Muscle loss is more common than diabetes in old age. Here’s how to avoid it

Robert Catanese anticipated some learning curves when he took on part-time garden maintenance work, but he wasn’t expecting to uncover a previously unnoticed health issue.

“I worked in middle management at a bank for 40 years, so the new job is far more active. I’m bending down doing weeding, I’m doing a lot more walking, and holding and using a lot of garden maintenance tools,” says the Sydney-based 66-year-old.

“I was feeling that my body was getting weaker, that I just didn’t have the strength; some of these tasks were hard to do, and I was experiencing a few aches and pains so I went to my GP, who told me I was experiencing muscle loss.”

Catanese is far from alone. The National Muscle Health Survey, conducted in 2024 by Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), found that one in five Australians aged over 60 are living with muscle loss, a condition also known as sarcopenia.

This rate is higher than the prevalence of diabetes, which at 18.7 per cent, is one of the most common health conditions among older Australians.

Professor David Scott, one of the study’s researchers, says people gradually lose muscle mass and strength from their mid-30s.

“These losses accelerate as we get older and can result in the development of the age-related muscle disease known as sarcopenia,” Scott says. “A person may be diagnosed … if their muscle mass and strength decline to levels low enough to impact their health and ability to live independently.”

In addition to age, there are numerous red flags that can indicate or cause deterioration in muscle health.

“If you have a sudden weight loss, including from GLP-1 medications, a substantial proportion of that weight loss will be muscle,” Scott says.

People with sedentary lifestyles, poor diets or chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancers can also experience muscle loss, as can events such as surgery or being bedridden with the flu, which reduce physical activity.

General practitioner Dr Jeremy Keh says that like Catanese’s case, sarcopenia is often silent.

“It creeps up on people; a patient will come to me and will say, ‘Look, I just feel I’m getting older, or things are becoming more difficult’,” he says.

“When they say holding a cup or opening a jar is more difficult or, ‘I’m having trouble getting up and down from a chair’, those are the signs that tell me straight away that their muscle mass is decreasing.”

If left unmanaged, sarcopenia may lead to physical disability, wheelchair necessity and falls, which in turn can cause broken bones and can limit