Animal-sourced whey protein (WPr) is the most popular protein supplement among consumers and has been shown to improve muscle mass and strength. However, due to allergies, dietary restrictions/personal choices, and growing demand, alternative protein sources are warranted. Sedentary adults were randomized to pea protein (PPr) or WPr in combination with a weekly resistance training program for 84 days. Changes in whole-body muscle strength (WBMS) including handgrip, lower body, and upper body strength, body composition, and product perception were assessed. The safety outcomes included adverse events, vital signs, clinical chemistry, and hematology. There were no significant differences in the change in WBMS, muscle mass, or product perception and likability scores between the PPr and WPr groups. The participants supplemented with PPr had a 16.1% improvement in WBMS following 84 days of supplementation (p = 0.01), while those taking WPr had an improvement of 11.1% (p = 0.06). Both study products were safe and well-tolerated in the enrolled population. Eighty-four days of PPr supplementation resulted in improvements in strength and muscle mass comparable to WPr when combined with a resistance training program in a population of healthy sedentary adults. PPr may be considered as a viable alternative to animal-sourced WPr without sacrificing muscular gains and product enjoyment.

UNASSIGNED: Hand grip strength (HGS) is gaining the attention of researchers and clinicians, including geriatricians as a readily available, inexpensive, and useful measure of muscle strength.
UNASSIGNED: To identify the indicators of abnormal HGS as measured by a Jamar handheld dynamometer in community-dwelling Egyptian senior citizens.
UNASSIGNED: The study was approved by the relevant ethical committee. This cross-sectional study included 200 randomly selected older adults of both sexes who attended geriatric and internal medicine outpatient clinics. Informed consent was obtained, and comprehensive geriatric assessment was performed, including assessment of the health-related quality of life by the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12).
UNASSIGNED: HGS was measured, and values of 20 kg or less in females and 30 kg or less in males were considered abnormal.
UNASSIGNED: IBM SPSS statistics v25.0 was used for data analysis. Data were expressed as the mean ± SD for quantitative parametric measures and as the number and percentage for categorical data. Student\'s t-test, the chi-squared test, the diagnostic validity test, and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed. The ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve was constructed, and the AUC (area under the curve) was also calculated.
UNASSIGNED: The subjects\' ages ranged from 60 to 95 years with a mean age of 69 ± SD 7.1 years. The sample consisted of 117 females (58.5%) and 83 males (41.5%). The chi-squared test showed that abnormal findings for grip strength were significantly more common among females than males (67.7% vs 32.3%). Student\'s t-test showed that both height and weight were significantly lower among subjects with abnormal than normal HGS, while body mass index (BMI) showed a non-significant difference. Stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis showed that there was no actual relationship between sex and abnormality of HGS.
UNASSIGNED: The best indicators of abnormal HGS were found to be a general health score below 25 points on the SF-12 and a height of less than 178 cm. As the values of general health and height decrease below those cut-off points, HGS decreases as well, and vice versa.

Cognitive and neurocognitive approaches to human healthy aging attribute age-related decline to the biologically caused loss of cognitive-control functions. However, an embodied-cognition approach to aging implies a more interactive view according to which cognitive control emerges from, and relies on a person\'s active encounters with his or her physical and social environment. We argue that the availability of cognitive-control resources does not only rely on biological processes but also on the degree of active maintenance, that is, on the systematic use of the available control resources. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the degree of actual use might systematically underestimate resource availability, which implies that elderly individuals do not fully exploit their cognitive potential. We discuss evidence for this possibility from three aging-related issues: the reduction of dopaminergic supply, loneliness, and the loss of body strength. All three phenomena point to a downward spiral, in which losses of cognitive-control resources do not only directly impair performance but also more indirectly discourage individuals from making use of them, which in turn suggests underuse and a lack of maintenance-leading to further loss. On the positive side, the possibility of underuse points to not yet fully exploited reservoirs of cognitive control, which calls for more systematic theorizing and experimentation on how cognitive control can be enhanced, as well as for reconsiderations of societal practices that are likely to undermine the active maintenance of control resources-such as retirement laws.