Muscle

With an eye to improving quality of life for the elderly and frail, scientists at the National University of Singapore have discovered a molecule that can promote muscle health when subjected to weak magnetic fields.

Even though we're warned about the harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight, they're essential for the production of vitamin D in the body. Now, scientists are claiming that UV LEDs could serve as a safe alternative to sunlight.

The results of an interesting experiment in which muscled-up mice were sent into space has shed some new light on how the low-gravity environment impacts physiology, with the rodents retaining muscle mass when engineered to lack a certain protein.

By triggering receptors on a fast-burning form of fat, researchers were able to give older mice less fat and more muscle, making them as healthy as much younger mice. And better yet, humans seem to have a similar pathway.

A new study has delved into the mechanics of muscle maintenance, finding that even short stints on a bike can boost the activity of “death marker protein,” which clears out damaged muscle proteins to keep things in working order.

Adding to our pool of knowledge around exercise and aging is a team of medical scientists at Stanford University, which has demonstrated how regular exercise can breathe new life into the stem cells responsible for muscle repair in old mice.

“Use it or lose it” applies to muscles, but unfortunately so does “don’t use it too much or lose it.” Now, researchers at Temple University have tested a drug that appears to reverse muscle damage from overuse injuries in rats.

When someone suffers a loss of skeletal muscle, it can be very difficult getting new muscle to grow in its place. A new handheld device is designed to help, however, by directly depositing scaffolding within the patient's body.

For people such as the elderly, injured or physically challenged, getting enough exercise can be difficult. Help may be on its way, however, as new research indicates that an existing protein provides some of the key benefits of exercise.

The ability of Grizzly bears to hibernate for up to four months without ill effects may be the key to helping prevent astronauts and medical patients from suffering debilitating muscle atrophy through the development of genetically-derived therapies.

A new imaging study has discovered that lizard-like muscles temporarily develop in embryos across the early weeks of gestation before disappearing.

​Tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and "mouse arm" all have two things in common: they're the result of muscle strain, and they're the subject of a new wearable. Known as MLI Elbow, the Danish device is aimed at alerting users to actions that could cause such injuries.