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Muscle health is linked to how well people recover from illness, maintain independence as they age and retain strength and function during weight loss. But it isn't always a central consideration in clinical nutrition.

In a new expert review published in the journal Clinical Nutrition, researchers examine gaps in how muscle health is addressed in clinical nutrition and lay out a research agenda for moving the field forward.

"It's all about getting muscle health in the front of the discussion of patient health," said Dr. Nicolaas Deutz, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management at Texas A&M University and one of the review's co-authors.

In the review, the experts draw on existing research on muscle health across aging, cancer, critical illness, diabetes and obesity to consider how muscle health can be better incorporated into clinical nutrition.

Ultimately, the authors propose that "muscle health should be recognized as a central and measurable target of clinical nutrition rather than a secondary or downstream outcome."

Part of that shift, Deutz said, requires thinking differently about what it means to have healthy muscles.

Muscle mass is commonly used as an indicator, but the amount of muscle someone has does not necessarily tell clinicians how well it functions.

"Muscle health is how well you can use your muscles—muscle strength, persistence or endurance," Deutz said.

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