Browse the evidence

Protein supplementation does not significantly augment the effects of resistance exercise training on muscle mass or strength in older adults (≥70 years) compared to resistance exercise alone.

If you are over 70 and doing resistance training, you do not need to buy protein supplements to get better results. The research shows that getting protein from food is just as effective as supplements for building muscle and strength in this age group. Focus on eating enough protein overall rather than spending money on powders.

Genetic variants (SNPs) associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease generally have small effect sizes and explain a small fraction of the overall variance in these conditions.

Understanding your genetics does not give you a free pass or a guaranteed outcome. Most genetic risks are small and can be managed. Focus on modifiable risk factors like BMI, blood pressure, and diet quality.

Implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols in bariatric surgery significantly reduces postoperative nausea and vomiting, intraoperative time, time to mobilization, intensive care unit stay, and total/functional hospital stay compared to standard care, without increasing complication rates.

For bariatric surgery units, adopting ERAS protocols is a high-value intervention. It significantly reduces patient suffering (nausea/vomiting), shortens hospital stays, and speeds up mobilization without increasing surgical risks like leaks or bleeding. Implementation should be prioritized where feasible.

Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) syndrome is a systemic disorder characterized by pathophysiological interactions among metabolic risk factors, chronic kidney disease (CKD), and the cardiovascular system, leading to multiorgan dysfunction and high adverse outcome rates.

If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or kidney issues, recognize that these conditions are linked and worsen each other. Managing one without addressing the others is less effective. Seek integrated care that looks at your heart, kidneys, and metabolic health together to prevent serious complications like heart failure or kidney failure.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) significantly amplifies cardiovascular risk, with albuminuria and low GFR being strong predictors of major atherosclerotic and heart failure events, often making CVD the leading cause of death in CKD patients.

If you have kidney disease, your risk of heart problems is significantly higher. Regular monitoring of your heart health, along with managing blood pressure and blood sugar, is essential to prevent heart failure and heart attacks.

Intentional long-term weight loss in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes increases the risk of frailty fractures (hip, pelvis, upper arm/shoulder) despite not increasing total or hip fracture rates overall.

If you have type 2 diabetes and are planning to lose weight, be aware that this specific intervention (intensive lifestyle change) has been linked to a higher risk of breaking bones in the hip, pelvis, or shoulder area, even if your overall fracture risk doesn't change. To mitigate this, focus on preserving muscle mass through resistance training and ensure adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, as bone loss is a key mechanism for this increased risk.

Global dietary intake data is highly available for fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and sugar-sweetened beverages, but critically sparse for iodine, vitamin A, plant protein, selenium, added sugar, and animal protein.

When evaluating global diet quality, recognize that data on fruits, vegetables, and sugary drinks is robust, but data on essential micronutrients (iodine, selenium, vitamin A) and specific protein sources is often missing. This limits our ability to assess diet-related health risks in many populations accurately.

Perioperative fish oil supplementation (EPA+DHA) does not increase the risk of major bleeding in cardiac surgery patients and may reduce blood transfusion requirements.

If you take fish oil for heart health, you likely do not need to stop it before heart surgery. This study of over 1,500 patients showed that continuing fish oil did not increase bleeding risk and actually reduced the amount of blood transfused. Consult your surgeon, but current evidence supports continuing supplementation.

Obesity is not caused by a lack of willpower but is the result of complex interactions between individual biological factors and environmental determinants, requiring multifactorial prevention and treatment strategies.

Stop blaming yourself for your weight. Obesity is a complex disease influenced by biology and your environment, not just willpower. Effective management requires addressing both individual health behaviors and the broader environment, such as access to healthy food and safe spaces for activity.

Environmental-level factors, such as the food environment and socioeconomic status, interact with individual-level biological factors to drive obesity, and interventions focusing solely on the individual are suboptimal.

To manage weight effectively, you need to address both your personal habits and your environment. This might mean seeking out healthier food options, advocating for policy changes, and understanding how your biology interacts with your surroundings.

BMI is an insufficient diagnostic tool for obesity because it fails to differentiate between fat mass and lean body mass, leading to misclassification.

Do not rely solely on BMI to determine your health status. It fails to distinguish between muscle and fat. Ask your doctor for more precise assessments like waist circumference or body composition analysis to get a true picture of your metabolic risk.

Heart disease and stroke remain the leading causes of death globally, with significant disparities in prevalence and mortality across different racial and ethnic groups, necessitating targeted public health interventions to address structural racism and health equity.

Focus on managing key risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, while being aware of and addressing potential systemic barriers to healthcare access.

