Browse the evidence

Higher total dietary fiber intake (specifically from cereals) is inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk, with a 13% risk reduction per 10 g/day increase in total fiber.

To potentially lower your risk of colorectal cancer, aim to increase your daily dietary fiber intake by 10 grams. This can be achieved by adding whole grains, fruits, and vegetables to your diet. The study suggests that cereal fiber, in particular, is strongly associated with reduced risk for both colon and rectal cancers.

Cereal fiber intake is specifically associated with a reduced risk of rectal cancer, whereas fruit and vegetable fiber showed no significant association with rectal cancer in this cohort.

If you are concerned about rectal cancer, prioritize cereal fiber sources like whole grains (oats, barley, whole wheat) over just fruits and vegetables. This study suggests cereal fiber has a specific protective effect against rectal cancer that fruit and vegetable fiber did not demonstrate.

Higher Life's Simple 7 (LS7) scores, reflecting better cardiovascular health across seven modifiable risk factors, are associated with a significantly lower risk of incident stroke in adults.

Focus on optimizing your cardiovascular health using the Life's Simple 7 framework: manage blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose; maintain a healthy BMI; avoid smoking; stay physically active; and eat a healthy diet. You do not need to achieve 'ideal' status in all areas immediately; even small improvements in these seven areas are associated with a significantly lower risk of stroke.

High frequency of ultra-processed food consumption is associated with a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality in US adults, independent of demographic, socioeconomic, and health behavior factors.

If you eat ultra-processed foods (like sugary drinks, processed meats, sweetened cereals, and packaged snacks) frequently (e.g., more than 5 times a day), your risk of dying from any cause is about 30% higher compared to those who eat them less often. This risk holds true even if you try to balance your diet with other healthy foods. To protect your longevity, try to reduce the frequency of these highly processed items and focus on whole or minimally processed foods.

Greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with longer leukocyte telomere length, a biomarker of biological aging.

Adopting a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern—high in vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, legumes, fish, and olive oil, with moderate alcohol and low red meat—is associated with longer telomeres, a marker of slower biological aging. This benefit appears to come from the combined effect of the diet rather than any single food, suggesting that overall dietary quality is the key lever for longevity.

Moderate intensity endurance exercise (<70% VO2max) improves gut microbial diversity and reduces systemic inflammation by decreasing intestinal permeability.

Engage in moderate endurance exercise (below 70% of your max oxygen uptake) to support gut health. This level of activity has been shown to increase microbial diversity and reduce systemic inflammation by strengthening the gut barrier, without the negative permeability effects seen in extreme exertion.

Elite athletes exhibit higher gut microbial diversity and a specific enrichment of bacteria involved in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production compared to sedentary controls.

Elite athletes tend to have gut microbiomes enriched in bacteria that produce beneficial short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate. This is linked to their high training volume and specific metabolic demands, suggesting that consistent endurance training may shape the microbiome toward more efficient energy metabolism.

Intense exercise (>70% VO2max) can increase intestinal permeability and endotoxemia, leading to temporary systemic inflammation and gastrointestinal distress.

High-intensity or prolonged endurance exercise can temporarily compromise your gut barrier, leading to inflammation and GI issues. This is common in ultrarunning or intense military training. While the long-term benefits of training outweigh these acute stresses, managing hydration, nutrition, and recovery is crucial to mitigate these temporary negative effects.

In very old adults (72-95 years), high percent body fat is strongly associated with physical disability, whereas low skeletal muscle mass is not associated with disability.

For adults over 70, maintaining a healthy body fat percentage appears to be more critical for preventing physical disability than simply having high muscle mass. While resistance training is beneficial, excessive fat accumulation significantly increases the risk of disability, likely due to mechanical burden and chronic disease links. Focus on body composition (reducing fat) rather than just muscle size.

Sarcopenic obesity, defined as the concurrent presence of low muscle mass and high adiposity, has a compounding negative impact on health outcomes and is common in chronic disease populations.

For obese patients, especially those with chronic diseases, focusing solely on weight loss may be counterproductive. It is crucial to assess and preserve muscle mass through targeted interventions like resistance training and adequate protein intake, as sarcopenic obesity is associated with worse outcomes than obesity alone.

Muscle quality, assessed by muscle attenuation (fat infiltration) via CT or MRI, is an independent and emerging prognostic indicator for survival and outcomes, often more predictive than muscle mass alone.

For patients undergoing CT or MRI scans, muscle quality (attenuation) should be assessed alongside muscle mass, as it is a strong predictor of survival and outcomes. This is particularly relevant for cancer, critical illness, and liver disease patients. Future clinical practice should aim to make muscle quality assessment more routine.

Probiotic supplementation in overweight or obese adults produces a statistically significant but clinically small reduction in body weight, BMI, and fat percentage compared to placebo.

