{"id":494257,"date":"2026-06-25T03:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494257\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:59:23","slug":"scientists-investigating-why-muscles-stop-bouncing-back-as-we-age-and-how-to-fix-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494257\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists investigating why muscles stop bouncing back as we age \u2014 and how to fix it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"T7PPYE42DJGW7L2W45JNBWKSSM\">CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 As people age, their muscles become less able to recover from inactivity, poor nutrition, illness or injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"XW5YQOCKTND2HMV6ZG4GWO7YXE\">Researchers led by Ohio University have received a five-year, $2.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health to study why that decline happens, including how skeletal muscle adapts to exercise and why those adaptations weaken with age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2IQDR2TEKVBCJF5Z4SK2YCTQBY\">The age-related progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function is called <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/diseases\/23167-sarcopenia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/diseases\/23167-sarcopenia\">sarcopenia.<\/a> It can make walking and climbing stairs harder, and it can increase the risk of falls and fractures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2NZ7C3DIEVBPTMJRCXDYGWEFIE\">Although exercise remains the primary treatment for preventing muscle decline, many older adults are unable to exercise effectively due to frailty or existing health conditions. Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs to treat sarcopenia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"6YIP45S3A5EZHPNYG4RNGGIIOQ\">\u201cThe population of older adults in the United States is growing rapidly, and with that comes an urgent need to better understand and address age-related muscle loss,\u201d said study leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohio.edu\/medicine\/about\/directory\/baumann\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ohio.edu\/medicine\/about\/directory\/baumann\">Cory Baumann,<\/a> OU assistant professor and investigator in the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute and the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Aging. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"JHQSSKRRGNBQBJ6A5A3ILC72WY\">\u201cOur research is focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that help muscles adapt and remain resilient,\u201d Baumann said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"DGYOQX5DEJAGVJVK7YT6RKCJYI\">The research focuses on two proteins \u2014 human antigen R (HuR) and myosin binding protein H (MyBP-H) \u2014 that early findings suggest may play a critical role in protecting muscles from exercise-related injury and improving muscle resilience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"HE2HUMWO6NB43L44I5CRXYGIXU\">The NIH-funded project will explore whether targeting the HuR-MyBP-H pathway can improve muscle adaptation and resilience across the lifespan, Ohio University said. Researchers will study how muscles respond to exercise injury, aging and recovery. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2S6CRDDYSZF3RLS6ODC4REWCTM\">The study will also examine whether MyBP-H can mimic the effects of exercise training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"LHSAPOVD35CUPILTUIFSCJ3VWY\">\u201cWe hope this work will ultimately lead to new therapeutic strategies that improve strength, mobility and quality of life for aging individuals, especially those who are unable to benefit fully from exercise alone,\u201d Baumann said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"576FWFSDSBHLXA5HX2KQ3PB3TY\">Collaborators on the project include researchers from the Ohio State University, Loyola University Chicago and the University of Maryland. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 As people age, their muscles become less able to recover from inactivity, poor nutrition, illness&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[565,134,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-494257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}