Hi, my name is Ena Cople and I'm the owner of Woodmere Fitness Club.

Is this what we are destined to become in our old age?

A frail version of ourselves?

This woman has aged poorly into late life.

She has problems with mobility.

She needs a walker to move around.

She can't fend for herself or go to the bathroom on her own, and she can't even prepare food for herself.

Her basic functions have deteriorated at an alarming rate. Not only is

she unable to fend for herself, but she will immediately fall without the support of her

walker. She will lose balance and become vulnerable to more falls, which increase the risk of

hip fractures and surgeries, hospitalization, and finally, death.

When this woman needs to cook or use her phone or get her cane into the right position

so that she can help herself around the house, she struggles and fails

because she has lost valuable motor processing skills.

Frailty is also associated with confusion and people

who are frail are more at risk for dementia. But this woman didn't wake up like

this. This is a result of many years of decline. It's possible that sarcopenia, a

loss of muscle mass, is the major factor that leads to the other factors in the frailty syndrome.

The problem starts in your fourth decade of life, with about half of your muscle mass breaking down by the eighth decade.

And since about 60% of your body's total mass is comprised of muscle. That means that changes to this structure

can have profound consequences metabolically with insulin resistance and diabetes, as well

as functionally with frailty and dementia. But fortunately, there is something you can do about

...