Essential Amino Acids and Exercise Tolerance in Elderly Muscle-Depleted Subjects with Chronic Diseases: A Rehabilitation without Rehabilitation?

Table 4

Some similarities between the effects of exercise therapy and those following EAA supplementation.

Measures	Exercise therapy [1, 5]	EAA supplementation
Exercise capacity
Maximal oxygen uptake	Increased	Increased
Six-minute walk distance	Increased	Increased
Anaerobic threshold	Increased	Increased*
Maximal incremental exercise duration	Increased	Increased
Resting ejection fraction	Unchanged or slight increase	Slight, significant increase
Resting lactate production	n.d.	Reduced
Muscle structure and function
Muscle cross-sectional area	Increased	Increased^∧
Muscle fiber size	Increased	Increased^∧
Number of type I muscle fibers	Increased	Increased^∧
Mitochondrial numbers	Increased	Increased^∧
Mitochondrial cristae density	Increased	Increased^∧
Muscle dynamic strength	Increased	Increased^∧
Muscle fatigability	Reduced	Reduced^∧

∗Inferred from improved recovery time of maximal oxygen uptake to baseline value [26]; ∧in animals [15–20].
n.d.: not determined.