Browse the evidence

Among individual lifestyle factors, smoking cessation provides the largest survival benefit and life expectancy gain for individuals with multimorbidity, outweighing the benefits of physical activity, diet, or alcohol moderation.

If you smoke, quitting is the most powerful single action you can take to extend your life, especially if you have chronic conditions. It can add nearly 5-6 years to your life expectancy, far more than diet or exercise changes alone.

Management of insulin resistance through lifestyle interventions (diet and exercise) and pharmacological agents is effective, although no medication is currently specifically approved solely for treating insulin resistance.

Focus on sustainable lifestyle changes: eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. These are the proven ways to manage insulin resistance. Do not wait for a specific 'IR medication' as none exists; use existing tools like Metformin only if prescribed for diabetes or other conditions.

Emotional eating mediates the association between depression and long-term weight gain (BMI and waist circumference), with this effect being significantly moderated by sleep duration such that short sleepers (<7h) are particularly vulnerable.

If you struggle with emotional eating and have depressive symptoms, prioritize getting 7+ hours of sleep. Short sleep duration significantly amplifies the link between your emotions and your weight gain. Managing sleep may be as critical as managing stress or diet for this specific group.

Government-imposed pandemic containment strategies, including lockdowns and social distancing, cause a significant decline in physical activity across all age groups and genders.

Pandemic restrictions significantly reduce physical activity for most people, regardless of age or gender. To mitigate this, seek out alternative forms of exercise like digital training or home workouts, as maintaining activity is crucial for preventing negative health outcomes during lockdowns.

Off-farm income is a critical mechanism for smoothing food consumption and maintaining dietary diversity during the lean season.

Diversify your income sources. Do not rely solely on farm sales. Engage in off-farm activities (wage labor, small business) to generate cash for buying food, especially during the lean season when your own production is depleted.

U.S. adults are reporting significantly shorter sleep durations (≤6 hours) with a statistically significant increasing trend beginning in 2013, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic populations.

If you are an adult in the U.S., you are likely sleeping less than you think, specifically if you are Black or Hispanic. The data shows a sharp rise in short sleep (under 6 hours) starting in 2013. To counter this, you must actively manage environmental factors: limit smartphone use before bed and address sources of economic or social stress, as these are the primary drivers of the observed trend.

Digital Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (dCBT-I) is a cost-effective and viable method for delivering CBT-I at scale, potentially reducing healthcare expenditures.

If you cannot access a therapist for CBT-I, look for validated digital CBT-I programs. They are increasingly recognized as cost-effective and can provide the same core therapeutic benefits.

Implementing specific health taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages at rates of 20% or higher significantly reduces consumption and improves population health outcomes, whereas lower rates (<20%) generally fail to produce meaningful behavioral change.

To effectively reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, policymakers must implement specific taxes that raise the shelf price by at least 20%. Lower taxes (under 20%) are ineffective because consumers do not react to small price increases, especially if the tax is not clearly visible on the shelf. To mitigate political backlash regarding the regressive nature of these taxes, revenues should be earmarked for health-related spending or subsidies for healthy foods.

Previous race experience, specifically the number of ultra-marathon finishes and personal best marathon time, is the most important predictor of successful ultra-marathon performance.

If you are new to ultra-running, prioritize completing shorter ultra-distances to gain experience. Your personal best marathon time and the number of ultras you have finished are better predictors of your future success than your current fitness level alone. Start with shorter ultras to build this specific experience.

Environmental interventions that reduce the availability or increase the price of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) significantly decrease SSB consumption and sales.

To reduce sugar-sweetened beverage intake, change the environment rather than relying on willpower. Make healthy drinks (water, diet) the default and easy to find, while making SSBs harder to find or more expensive. This works for individuals (home delivery of water) and communities (school policies, store promotions).

Females bear a disproportionately higher burden of malnutrition-related mortality and DALYs compared to males, while males experience higher obesity-related DALYs, indicating sex-specific vulnerabilities in the double burden of disease.

Nutrition and health policies must be sex-specific. Women face higher risks of malnutrition due to biological needs and social inequities in food access, while men face higher risks of obesity. Interventions should address these distinct vulnerabilities rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Physical inactivity is significantly higher among women and girls in Arab countries compared to men and boys, a disparity driven by specific socio-cultural factors.

If you are a woman in an Arab country, you may face unique cultural barriers to exercise. Seek out gender-segregated facilities or female-only fitness programs to overcome these obstacles. Recognize that your inactivity levels may be higher than men's due to social factors, not just personal choice.

Exercise induces WAT browning via the myokine Irisin, leading to increased energy expenditure and improved insulin sensitivity.

Regular exercise not only burns calories but also transforms white fat into beige fat, which burns energy more efficiently. This process, driven by proteins like Irisin, improves insulin sensitivity and helps manage body weight.

The Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0) is a psychometrically valid, 13-item screening tool that performs similarly to the full 35-item YFAS 2.0 in assessing addictive-like eating behaviors, making it suitable for large-scale studies where participant burden is a concern.

If you are designing a study or assessment on eating behaviors and need to minimize participant burden, use the mYFAS 2.0. It is a 13-item questionnaire that has been validated to perform similarly to the longer 35-item version, providing reliable data on addictive-like eating patterns without requiring excessive time from participants.

Current smoking is the primary modifiable risk factor for hip fracture burden, contributing to 7.5% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost, followed by physical inactivity (5.5%) and type 2 diabetes (2.8%).

To reduce your risk of hip fracture and the associated loss of healthy life, prioritize quitting smoking and maintaining regular vigorous physical activity. These two behaviors account for the majority of preventable hip fracture burden in older adults. While maintaining a healthy weight is important, note that this study suggests higher BMI (up to obesity levels) may mechanically protect against hip fractures, though this comes with other health risks.

Physical inactivity (abstaining from vigorous activity) is the second largest modifiable risk factor for hip fracture burden, accounting for 5.5% of DALYs lost.

Engage in vigorous physical activity regularly. This study identifies physical inactivity as a major contributor to hip fracture risk. While specific exercise prescriptions are not detailed here, the association is strong enough to warrant prioritizing vigorous activity as a primary prevention strategy for hip health.

Daily sedentary time is log-linearly associated with increased all-cause mortality in adults, with a mortality risk cut-off of 7 hours per day for self-reported measures and 9 hours per day for device-based measures.

Aim to keep your total daily sitting time under 7 hours if possible. If you use a fitness tracker, note that the risk threshold appears to be around 9 hours, but self-reported data suggests risk starts rising earlier. Since the risk increases log-linearly, every hour saved above these thresholds reduces mortality risk. Prioritize breaking up long sitting periods with standing or light movement.

Caffeine intake, alcohol consumption, and irregular sleep-wake patterns reduce sleep quality in college students.

Limit caffeine and alcohol intake, and try to maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule to improve sleep quality.

Step intensity, specifically 'peak-30 cadence' (fastest 30 minutes of walking per day), provides additional risk reduction for mortality and morbidity beyond total step count.

Try to walk briskly for short bursts during your day. You don't need to exercise formally; just walk faster for 30 minutes total (consecutive or not). This 'peak-30' intensity adds extra protection against heart disease and cancer on top of just walking more steps.

Leaving formal education during early adulthood causes a significant increase in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and confectionery.

When you finish school or university, your diet is likely to get worse, specifically regarding sugary drinks and sweets. This is because you lose the structure of school. To prevent this, anticipate the change, limit your access to sugary drinks at home or work, and replace the 'snacking' habit with healthier alternatives during your new free time.

Interpretive front-of-package labels (Nutri-Score, Multiple Traffic Lights, Health Star Rating, Warning symbol) significantly improve consumers' objective ability to rank food products by nutritional quality compared to no label, with summary graded labels (Nutri-Score) outperforming nutrient-specific numeric labels (Reference Intakes).

Choose products with interpretive front-of-package labels (like Nutri-Score or Traffic Lights) over those with only numeric Reference Intakes. These labels make it significantly easier to correctly identify healthier options, especially for complex items like cakes and cereals. The summary graded design (e.g., A-E scale) is more effective than raw nutrient data.

Actigraphy provides a valid, cost-effective, and less invasive alternative to polysomnography (PSG) for estimating sleep parameters in population-based epidemiological studies, with agreement rates of 91-93% in adults.

For tracking sleep in real-world settings, use an actigraphy device (wrist-worn accelerometer). It is a validated, non-invasive, and cost-effective method to estimate sleep duration and efficiency, especially when studying large groups or long-term patterns where lab-based PSG is impossible.

Sleep scoring algorithms (e.g., Cole-Kripke, UCSD, Sadeh) convert wrist movement data into sleep/wake scores using weighted activity counts, but these algorithms can misclassify quiet wakefulness as sleep, leading to inaccurate sleep onset latency estimates.

When using actigraphy, be aware that standard algorithms may mistake quiet wakefulness for sleep, potentially underestimating how long it takes to fall asleep (Sleep Onset Latency). For more accurate SOL, consider using sleep diaries or event markers to supplement the device data.

Using sleep diaries or event markers to define Time in Bed (TIB) and Sleep Period (SLP) significantly improves the accuracy of actigraphy-derived sleep parameters compared to using algorithm-defined boundaries alone.

To get the most accurate sleep data from your actigraphy device, use the event marker button or a sleep diary to log when you get in bed, turn off the lights, and get up. This helps the device distinguish between 'time in bed' and 'actual sleep time,' correcting for errors in sleep latency and efficiency calculations.