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The additive effects of exercise and essential amino acid on muscle mass and strength in community-dwelling older Japanese women with muscle mass decline, but not weakness and slowness: a randomized controlled and placebo trial

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Abstract

Background

Exercise and essential amino acid supplementation have been separately shown to improve muscle mass in elderly people, however, the combined, added effects of both interventions have yielded inconsistent results on muscle mass, strength, and physical function improvement.

Aims

To investigate the additive effects of exercise and essential amino acid supplementation on muscle mass, strength, and walking ability in older Japanese women with muscle mass decline, but not weakness and slowness.

Methods

One hundred thirty women over 65 years of age were defined as having muscle decline and randomly assigned into two groups; exercise and amino acid supplementation (n = 65) or exercise and placebo supplementation (n = 65). The exercise group attended a 60-min comprehensive training program once a week and were encouraged to perform a home-based exercise program. The amino acid or placebo group ingested a 3 g supplement daily for 3-month. Body composition was determined by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Interview data and functional fitness measurements, such as muscle strength and walking ability were collected at baseline and after the 3-month intervention.

Results

There were no significant group × time interactions in primary outcomes such as muscle mass and strength. However, interactions were observed in the degree of low back discomfort (P = 0.014). Percent change of low back discomfort was significantly greater in exercise + amino acid group compared with exercise + placebo group.

Conclusions

The combination of exercise and amino acid supplementation had a beneficial effect on low back discomfort. However, additional effects were not observed in primary outcomes including muscle mass and strength in this population.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all participants in the study.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Ajinomoto Consigned Research Fund. The study design, participant selection, intervention design, data collection and data interpretation, and manuscript preparation were carried out by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, without the involvement of the funders. The funders provided the essential amino acid supplementation and will use the data published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Team for Promoting Independence and Mental Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, 35-2 Sakaecho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0015, Japan

    Hunkyung Kim, Narumi Kojima & Yosuke Osuka

  2. Ajinomoto Co, Inc., Kawasaki, Japan

    Ryo Uchida, Shinji Somekawa, Naohiko Inoue & Hisamine Kobayashi

Authors
  1. Hunkyung Kim
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  2. Narumi Kojima
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  3. Ryo Uchida
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  4. Shinji Somekawa
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  5. Naohiko Inoue
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  6. Hisamine Kobayashi
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  7. Yosuke Osuka
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Contributions

HK: study concept and design, subject recruitment, developed the exercise treatment, analysis and interpretation of data, and preparation of the manuscript. NK: assisted in data collection and exercise treatment. RU: provided the placebo and essential amino acid supplementation. SS: provided the placebo and essential amino acid supplementation. NI: provided the placebo and essential amino acid supplementation. HK: provided the placebo and essential amino acid supplementation. YO: assisted in data collection and exercise treatment.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hunkyung Kim.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have the following interests: R Uchida, S Somekawa, N Inoue, and H Kobayashi are employed by Ajinomoto Co, Inc., which provided the essential amino acid supplementation. The terms of the arrangement have been reviews and approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology in accordance with its policy on objectivity in research. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. No personnel from Ajinomoto Co, Inc., were involved in the study concept, design, participant selection, intervention design, data collection, data interpretation, or manuscript preparation.

Ethics approval

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Clinical Registration Number

Japan Medical Association Center for Clinical Trials ID: JMA-IIA00378 on August 24, 2018.

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Kim, H., Kojima, N., Uchida, R. et al. The additive effects of exercise and essential amino acid on muscle mass and strength in community-dwelling older Japanese women with muscle mass decline, but not weakness and slowness: a randomized controlled and placebo trial. Aging Clin Exp Res 33, 1841–1852 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01713-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01713-x

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