Vitamins C & E Help Preserve Muscle and Strength in Older Women.

As people age, many will experience sarcopenia, the decreased muscle mass and strength that can accompany aging. Sarcopenia can reduce quality of life and increase risk of frailty, falls, fractures and death. This study set out to see if something as simple as vitamins C and E could help.

This 12 week double-blind study gave either a placebo or the antioxidant vitamins C and E to 60 women who were between 60 and 75 and who had sarcopenia and who were simultaneously doing resistance training.

The dose of vitamin C was 1g a day, and the dose of vitamin E was 335mg, or about 370IU.

At the beginning of the study, all 60 women had inadequate levels of vitamin C, and 57% had inadequate levels of vitamin E. By the end of the study, levels of both were adequate in the supplement group but not in the placebo group.

Encouragingly, after 12 weeks, the women in the vitamin C and E group had significantly greater improvement in arm lean mass, skeletal muscle mass, handgrip strength and knee extension strength than the women in the placebo group. They also had significantly greater improvement in markers of oxidative stress and inflammation.

This study has important implications for older adults. But the true implications may be even greater. Unfortunately, the study design used the synthetic dl-alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E. The results may have been even more dramatic had it used the superior natural d-alpha-tocopherol form.

Medicine (Baltimore). 2025 Aug 22;104(34):e43976.

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