Browse the evidence

Mobility difficulties, pain, depression, and sleep problems are significant mediators explaining the association between chronic conditions/multimorbidity and low physical activity in older adults (≥50 years) in LMICs.

For older adults in LMICs with chronic conditions, simply diagnosing the condition isn't enough to increase physical activity. Healthcare providers must also assess and address mobility difficulties, pain, depression, and sleep problems, as these are the primary barriers preventing activity. Interventions should target these mediators to be effective.

Current food fortification and dietary supplement programs in the Middle East are sporadic and ineffective, failing to address the high prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies.

Do not rely solely on government food fortification to meet your micronutrient needs, as these programs are inconsistent in the region. You may need to take dietary supplements and get regular blood tests to ensure you are meeting your requirements for vitamins and minerals.

Obesity prevalence among nurses in England (25.1%) is significantly higher than among other healthcare professionals (14.4%) and unregistered care workers (31.9%), yet statistically equivalent to the general working population (23.5%).

If you work in healthcare, your professional status does not protect you from obesity. The study shows nurses are just as likely to be obese as the general public. To improve your health and job performance, you must actively manage your weight through diet and exercise, as workplace factors like shift work and limited food options contribute to the problem.

The duration of uninterrupted sedentary bouts (prolonged sitting) is not significantly associated with cancer mortality risk after adjusting for MVPA and other covariates.

Don't stress too much about sitting for long uninterrupted periods if you are already reducing your total daily sitting time. The total volume of sitting is the primary driver of cancer mortality risk in this study, not necessarily how long you sit without moving.

Current medical education in the United States fails to provide adequate nutrition training, with most medical schools providing less than the recommended 25 hours of instruction and residency programs largely lacking formal nutrition curricula.

Physicians need structured, integrated nutrition training throughout medical school and residency, not just a single course, to feel confident and competent in counseling patients.

Systematic screening for NAFLD is not recommended by the AASLD even in high-risk populations due to lack of effective drug treatments, cost-effectiveness concerns, and unclear long-term benefits.

In the US, you likely won't be systematically screened for NAFLD even if you have diabetes, because there are no approved drugs for it yet. Focus on managing your metabolic health instead.

Consumer acceptance of alternative proteins is significantly hindered by sensory challenges, including inferior taste, texture, and off-flavors, which are difficult to replicate compared to animal meat.

If you are trying alternative proteins, manage your expectations regarding taste and texture. They may not perfectly replicate meat. Experiment with different brands and recipes to find ones you enjoy.

Standardized Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics for nutrition and health in the food and beverage sector are currently available but exhibit substantial heterogeneity in quality, domain coverage, and strength, limiting their ability to drive scalable public health impact.

For investors and policymakers, the current landscape of ESG nutrition metrics is fragmented. To drive real health outcomes, stakeholders must prioritize frameworks that use standardized, quantitative definitions of product healthfulness (e.g., using Nutrient Profiling Systems) and ensure equitable distribution of healthy foods. Simply having an ESG policy is insufficient; the metrics must be rigorous, verifiable, and aligned with scientific dietary guidelines.

Public awareness of the clinical success of anti-obesity medications (AOMs) does not reduce obesity stigma or shift public perception of obesity from a failure of willpower to a biological medical condition.

Health communicators and policymakers should not assume that highlighting the success of GLP-1 medications will automatically reduce obesity stigma. Since stigma is robustly linked to personal weight loss experiences and willpower beliefs, interventions must directly address these cognitive biases rather than relying on medical awareness alone.

A remote, call-center-directed weight loss intervention combining diet and exercise counseling does not result in significant weight loss or improved cardiovascular risk factors in adult survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) compared to self-directed weight loss.

Standard remote weight loss programs are unlikely to succeed for adult survivors of childhood leukemia. Success requires tailoring to their specific health history, including managing pain and other treatment side effects, and likely involves more direct clinician involvement rather than purely remote coaching.

In a universal healthcare system, socioeconomic status does not significantly influence access to bariatric surgery for individuals with severe obesity (BMI > 40 kg/m²), indicating equal access regardless of income or education.

If you have a BMI over 40, your income or education level should not stop you from getting bariatric surgery in a universal healthcare system. The medical eligibility criteria (BMI > 40) override socioeconomic barriers, ensuring equal access to publicly funded care.

Intensive lifestyle coaching combined with care coordination does not reduce 10-year cardiovascular disease risk or improve secondary health outcomes in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and abdominal obesity compared to treatment as usual.

For individuals with severe mental illness and obesity, intensive lifestyle coaching and care coordination do not appear to offer additional cardiovascular benefits over standard medical care alone. While the intervention was well-intentioned and assertive, it did not lead to significant improvements in weight, fitness, or cardiovascular risk factors over two years. Clinicians should manage expectations and focus on standard medical management of risk factors, as behavioral interventions alone may not be sufficient for this population.

