A hospital stay can result in the loss of muscle mass, but you can rebuilt it
By Wendy Haaf
Photo: iStock/helovi
Whey protein may be a better option than collagen for recouping the type of muscle loss that older adults can experience during hospitalization, according to Canadian researchers.
In a trial, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, randomly assigned 31 healthy adults in their late 60s to receive one of two protein supplements (totalling double the current recommended intake of 0.8 g/kg of body weight) twice a day: half got collagen peptides and the other half got whey protein.
While both groups lost lean leg muscle in conditions mimicking a hospital stay (walking a maximum of
750 steps a day and cutting 500 calories a day), only the whey group regained it during the one-week recovery period.
The results of the trial were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
