You know you're not in the best of health. After all, you've had your share of heart-related issues. However, you're still getting around and able to do most of the activities you did in the past. You're just moving a little slower.



But, you have noticed your shoulders are starting to look a little smaller and your legs a bit skinny. You shrug it off, telling yourself that it must be just due to your age.



Then, your balance and stability start to falter. You dismiss it. “It’s just one of those things,” you think.



The muscle loss continues. Your scale weight drops. On one hand, you feel good because your doctor’s been telling you to drop some weight for a while, but you don’t really look leaner in the mirror. You just look skinnier.



In jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, you look normal. In fact, some of your friends remark about how much weight you’ve lost, so you fool yourself into thinking it’s actually a good thing.



You get a blood test and your blood sugar is at pre-diabetic or diabetic levels. You wonder how that’s possible since you don’t have much of an appetite anymore, and barely eat anything. “It must be genetic,” you think. Your doctor wants you to get on a diabetes drug just to be safe.



You rarely feel energetic or enthusiastic. You don’t like the feeling. It’s not like you have a reason to feel depressed, but you do. Life is actually pretty good, so you don’t want to burden anyone by sharing how you feel. Maybe the feeling will pass.





If this sounds at all familiar, stop!



As bad as the above scenario sounds, it can get a lot worse.



This is what sarcopenia and cachexia sound and feel like. Sarcopenia is age-related muscle loss. Cachexia is accelerated, disease-related tissue loss. Neither is a good situation, but cachexia causes much more dramatic deterioration in your health.



In this article, I hope to open your eyes to the effects of age and disease-related tissue loss, and implore you to take action and extend your quality of life. 



Unfortunately, most doctors give little direction to their older adult patients, seeing their physical decline (and cognitive decline) as just a part of getting old.



In my opinion, this mindset would be like a football team giving up when they’re behind by two touchdowns after the first half of the game.



Although there are many different diseases connected to cachexia, and the strategies to slow it have similarities, I'm writing this article with the focus on cardiac cachexia because I believe a close family member with heart disease is dealing with cardiac cachexia right now. Perhaps you, or one of your family members is as well. 



Muscle And Quality Of Life



To think of muscle as something useful only for vanity or athletics is like thinking your brain is only good for math problems and trivia.



Here’s a handful ways muscle impacts your health, none of which relate to vanity or being the fittest man or woman in your age range.



Muscle provides strength, stamina, and balance for everyday movement. Muscle and its connection to your nervous system (the neuromuscular system) creates smooth, fluid movement so you can continue knocking golf balls down the fairway, write your name with the same handwriting you’ve used your whole adult life, or lift a soup spoon to your mouth without spilling on your chin.



Muscle protects and stabilizes your joints.Would you knowingly drive down the road with loose lug nuts on each of your tires? Of course that would be stupid. Yet, that’s what happens when you ignore the loss of muscle supporting your joints, and hope that you make it through the day without hurting something.



Like the giant cables that support a bridge, your muscles add support to your joints.



Muscle is the main storage area for glucose. Your liver and muscle tissue are the only places you can store glucose. When the tanks shrivel up, you either have to avoid carbs completely, which isn’t fun or realistic,