Adherence to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitor therapy has no significant association with weight change in patients with type 2 diabetes.

If you are prescribed a DPP4 inhibitor for type 2 diabetes, note that adherence does not significantly affect your weight. These medications are weight-neutral, so focus on other aspects of your treatment plan for weight management.

Tele-based health coaching for patients with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) or Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) does not produce a statistically significant reduction in total healthcare and long-term care costs over an 8-year follow-up period compared to usual care.

For healthcare administrators and policymakers, this study indicates that tele-based health coaching for T2D and CAD patients should not be implemented primarily as a cost-saving measure over an 8-year horizon, as it does not significantly reduce total healthcare and long-term care costs compared to usual care. Decision-makers should focus on clinical outcomes and patient empowerment rather than expected financial savings when evaluating this intervention.

A 12-week theory-based diabetes self-management education program (BGI) provides no significant long-term benefit for cardiovascular risk factors, self-management behaviors, or quality of life in patients with Type 2 diabetes who already have well-controlled biomedical markers.

If you already have well-controlled Type 2 diabetes (normal HbA1c, blood pressure, and cholesterol), a standard 12-week self-management education program is unlikely to further improve your health numbers or quality of life compared to your regular doctor visits. Focus on maintaining your current successful routine rather than seeking additional structured education programs.

There is no significant association between sedentary behavior and cancer mortality.

Current evidence does not show a clear link between how much you sit and your risk of dying from cancer, unlike heart disease or diabetes.

Higher educational attainment (Years of Schooling) causally protects against Alzheimer's disease.

Education and lifelong learning contribute to protection against Alzheimer's disease. While you cannot change your past education, engaging in cognitively stimulating activities and continuous learning may help build cognitive reserve.

A comprehensive incentive/disincentive program (SNAP-plus) that subsidizes multiple healthy food groups (F&V, nuts, whole grains, fish, plant-based oils) and disincentivizes unhealthy groups (SSBs, junk food, processed meats) yields the largest health gains and net cost savings among the tested interventions.

Support the 'SNAP-plus' model, which uses a broad basket of incentives for healthy foods and disincentives for unhealthy ones. This approach is modeled to save the most money and prevent the most heart disease, making it the most attractive option for policy makers.

Resistance training performed at high effort (near failure) significantly reduces all-cause mortality risk, whereas merely meeting volume-based guidelines without achieving high strength levels provides negligible mortality benefit.

To gain the maximum health benefit from resistance training, you must train with high effort, meaning you should perform exercises until you are close to muscular failure, not just 'go through the motions.' You do not need a gym; bodyweight exercises or simple household items can be used. Focus on quality and effort over volume or duration. Simply checking a box for 'muscle strengthening' without challenging your muscles significantly will not reduce your risk of early death.

High-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) or resistance training can mitigate the negative effects of sleep restriction on muscle protein synthesis, preserving synthesis rates despite sleep loss.

If you know you will have a night of poor sleep, do not skip your workout. High-intensity interval training or resistance exercise can help protect your muscle protein synthesis rates. Think of exercise as a buffer against the negative effects of sleep loss.

A personalized lifestyle coaching program combining multi-omic data with behavioral support produces clinically meaningful improvements in HbA1c comparable to landmark randomized controlled trials.

Making sustainable lifestyle changes through coaching can lower your blood sugar levels (HbA1c) just as effectively as intensive lifestyle programs used in major medical trials. This means that consistent, coached changes to diet and activity can have a powerful impact on your diabetes risk, potentially avoiding or delaying the need for medication.

A 1-year remote lifestyle intervention by dietitians using a mobile app and behavioral counseling techniques produces significant weight loss (median -4.9 kg) and improvements in blood pressure and dietary habits in overweight and obese adults.

To lose weight using this method, you need a registered dietitian who uses a specific mobile app to track your food photos and activity. You will receive frequent coaching (up to 5 times a week initially) focusing on behavioral strategies like goal setting and self-monitoring. The contact frequency decreases over the year as you move from active weight loss to maintenance. This approach works by combining professional guidance with digital self-tracking tools.

A 12-month web-based weight loss intervention with personalized dietitian and exercise expert feedback leads to greater weight loss, BMI reduction, and waist circumference reduction compared to usual care in men with type 2 diabetes.

For men with type 2 diabetes looking to lose weight, a structured web-based program with regular feedback from dietitians and exercise experts can be an effective and acceptable alternative to traditional face-to-face services. The program involves self-monitoring of diet and activity, goal setting, and personalized feedback over 12 months.

Enhanced mobile health self-monitoring (including smart scales, peer discussion, and text prompts) yields greater weight loss and higher adherence than basic app-only self-monitoring in rural men.

If you are a rural man looking to lose weight, a basic app might not be enough. You need more than just a logbook. Use an app that connects you with others, sends you reminders, and automatically tracks your weight. This 'enhanced' support system helps you stick to the habit of tracking, which leads to better results than trying to do it alone with a basic app.