Browse the evidence

Adoption of a 'Western diet' high in saturated fats and sugars, combined with sedentary behavior, significantly increases the prevalence of obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.

Reducing saturated fat and sugar intake while increasing physical activity is critical to lowering the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, especially for lower-income groups who are disproportionately affected.

A structured, three-stage low FODMAP diet (restriction, reintroduction, personalization) administered by a trained dietitian effectively manages functional gastrointestinal symptoms in 50-80% of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

If you have IBS, do not start a restrictive diet on your own. First, see a doctor to rule out other conditions. Then, work with a dietitian trained in the low FODMAP diet. The process has three steps: 1) Restrict high-FODMAP foods for 4-8 weeks to see if symptoms improve. 2) If they do, systematically reintroduce specific food groups to identify your personal triggers. 3) Create a long-term diet that excludes only your triggers, allowing you to eat a wider variety of foods. Use provided resources like apps and diet sheets to help, but rely on your dietitian for guidance.

Regular consumption of non-soya pulses (dry beans, peas, lentils) significantly reduces fasting serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels, thereby lowering cardiovascular disease risk.

Incorporate 1-2 servings of non-soya pulses (like lentils, black beans, or chickpeas) into your daily diet. This simple dietary shift can lower your bad cholesterol (LDL) by about 6% and total cholesterol by 7%, which translates to a meaningful reduction in heart disease risk over time. Prepare them by soaking and rinsing to minimize digestive discomfort.

Polarized training (POL), characterized by high volumes of low-intensity exercise and short bursts of high-intensity intervals while minimizing time at lactate threshold, produces superior improvements in VO2peak, time to exhaustion, and peak velocity/power compared to threshold, high-intensity interval, or high-volume training in well-trained endurance athletes.

If you are an experienced endurance athlete, stop spending most of your training time at 'moderate' or 'threshold' intensity. Instead, structure your training so that roughly 80% of your time is at a very easy pace (where you can hold a conversation) and 20% is at a very hard pace (high-intensity intervals). Avoid spending significant time at your lactate threshold, as this yields diminishing returns for elite performers. This approach maximizes improvements in your aerobic capacity (VO2peak) and race performance.

Regular exercise training in older adults largely negates the age-associated decline in skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity, thereby preserving muscle health, insulin sensitivity, and physical function.

If you are an older adult, regular exercise training can significantly improve your muscle's energy production (mitochondrial capacity), insulin sensitivity, and physical performance, effectively counteracting many negative effects of aging. Focus on consistent physical activity rather than accepting decline as inevitable.

A brief (3-week) diet intervention emphasizing increased intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats while reducing processed foods, saturated fats, and refined sugars significantly reduces symptoms of depression in young adults with elevated baseline symptoms.

If you are a young adult struggling with low mood, try a 3-week experiment: significantly increase your intake of vegetables (5 servings/day), fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats (nuts, olive oil), while cutting back on processed foods, sugar, and fatty meats. You do not need to be perfect; even partial adherence can lead to noticeable improvements in depressive symptoms within weeks. Consider using a meal plan or getting help with grocery shopping to make it easier.

Aerobic or resistance exercise performed concurrently with adjuvant breast cancer therapy (chemotherapy/radiotherapy) significantly improves physical fitness and reduces fatigue, while having little to no effect on depression or cancer-specific quality of life.

If you are undergoing breast cancer treatment, start a gentle aerobic or resistance exercise program (at least 6 weeks duration) as tolerated. It will likely help you maintain physical fitness and reduce tiredness. Do not expect it to cure depression or significantly change your cancer-specific quality of life scores, but it is safe and beneficial for physical capacity. Consult your oncology team before starting.

Adding aerobic or combined aerobic-resistance exercise to a hypocaloric high-protein diet improves body composition (greater fat mass loss and fat-free mass preservation) in overweight/obese women with PCOS, but provides no additional benefit for cardiometabolic, hormonal, or reproductive outcomes compared to diet alone.

If you have PCOS and are overweight, a structured hypocaloric high-protein diet is sufficient to improve your heart health, hormones, and fertility markers. Adding exercise won't make these specific health markers improve *more* than the diet does. However, you should still exercise because it helps you lose more fat and keep more muscle, which is crucial for long-term weight maintenance and body composition.

Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of incident obesity, coronary heart disease, and type 2 diabetes in adults.

Engage in regular physical activity to significantly lower your risk of developing obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. You do not need to be an elite athlete; higher levels of activity correlate with lower risk. Focus on consistency and increasing your overall activity volume over time.

Maintaining or increasing skeletal muscle strength and mass through resistance exercise and adequate protein intake is a primary determinant of healthy aging, reduced mortality, and preserved independence in older adults.

Focus on building and maintaining muscle strength through regular resistance training and consuming sufficient protein (likely higher than the standard 0.8g/kg/day, potentially 1.2-2.0g/kg during illness or for optimal maintenance). This is the most effective way to ensure a long, independent, and healthy life, rather than focusing solely on lifespan extension strategies that ignore muscle function.

Six sessions of high-intensity interval training (HIT) over two weeks significantly improve maximal oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and endurance performance in previously untrained individuals, primarily through increased skeletal muscle mitochondrial content and respiratory capacity rather than cardiovascular adaptations.

If you are new to exercise, you do not need to spend hours on the bike. Performing just six sessions of high-intensity interval training over two weeks—consisting of repeated 60-second hard efforts with short recovery—can significantly boost your aerobic capacity and endurance. Focus on intensity rather than duration to see rapid results.

