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An Ohio University researcher wants to see if the process of aging can be slowed in muscles
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — It’s no secret that the muscles in our body weaken with aging. But the questions of how and why, and whether this can be slowed down or even reversed, is the subject of new research at Ohio University.
Cory Baumann is an assistant professor of aging systems physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. He recently received a $2.9 million grant to study how this natural decline might be altered to preserve strength, mobility and independence for older adults.
Baumann sat down to speak with WOUB’s David Forster for “Modern Science.”
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
On how proteins affect the process of aging in muscles
“There are so many different proteins in muscle. Most people just think muscle, you think of a chunk of meat or something. But they don’t realize there’s thousands of different proteins in the muscle that have to perform specific functions in order to generate strength, adapt to an exercise, recover.
“If I can figure out what proteins are changing — maybe there’s too much of that protein or too little of that protein — we can maybe prime the muscle, set the muscle to a similar degree when it was younger. This way as this older muscle performs exercise, it adapts to the same degree, and you can continue doing that exercise and adapting.”
What could be done to alter the aging process in muscles
“When I think of individuals getting older, there’s healthy agers that can continue to exercise and do things. These individuals, let’s say they’re 60, they might say, ‘When I was 40, when I was 20, man, I could do that exercise. And I could the next day do it again.’ But now these individuals are saying, ‘Oh man, it takes me a week to recover.’ I could see it in regards to these healthy agers that are still able to perform exercise, that maybe there’s a way that we can turn these proteins on to mimic what they did when they’re younger.”
“Probably more importantly, this other population, let’s call them unhealthy agers. Maybe something happened. Maybe they developed weakness too early in life and they’re not able to perform exercise. They’re not able to get out and be physically active. I really see the work I’m doing targeting that population. These individuals are going to be the ones that are in the nursing home or health care center early in life. The goal would be to have a targeted intervention.”
“It probably would likely have to be a drug intervention that I would say could be coupled with activity or exercise.”
On the importance of remaining active as we age
“There’s no question we need to continue exercising as we get older. But what we can start to look at is getting the biggest bang for the buck when we exercise, right? When we get out there, let’s have that muscle adapt to the same degree it did when it was younger. Let’s be able to have that older individual bounce back two days later and say, ‘Man, I feel good. I’m ready to do again.'”
“If you can maintain this or be consistent throughout life, you are going to prevent that baseline weakness. Then also as you get older, if you continue this, you’re going to continue to function and more than likely be independent and be able to do things for a longer time that you enjoy.”
The first draft of the transcript used for this story was created in Adobe Podcast, which includes an AI transcription tool. A WOUB news editor then reviewed, corrected and reformatted the transcript before publication.