As some point in your life, you may have to deal with a major surgery or serious illness. There may be a phase in your treatment when nutritional therapy is part of your care, but more likely than not you will be on your own for taking care of your nutritional needs.
This is particularly true for recovery from orthopedic surgery that many of us need as we age. It is also the case in recovery from any type of serious illness, ranging from a bad case of the flu to something so serious that you end up in intensive care.
Even with the recognized importance of the role of nutrition in cancer recovery, detailed nutritional advice is rarely provided in standard treatment programs.
Muscle loss as a result of serious injury or illness is far more severe than the result of aging. With aging, the loss of muscle mass is slow and occurs over many years. A serious illness or injury on the other hand, causes muscle loss in a matter of days or weeks.
Because the rate of muscle loss with aging is so slow, it is difficult to determine the underlying cause for the loss. But with injury or serious illness, the exact cause is usually known.
This rapid loss of muscle is part of an overall response that can be considered a "physiological" stress response. There are two primary and common aspects of a stress response, no matter what the underlying cause (ie. cancer, injury, or surgery) might have been that directly affect your muscles. These are the following:
1. Muscle loss, which is much faster than usually occurs from not eating food.
2. Loss of appetite, which leads to further decreased nutritional intake.
The rapid loss of muscle protein reflects an imbalance between the rates of protein synthesis and breakdown. It is like fast-forwarding aging!!
This imbalance between protein synthesis and breakdown is caused by a massive increase in the rate of muscle protein breakdown, sometimes 3X the usual rate. The body does try to balance this by stimulating muscle protein synthesis, but it is not enough.
The stress response also kills the appetite so much that it is hard to eat any food. Even when you do force yourself to eat or rely on meal replacement beverages, you see little or no beneficial response.
The end result of these two debilitating factors is muscle loss and usually on a large scale.
The catastrophic results of a stress response are an excellent example of why the balance between the rates of synthesis and breakdown is so important.
But after a stress response situation where rapid muscle loss has occurred, is it possible for the body to bound back?
The answer is YES! But the body needs a little help.
Eating the right foods and proteins will help, but the resulting shift back toward balance will take a long time... without the aid of essential amino acids (MyoHealth).
One result of the stress response and severe muscle loss is that the body is unable to process essential amino acids like it usually can. It is like filling up a glass with water, but when you turn around to drink it all but a tablespoon has leaked out.
A meal or protein beverage is unable to give your body the essential amino acids it needs after a severe stress response.
This is what you should do... You need to flood your body with nine essential amino acids (MyoHealth) which contains the right balance and ration of essential amino acids.
That is the only way to counter balance the extreme muscle loss. By doing so, you will reactivate the molecules that are involved in initiating protein synthesis.
By consuming MyoHealth, this essential amino acids formula will provide your body more essential amino acids that you can get from food alone, your blood and muscle concentrations will reach high enough levels to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
In addition, if enough of MyoHealth is consumed, the concentrations will rise high enough to stop the muscle protein breakdown, as a direct result, your body is able to bounce back!!