A cumulative deficit frailty index, constructed from 26 non-traditional health deficits, is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular events and mortality than traditional risk scores (like Framingham) and provides incremental prognostic value independent of those traditional factors.

If you are over 65 or have heart disease risk factors, ask your doctor to assess your 'frailty' using a deficit accumulation model (checking for symptoms, lab abnormalities, and functional limitations), not just standard cholesterol and blood pressure numbers. This assessment predicts heart attacks and death more accurately than traditional scores and can help prioritize preventive care.

Prebiotics are defined as substrates selectively utilized by host microorganisms to confer a health benefit, distinguishing them from non-selective dietary fibers and non-microbial agents.

Not all gut-friendly foods are prebiotics. To be a prebiotic, a substance must be selectively eaten by beneficial bacteria to produce a specific health benefit. Common examples like inulin and FOS fit this, but general fibers like cellulose do not necessarily qualify.

Health benefits from prebiotics are mediated by the selective growth of specific microbial taxa and their metabolic products (e.g., SCFAs), rather than the substrate itself acting directly on host cells.

Prebiotics work by feeding specific gut bacteria. These bacteria then produce beneficial compounds (like short-chain fatty acids) that improve your health. You need a healthy gut microbiome for prebiotics to work.

Spending 9.5 or more hours per day sedentary is associated with a statistically significantly higher risk of death.

Avoid sitting for more than 9.5 hours a day. If you have a desk job, incorporate standing breaks and light movement throughout the day. The risk of death increases significantly once sedentary time exceeds this threshold, even if you exercise moderately.

Hypertension prevalence and mortality burden are significantly higher in low- and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries, with deaths attributable to high blood pressure increasing in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Recognize that hypertension is a major killer in low- and middle-income countries. Support global health initiatives that scale up treatment coverage and improve community effectiveness in these regions.

Chronic low-grade inflammation (inflammaging) is a fundamental endogenous driver of aging, creating a vicious cycle with cellular senescence that leads to organ dysfunction and age-related diseases.

Aging is closely linked to chronic, low-grade inflammation. While this paper is a mechanistic review, the implication is that strategies reducing systemic inflammation may support healthy aging. Focus on lifestyle factors known to modulate inflammation, such as regular physical activity, adequate sleep, and a nutrient-dense diet, as these are foundational to managing 'inflammaging'.

Immunosenescence, characterized by a decline in immune cell function and an increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, impairs the clearance of senescent cells and pathogens, exacerbating aging.

Immune function declines with age, leading to increased susceptibility to infection and chronic inflammation. Maintaining immune health through vaccination, stress management, and nutrient adequacy is crucial for older adults.

For deaths related to mental/behavioral disorders, neurological conditions, and non-transport accidents, lower BMI (up to 24-27 kg/m²) is associated with increased mortality risk, showing an inverse linear association rather than a J-shape.

Don't assume being thin is always safer. For neurological and mental health-related causes of death, this study found that lower BMI (down to 24-27) was associated with higher risk. Maintaining a healthy weight (not underweight) is important for protecting against these specific outcomes.

NAD+ serves as a co-substrate for enzymes like sirtuins and PARPs, and as a nucleotide analog in DNA ligation, impacting energy metabolism, DNA repair, and gene expression.

Understanding NAD+ roles helps explain why lifestyle factors like exercise and diet are important for healthspan. NAD+ is not just for energy but also for DNA repair and gene regulation.

Consuming an additional daily serving of unprocessed or processed red meat is associated with significantly increased risk of mortality, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, and colorectal cancer, and has the highest environmental impact.

Limit or eliminate daily consumption of unprocessed and processed red meat. This is linked to higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and early death, as well as the highest environmental impact. Replace with plant-based proteins like legumes, nuts, or whole grains.

Epigenetic clocks, particularly those tuned to phenotypic age or mortality risk (e.g., GrimAge), are robust biomarkers for predicting biological aging and adverse health outcomes.

Epigenetic clocks offer a promising way to measure biological age, potentially identifying those aging faster than their chronological age. This could guide personalized interventions to slow aging, though clinical application is still emerging.

Accelerated biological aging of specific organs, measured via plasma proteomic signatures, significantly increases the risk of organ-specific diseases and all-cause mortality, independent of chronological age.

Your chronological age is not your biological destiny. This research shows that your organs age at different rates, and accelerated aging in specific organs (like the heart or brain) is a strong predictor of future disease and mortality, independent of how many birthdays you've had. While this specific test is not yet standard care, the key takeaway is that organ-specific health monitoring is crucial. Focus on maintaining the health of your most vulnerable organs through targeted lifestyle interventions, as organ-specific aging is a modifiable risk factor for major diseases like heart failure and Alzheimer's.