Dose Response of Whey and Soy Protein Ingestion With and Without Resistance Exercise in Elderly Men (NDC)

Responses of Muscle and Whole-body Protein Turnover to Ingestion of Differing Doses of Whey and Soy Protein With and Without Resistance Exercise in Elderly Men

When we age, we lose muscle. It is not exactly clear why this happens, but we do know that this muscle loss can increase health risks and lead to health problems. Lifting weights (i.e. performing resistance exercise) and proper nutrition, in particular eating enough high quality protein, can help slow the loss of muscle mass or potentially even reverse it. Protein and resistance exercise are thought to do this by stimulating your muscle to make more proteins and/or potentially by slowing down the rate at which your body breaks proteins down. Whey protein is a high quality protein isolated from milk and is known to stimulate new protein synthesis for all proteins in your body. However, to date, the effect that whey protein has on muscle protein synthesis, particularly in the elderly has yet to be determined. Thus the purposes of this study are: 1) to determine if whey is an effective source of protein that will stimulate muscle protein synthesis in the elderly, similar to what we have previously seen in young persons; 2) to determine the smallest amount of whey protein to consume to maximally stimulate your muscle to make new proteins; 3) to see if performing resistance exercise will augment the increase in new muscle protein synthesis with whey consumption; and 4) to try and found out if whey is more effective than soy protein in stimulating new muscle protein synthesis and suppressing muscle protein breakdown in the elderly, similar to what we have previously seen in young persons

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sarcopenia
• Intervention / Treatment: Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 81
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4K1
      • McMaster University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 60 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Male
• Aged 60 to 80 years old
• Non-smoker
• Generally healthy and can tolerate the resistance exercise and protein drink

Exclusion Criteria:

• Allergies to whey, casein or soy
• Health problems such as: heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis of the knee joint, diabetes, poor lung function, uncontrolled hypertension, or any health conditions that might put participants at risks for this study
• Failed clearance for exercise participation by their medical doctor
• Failed an exercise stress test
• Taking metformin and/or other medications for the control of blood glucose even though one might not be classified as diabetic
• Taking prescribed blood thinners such as warfarin and heparin but excluding aspirin
• Taking medications for lung and kidney conditions but excluding medication for asthma that is under control

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

7

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Control group 0 g protein; Control group in which a placebo drink containing no protein is given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 10g whey; 10g whey protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 20g whey; 20g whey protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 30g whey; 30g whey protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 40g whey; 40g whey protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 20g soy; 20g soy protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins
Experimental: 40g soy; 40g soy protein given following unilateral knee extension exercise	Dietary supplement: Whey or soy protein; Whey and casein are isolated milk proteins

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Muscle protein synthesis	Acute within the day
whole body amino acid oxidation	acute within the day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
muscle protein breakdown	Acute within the day
serum insulin	acute within the day
plasma amino acid concentrations	acute within the day

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: McMaster University
• Collaborators: National Dairy Council
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., McMaster University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2008
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 3, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 3, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): February 4, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): July 20, 2011
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2011
• Last Verified: July 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: muscle; resistance exercise; sarcopenia; muscle protein synthesis; protein; casein; unilateral; soy; whole body protein; whey; dose response; knee extension; muscle protein breakdown
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Neuromuscular Manifestations; Pathological Conditions, Anatomical; Muscular Atrophy; Atrophy; Sarcopenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: DMI 1484