Structured aerobic and/or resistance exercise training is safe and elicits significant physiological, functional, and psychological adaptations in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease.

If you are on maintenance hemodialysis, structured exercise is safe and beneficial. You can engage in aerobic training (like cycling or walking) or resistance training, typically 3-4 times a week for 30-60 minutes. Start at a moderate intensity and progress as tolerated. This can significantly improve your physical capacity, muscle strength, and quality of life, and should be integrated into your standard medical care.

Combined aerobic and resistance training produces superior improvements in VO2peak compared to aerobic training alone in hemodialysis patients.

For hemodialysis patients, combining aerobic exercise (like cycling) with resistance training (like weight lifting) yields significantly greater improvements in cardiovascular fitness (VO2peak) than aerobic exercise alone. Aim for a mix of both modalities, 3 times a week, for the best results.

Ingesting caffeine (2.1–4.5 mg/kg body weight) alongside a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution significantly improves 1-hour time trial cycling performance in well-trained athletes compared to placebo or carbohydrate-electrolyte solution alone.

If you are a trained cyclist, adding caffeine (approx. 2-4.5 mg per kg of body weight) to your carbohydrate drink during a 1-hour time trial will significantly improve your speed. You do not need to worry about dehydration or failing a drug test with these doses. Split your dose: drink some at the start and the rest during the effort.

Low muscle mass is a significant predictor of poor clinical outcomes, including higher surgical complications, longer hospital stays, reduced physical function, and shorter survival, across diverse patient populations in inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care settings.

For patients in clinical settings, low muscle mass is a critical risk factor for poor outcomes, regardless of body weight. Healthcare providers should prioritize measuring muscle mass (via CT, DXA, or BIA) over BMI alone to identify at-risk individuals. Interventions should focus on preventing and reversing muscle loss through multimodal approaches, including exercise and nutrition, to improve survival and reduce healthcare costs.

Plant-based diets significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers) and have a lower environmental impact (greenhouse gas emissions, land/water use) compared to meat-containing diets.

Adopting a plant-based diet offers significant health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, while also being more environmentally sustainable. This makes it a viable long-term strategy for overall health, even if performance benefits are neutral.

Adherence to high-quality dietary patterns, specifically the Mediterranean diet, is associated with a significantly lower risk of incident frailty in older adults.

Focus on eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and olive oil while reducing meat and dairy. This pattern is consistently linked to lower frailty risk in older adults. You do not need to be perfect; even moderate adherence shows benefits.

Mean propulsive velocity (MPV) provides a highly accurate estimate of relative load (%1RM) in the full back squat, allowing for real-time load monitoring and prescription without the need for traditional 1RM testing.

Use a velocity sensor to track your squat reps. If you can move a weight faster than usual (higher MPV), it is effectively lighter than you think, so increase the weight. If you move it slower, decrease the weight. This replaces the need to test your max every few weeks.

Regular consumption of whole grain foods is associated with a significant reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), specifically showing a 26% risk reduction in meta-analyses of cohort studies.

To lower your heart disease risk, aim for about three servings of whole grains daily. This could be one bowl of bran or oat cereal and two slices of dark bread. Ensure your overall diet is low in saturated fat and cholesterol to maximize these benefits. Whole grains offer more protection than refined grains or isolated fiber supplements because they contain essential bran and germ nutrients.

Bariatric surgery is significantly more effective than conventional medical therapy in achieving weight loss, glycemic control, and type 2 diabetes remission in patients with BMI ≥25.

For patients with obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, conventional medical therapy (diet, exercise, medication) often fails to achieve long-term remission, with 50-90% of patients failing to control their diabetes. Bariatric surgery offers a significantly higher chance of remission (63.5% vs 15.6%) and greater weight loss compared to conventional therapy. While surgery is invasive, it addresses the physiological mechanisms of diabetes more effectively than lifestyle changes alone for this population.

Supplementing with 15g of collagen peptides daily, taken within 60 minutes after resistance training, significantly increases fat-free mass, muscle strength, and fat loss in elderly men with sarcopenia compared to placebo.

If you are an older man experiencing muscle loss, take 15 grams of collagen peptides every day. On days you lift weights, drink it within an hour of finishing your workout. Stick with this for at least 3 months alongside a consistent resistance training program to see significant improvements in muscle mass and strength.

Pharmacotherapy with orlistat or sibutramine combined with dietary modification is efficacious in reducing weight regain after initial weight loss.

If you have lost weight, maintaining it is hard. This review suggests that using FDA-approved weight loss medications like orlistat or sibutramine, alongside a healthy diet, can help prevent you from gaining the weight back. This is a valid strategy to consider if lifestyle changes alone are not enough.

Resistance training with loads ≤60% 1RM promotes substantial increases in muscle strength and hypertrophy in untrained individuals, provided training is performed to momentary muscular failure.

If you are new to lifting or lack heavy equipment, you can still build significant muscle and strength using lighter weights (up to 60% of your max). The key is to perform enough repetitions until you physically cannot complete another repetition with good form. This approach is effective for beginners, though heavier loads may offer a slight edge for advanced lifters.

Consuming whole fruits and vegetables (400-600g/day) reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cognitive decline through synergistic phytochemical effects, whereas isolated phytochemical supplements may be ineffective or harmful due to lack of synergy and potential toxicity.

Eat 5 to 8 portions of fruits and vegetables every day (about 400-600 grams). Do not rely on isolated phytochemical supplements to replace this, as they lack the synergistic benefits of the whole food and may be harmful in high doses. Focus on variety (broccoli, garlic, cocoa, olives, grapes) to maximize health potential.