A Korean study has confirmed that sufficiently supplementing vitamin D is as effective as exercise in preventing sarcopenia in older adults.

Sarcopenia is a condition that threatens health in old age due to abnormal loss of muscle volume, strength, and muscle function. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified sarcopenia as a disease in 2016, and it became an official disease in Korea in 2021.

The National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) said Friday that a team of researchers from the Endocrine and Kidney Diseases Research Division has identified vitamin D to prevent and improve sarcopenia in older adults, focusing on its effectiveness in improving sarcopenia.

Muscle sarcopenia threatens healthy aging by contributing to mobility impairment and geriatric diseases, including diabetes and metabolic disorders. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to chronic diseases due to the decline in homeostasis that occurs with aging, making them more susceptible to chronic diseases.

The researchers found a link between vitamin D and myokines, which regulate sarcopenia. When you exercise, your muscles release myokines, which are muscle hormones that regulate muscle function and affect muscle performance, metabolic regulation, and inflammation in the brain, liver, and fat.

Studies have shown that the amount of apelin and its receptor decreases dramatically with age. Apelin is a 77-amino acid peptide that binds to the G-protein-coupled receptor APJ to improve muscle function and regeneration.

In addition, supplementation with vitamin D (20,000 IU/kg) improved muscle function due to increased blood levels of apelin and expression of its receptor. The vitamin D-induced improvement in muscle function was similar to that of exercise.

Notably, the study revealed for the first time that vitamin D directly regulates the expression of the muscle hormone apelin and its receptor to prevent and improve sarcopenia, thus identifying the mechanism of vitamin D's preventive effect on sarcopenia.

“This is a meaningful study that directly reveals the prevention of sarcopenia through vitamin D intake and its mechanism, similar to the effect of exercise in the elderly,” NECA President Park Hyun-young said. “It is expected that sufficient vitamin D intake can improve health longevity by preventing the occurrence of sarcopenia.”