Introduction: During aging, body composition alters as muscle and bone mass decrease while fat mass increases. The simultaneous presence of these changes is called osteosarcopenic obesity, which is a triple disorder of bone, muscle, and fat tissue. This syndrome has adverse functional and metabolic outcomes compared to each of these conditions. This review study investigates osteosarcopenic obesity research.
Methods: In the current study, PubMed and Google Scholar databases searched using the keywords osteosarcopenic obesity, osteosarcopenic, osteosarcopenic obesity AND nutrition, osteosarcopenic obesity AND diet, osteosarcopenic obesity AND nutrient, and osteosarcopenic obesity AND supplement. Articles were included without restriction on study type, year, or language.
Results: It is estimated that one in ten middle-aged and elderly people suffers from osteosarcopenic obesity. The burden of this disease is higher in women and the elderly. Aging, genetic and epigenetic predisposition, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, a sedentary lifestyle, a poor diet, chronic stress, inadequate sleep, and some chronic diseases are the key causes of this obesity. Dysfunction, increased risk of falling and bone fracture, decreased quality of life, increased weakness, disability, and mortality are the main adverse effects of this syndrome. Lifestyle modification, especially dietary interventions, physical activity, and exercise, play an important role in preventing, managing, and treating osteosarcopenic obesity. This phenotype can be prevented or reduced through dietary modifications, such as adequate intake of protein, fiber, energy, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and foods high in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Conclusion: Healthy aging is a major health concern today. Preventing obesity and maintaining bone health and muscle mass are recommended to promote healthy aging. As a healthy lifestyle plays a critical role in healthy aging, it is imperative to adopt it to delay or prevent osteosarcopenic obesity. Improving health literacy, increasing physical activity, stress management, sufficient sleep, improving nutritional status, and diet quality are all part of the healthy lifestyle. Improving the quality of the diet plays a main role in maintaining health status during aging, both through the prevention of obesity and other mechanisms.