The first baby boomers turned 65 in 2011. As more of the boomer generation reaches retirement age, the number of consumers 65-plus in the United States will burgeon from 40 million in 2010 to 72 million in 2030. Similar statistics can be seen around the world, with the highest percentages of seniors in Japan and Western Europe, and the highest population of seniors in China, whose citizenry swelled to 132 million people age 65-plus in 2011.
One of the many challenges that seniors face is muscle wasting, also known as “sarcopenia,” from the Greek word meaning “poverty of the flesh.” After age 40, adults can lose muscle mass at a rate of up to 1% a year.