If you are overweight or obese, adding probiotics may help you lose a tiny amount of extra weight (about 0.6 kg) compared to not taking them. Do not rely on probiotics for weight loss; focus on diet and exercise first, as the probiotic effect is negligible in isolation.

Chronic insomnia causes reversible prefrontal cortical hypoactivation (specifically in the medial and inferior prefrontal cortex) during daytime cognitive tasks, which can be restored through nonpharmacological sleep therapy.

If you suffer from chronic insomnia, nonpharmacological sleep therapy (combining cognitive behavioral therapy, sleep restriction, bright light, and temperature manipulation) over 6 weeks can restore normal prefrontal brain activation associated with cognitive function. This recovery is reversible and does not require medication.

The 'double burden' of obesity and malnutrition exists in Egypt, with high rates of childhood stunting and underweight coexisting with high adult obesity rates.

Egypt faces a 'double burden' of obesity in adults and malnutrition in children. This means that while many adults are obese, many children are still stunted or underweight. Public health efforts need to address both issues simultaneously, focusing on improving dietary quality for children and promoting healthy lifestyles for adults.

Myosteatosis is associated with insulin resistance, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia independent of total body adiposity (BMI or DXA whole body fat).

Metabolic health is not guaranteed by a normal BMI. Fat infiltration into muscles (myosteatosis) is a specific risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, independent of overall body fat. For those with normal weight but metabolic issues, assessing muscle quality (via imaging or functional proxies) may be necessary.

Whole soy foods (e.g., soy nuts, tofu) significantly improve glycemic control and reduce blood pressure, whereas purified soy protein isolates or isolated isoflavone supplements often fail to produce these benefits.

To lower blood sugar and blood pressure using soy, prioritize whole soy foods like tofu, edamame, or soy nuts over protein powders or isolated isoflavone supplements. The fiber and other compounds in whole soy are necessary for the metabolic benefit; isolates often fail to deliver the same results.

The cardiovascular benefits of soy isoflavones, particularly regarding blood pressure and inflammation, are conditional on the individual's ability to metabolize daidzein into equol via gut microbiota.

If you eat soy and see no heart health benefits, you might be a 'non-producer' of equol. This is determined by your gut bacteria. While soy is still healthy, its specific blood-pressure-lowering power is mostly reserved for those who can convert it to equol.

Specific phytochemicals in broccoli (sulforaphane), dandelion (sesquiterpene glucosides), garlic (sulfur compounds), cocoa (procyanidins), olives (hydroxytyrosol/oleuropein), and grapes (polyphenols/resveratrol) provide specific health benefits including cancer prevention, cardiovascular protection, and anti-inflammatory effects.

Incorporate broccoli, dandelion (as greens), garlic, cocoa (dark), olives, and grapes into your diet to leverage their specific phytochemicals for heart and cancer health.

Higher gut microbiome diversity is associated with lower levels of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles, serum triglycerides, and total fatty acids, and higher levels of large/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles.

Focus on dietary patterns that support gut microbial diversity, such as high fiber intake and fermented foods, as this state is strongly linked to healthier lipid profiles (lower triglycerides, higher protective HDL).

Specific gut microbial taxa, particularly Christensenellaceae and Ruminococcaceae, are associated with favorable lipid profiles, including lower VLDL and triglycerides and higher large HDL particles.

Dietary diversity is key. Consuming a wide variety of plant fibers supports the growth of beneficial taxa like Christensenellaceae, which are linked to better lipid management.

Specific probiotic strains reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in athletes, particularly under conditions of high training load or environmental stress.

If you are an athlete prone to colds, look for a probiotic with a specific strain that has been studied for immune health (e.g., Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG). Do not buy generic 'probiotic' blends without strain identification. Ensure the product lists the specific genus, species, and strain on the label.

Athletes have distinct gut microbiota compositions compared to sedentary individuals, characterized by higher diversity and abundance of health-promoting bacteria, influenced by exercise and protein intake.

Regular exercise and a diet high in protein and fiber can positively shape your gut microbiota, increasing diversity and beneficial bacteria. This is a natural way to support gut health.

Daily consumption of 40g ground flaxseed significantly reduces LDL cholesterol in hypercholesterolemic adults, but this effect is transient and diminishes by 10 weeks.

Take 40g of ground flaxseed daily with a heart-healthy diet. Expect your LDL cholesterol to drop significantly within the first month, but be aware this benefit may fade after 10 weeks. Don't stop using it, as it still improves insulin sensitivity and lowers Lp(a).

Daily consumption of 40g ground flaxseed significantly reduces Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] and improves insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR) in hypercholesterolemic adults.

Incorporate 40g of ground flaxseed daily to potentially lower Lipoprotein(a) and improve insulin sensitivity. These benefits were observed at the 10-week mark, even when LDL effects had waned.