Browse the evidence

Combining resistance training with nutritional supplementation (specifically amino acids/protein) improves motor function and muscle strength in elderly patients with age-related sarcopenia.

If you are an older adult losing muscle mass, you need both food and movement. Specifically, eat enough protein (or amino acid supplements) and perform resistance exercises. Doing only one is less effective than doing both together.

Reallocating 2 hours of daily sitting time to standing significantly improves fasting glucose, triglycerides, and lipid ratios, whereas reallocating that same time to stepping (walking) additionally reduces BMI and waist circumference.

To improve your blood sugar and cholesterol, try to stand for 2 hours a day instead of sitting. You don't need to walk; just standing helps. If you also want to lose weight or reduce belly fat, you must replace sitting with walking (stepping) for those 2 hours, as standing alone won't change your waist size. Start by standing during phone calls or while cooking.

Strength training for sprinters must be specific to the phase of the sprint: knee and ankle extensors are critical for acceleration, while hamstrings are critical for maximum speed.

Train your acceleration phase with exercises focusing on knee and ankle extension. Train your top speed phase with exercises focusing on hamstring strength and swing mechanics.

Effective sprint strength training requires a combination of hypertrophy, neuronal activation, and speed-strength (plyometric) methods to prevent fiber type conversion and maintain contraction speed.

Structure your training to include heavy lifting for strength, explosive movements for power, and plyometrics for speed. Do not rely on just one type of training.

Resistance exercise prescribed at two sessions per week with high effort (RPE 3-5 progressing to 6-8 or 40-85% 1RM) is the recommended first-line treatment for sarcopenia in older adults.

Perform resistance exercises twice a week, covering both upper and lower body. Start with 1-3 sets of 6-12 reps per exercise. Use a weight or resistance that feels like 'somewhat hard' to 'hard' effort (RPE 3-5 initially, aiming for 6-8). Focus on correct form before adding weight. If you are very weak, start with just one session a week or use bodyweight only, then build up. Ensure at least 48 hours rest between sessions. Continue for at least 12 weeks to see benefits.

Lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise, or behavioral) significantly improve anthropometric, metabolic, and reproductive markers in women with PCOS compared to minimal treatment.

For women with PCOS, adopting a structured lifestyle program involving diet, exercise, and behavioral strategies is a recommended first-line treatment. This approach significantly improves weight, waist circumference, insulin resistance, and testosterone levels compared to minimal advice. However, current evidence does not support lifestyle changes as a primary method for improving fertility outcomes (pregnancy/live birth) or menstrual regularity. Focus on metabolic and anthropometric benefits rather than expecting immediate fertility improvements.

Maintaining adequate Vitamin D status and consuming high-quality protein (e.g., leucine-enriched whey) are key nutritional strategies to prevent and treat age-associated muscle changes.

Ensure you get enough Vitamin D and consume high-quality protein, such as leucine-enriched whey protein, to support muscle mass and function, especially if you are older and have sarcopenia.

Sleep extension (increasing duration from ~6.6 to 8.5 hours/night) significantly improves sprint performance, shooting accuracy, and reaction time in collegiate athletes.

If you are an athlete sleeping less than 8 hours, try extending your sleep by 2 hours per night for 5-7 weeks. Do this gradually (30-60 minutes extra per night). Monitor your energy and alertness. This simple change has been shown to improve sprint times and shooting accuracy in collegiate athletes. Prioritize consistent sleep and wake times, a cool/dark environment, and avoid screens 1 hour before bed.

Reduced sleep duration (<8 hours) is associated with a significantly increased risk of injury in youth and adolescent athletes, particularly when combined with high training loads.

If you are a young athlete, ensure you get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. This is especially critical when your training load is high. The combination of high training and low sleep significantly increases your chance of getting injured. Prioritize sleep to stay healthy and available for training.

Adherence to a dietary pattern characterized by high intake of fruits, vegetables, fish, pasta, and rice, and low intake of fried foods and processed meats, is associated with a significantly lower risk of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and favorable metabolic syndrome features (lower fasting glucose, lower triglycerides, higher HDL) in middle-aged adults.

Adopt a 'healthy balanced' dietary pattern: eat more fruits, salad/raw vegetables, fish, pasta, and rice, while reducing fried foods, sausages, and processed meats. This pattern is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes and better metabolic markers (like HDL and triglycerides) in middle-aged adults, independent of weight and smoking status.

Nutritional intervention with oral nutritional supplements (ONS) providing at least 400 kcal and 30g protein daily for 30 days is recommended to manage post-COVID-19 acute sarcopenia.

To rebuild muscle after COVID-19, aim for oral nutritional supplements delivering at least 400 calories and 30 grams of protein daily for 30 days. If you are at high risk of malnutrition, increase this to 600 calories daily. Continue this for over 60 days if you were in the ICU.

Six weeks of either High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or Moderate Intensity Training (MIT) significantly improves insulin sensitivity, reduces blood lipids, decreases body fat percentage, and improves cardiovascular fitness in sedentary overweight or obese young men.

If you are a sedentary young man who is overweight, starting either high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or moderate-intensity continuous training (MIT) for just six weeks can significantly improve your insulin sensitivity, lower bad cholesterol, reduce body fat, and boost your cardiovascular fitness. While MIT showed a slight edge in improving maximum oxygen uptake (VO2peak), both methods were effective for overall cardiometabolic health. Choose the one you can stick with, knowing that even a small amount of exercise (as little as 1 hour a week for HIIT) yields benefits.

Resistance training significantly reduces body fat percentage and increases fat-free mass in middle-aged, android-obese men, whereas aerobic training does not significantly alter body composition.

