News Tonight Africa

It is well known fact that weakened muscles present a major problem in old age. It has a major impact on our health as well as life too. In old-age, loss of muscle mass and strength is caused due a protein called ATF4. The protein production is due to gene changes in skeletal muscle. Researchers revealed that both Apple and Tomato can improve the body function to deal with muscle weakness.

It is a common saying that "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" but a few people know that the compounds available in tomato also help in preventing muscle loss. Researchers from the University of Iowa have found a compound in both apple peel and green tomato that may significantly improve the body's defense mechanism against muscle loss.

Researchers conducted an experiment on the elderly mice to study the effects of ursolic acid from apple peels and tomatidine from green tomatoes. For about two months, the animals were fed diets containing or lacking 0.27 percent ursolic acid or 0.05 percent tomatidine. Findings elucidated that both the components increased muscle mass by about 10 percent and muscle strength by up to 30 percent and also helped to gain the muscle ability in young adults. Moreover, researchers also found that with regular intake of apple peel and tomato juice, the compounds helped to deactivate the transcription factor ATF4.

So, ursolic acid and tomatidine appear to be essential tools for dealing with muscle weakness and atrophy during aging. These compounds are also helpful in reducing ATF4 activity to recover muscle weakness that usually happens during old-age.