you don't need a doctor to tell you you're getting thinner if you have a mirror. Just saying. Another explanation was that diets high in protein might also be high in inflammatory or other negative factors that promote sarcopenia. So it might be the type of protein that was causing the results instead of protein in general. As suspect as these findings are, this study does throw doubt on the conventional wisdom surrounding protein and sarcopenia, and it might result in re-evaluations of dietary health guidelines. Could be a big deal. Now, this is an association study that does not prove causation, but it makes it clear that simply eating more protein is not likely to protect anyone against developing sarcopenia. Exercise might be somewhat effective in fighting back against this disease, but more fundamental biological interventions are likely to be required, aka pharmaceuticals, to actually prevent it for good. What do you think? Is this going to change how much protein you eat? Let us know in the comments and make sure you subscribe and hit the bell so you can stay up to date on aging research. I'm Emma Short and we'll see you next time on Lifespan News.