If you are overweight with abdominal fat, incorporate resistance training 3 times a week. Focus on major muscle groups with moderate weights. This approach can significantly reduce your body fat percentage and increase lean muscle mass, even without changing your diet.

Consumption of probiotic cheese containing Lactobacillus plantarum TENSIA (50g/day) alongside a hypocaloric diet significantly reduces Body Mass Index (BMI) and morning diastolic blood pressure in obese hypertensive patients compared to control cheese, with effects correlated to the degree of bacterial colonization.

If you are obese and have high blood pressure, adding 50 grams of this specific probiotic cheese (containing L. plantarum TENSIA) to your daily hypocaloric diet for 3 weeks can help you lose more weight and lower your blood pressure than just eating regular cheese on the same diet. The key is that the probiotic must colonize your gut, which happened in about 64% of participants.

Meeting both aerobic (≥150 min/week) and muscle-strengthening (≥2 sessions/week) physical activity guidelines is associated with the lowest prevalence of chronic health conditions compared to meeting neither, only aerobic, or only muscle-strengthening guidelines.

To maximize protection against chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and depression, aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (like brisk walking) per week PLUS two days of muscle-strengthening activities (like resistance bands or bodyweight exercises). Doing both together offers significantly better health outcomes than doing just one.

Sprint Interval Training (SIT), a variant of HIIT involving near-maximal to 'all out' efforts, can improve endurance performance in highly trained athletes by enhancing fatigue resistance and durability.

For elite endurance athletes, adding short, maximal-effort sprints (SIT) to your regular training can improve your ability to sustain performance when fatigued. This is an advanced technique; ensure it is periodized correctly within your overall training plan to avoid overtraining. It is not for beginners.

Lifestyle interventions, specifically the Mediterranean diet combined with physical activity, are the primary therapeutic strategy for preventing and treating metabolic syndrome by addressing modifiable risk factors such as obesity and insulin resistance.

Adopt a Mediterranean-style diet focusing on whole foods, healthy fats, and limited processed sugars and salts. Combine this with at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity. This is the foundational treatment for Metabolic Syndrome, often more effective than medication alone for long-term management.

A 5-day fast followed by a modified DASH diet significantly reduces 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure and body weight in patients with metabolic syndrome, effects that are sustained three months post-intervention and distinct from diet alone.

For patients with metabolic syndrome, a 5-day water/tea/broth fast followed by 3 months of a DASH-style diet offers superior blood pressure and weight reduction compared to diet changes alone. This intervention allows many patients to reduce or eliminate antihypertensive medication while maintaining controlled blood pressure.

A Very Low-Calorie Ketogenic Diet (VLCKD) is a safe and effective intervention for weight loss and metabolic improvement in patients with obesity and mild chronic kidney disease (Stage 2 CKD), without causing clinically relevant renal deterioration.

If you have obesity and mild kidney issues (Stage 2), a medically supervised VLCKD (450-800 calories, <20g carbs) is a safe and effective way to lose significant weight (~20%) without harming your kidneys. Ensure you take supplements and drink plenty of water.

Higher dietary fiber intake is inversely associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome, with cross-sectional studies showing a pooled odds ratio of 0.70 for highest versus lowest intake categories.

To lower your risk of metabolic syndrome, aim for higher dietary fiber intake. Evidence suggests that consuming more fiber, particularly soluble fiber from sources like oats and legumes, is associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome. While the evidence is strongest in cross-sectional studies, the consistent inverse association supports increasing fiber as a key dietary strategy.

Heavy-resistance training (2 sessions/week for 12 weeks) significantly increases muscle volume, cross-sectional area, and strength in elderly males (mean age 67.6 years).

If you are an older man, engaging in heavy resistance training twice a week for 12 weeks can significantly increase your muscle size and strength. Focus on exercises like bicep curls with weights that challenge you, increasing the weight as you get stronger. This can help with daily tasks and counteract age-related muscle loss.

Performing 3 minutes of all-out intermittent sprint interval training (SIT) per week, within a total session time of 10 minutes (3 sessions/week for 6 weeks), significantly increases skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and improves cardiometabolic health markers in overweight/obese adults.

To improve your cardiovascular health and muscle efficiency without spending hours at the gym, perform this specific Sprint Interval Training (SIT) protocol three times a week. Each session takes only 10 minutes: warm up for 2 minutes, then do three 20-second all-out sprints on a stationary bike (with 2 minutes of easy cycling between sprints), and cool down for 3 minutes. Over 6 weeks, this minimal time commitment has been shown to significantly increase your peak oxygen uptake and lower blood pressure, even in overweight individuals.

Very Low Energy Diet (VLED) intervention (640 kcal/day for 12-16 weeks) significantly reduces disease activity in patients with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) and obesity, with greater weight loss correlating to greater clinical improvement.

For patients with PsA and obesity, a medically supervised Very Low Energy Diet (approx. 640 kcal/day) for 3-4 months can significantly reduce joint pain, skin psoriasis, and inflammation. The greater the weight lost, the better the improvement in disease activity. This should be done while keeping current arthritis medications stable.

Medical nutrition therapy (MNT) and lifestyle interventions are the first-line treatment for adolescents with PCOS and obesity, aiming to restore ovulation and protect fertility by improving insulin resistance and metabolic function.

For teens with PCOS and obesity, the most important step is starting lifestyle changes immediately. This includes personalized dietary interventions and physical activity. The goal is to improve insulin sensitivity, which helps restore ovulation and protect future fertility. This is the recommended first step before considering medications.