Browse the evidence

Long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists (liraglutide and semaglutide) improve glycemic control and promote significant weight loss in individuals with type 2 diabetes and obesity by binding to GLP-1 receptors in the pancreas and brain.

GLP-1 agonists like liraglutide and semaglutide are effective treatments for type 2 diabetes and obesity. They work by mimicking a natural hormone to regulate blood sugar and reduce appetite. Liraglutide is approved at 3.0 mg daily for obesity, while semaglutide is being developed for similar uses and oral administration. These drugs target receptors in the pancreas and brain to achieve their effects.

Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a 10-24% lower risk of developing seven specific cancers (colon, breast, kidney, endometrial, bladder, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and stomach/cardia), with evidence strength rated as 'strong' by the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Engage in regular physical activity, particularly moderate-to-vigorous intensity, to significantly lower your risk of developing several common cancers. You do not need to be an elite athlete; even modest increases in activity levels compared to a sedentary lifestyle provide measurable protective benefits.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) significantly reduces the incidence of major cardiovascular events, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality, in high-risk populations.

Adopt a Mediterranean-style eating pattern as your primary dietary strategy for heart health. Prioritize extra-virgin olive oil as your main cooking fat, fill your plate with minimally processed vegetables, fruits, legumes, and nuts, and include moderate amounts of fish and poultry. Limit red and processed meats, refined grains, and full-fat dairy. If you drink alcohol, moderate red wine with meals is consistent with the traditional pattern, but do not start drinking if you do not already. This pattern has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death by approximately 30% in high-risk individuals.

Consuming an additional daily serving of minimally processed plant-based foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil) is associated with significantly reduced risk of mortality and chronic diseases (CHD, diabetes, stroke, colorectal cancer) and has among the lowest environmental impacts.

Add one extra serving of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, or olive oil to your daily diet. This simple change is linked to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and early death, while also being better for the environment. Focus on minimally processed options.

Structured exercise programs significantly improve maximum walking distance and pain-free walking distance in patients with intermittent claudication compared to usual care or placebo.

If you have leg pain when walking due to narrowed arteries, do not stop walking. Supervised exercise programs are the standard, high-quality treatment. Aim for sessions 2-3 times a week for at least 30 minutes. You may need to walk until pain starts, rest, then walk again. This improves your walking distance significantly over time.

When resistance training sets are performed to momentary muscular failure, low-load training (≤60% 1RM) produces muscle hypertrophy equivalent to high-load training (>60% 1RM).

If you want to build muscle but only have light dumbbells or bodyweight, you can still get great results. The key is to perform your sets until you physically cannot complete another repetition with good form (momentary muscular failure). You will likely need to do more repetitions (e.g., 20-30+) compared to heavy lifting, but the muscle growth will be the same as if you were lifting heavy weights.

High-load resistance training (>60% 1RM) produces significantly greater gains in maximal strength (1RM) compared to low-load resistance training (≤60% 1RM), even when both are taken to failure.

If your primary goal is to increase your maximum lifting capacity (1RM), you should prioritize heavier weights (above 60% of your max). While light weights will still make you stronger, heavy weights will make you stronger faster and to a greater degree. However, light weights are still a valid tool for building strength, especially for joint health or volume accumulation.

For healthy, exercising individuals, an overall daily protein intake of 1.4–2.0 g/kg body weight per day is sufficient to build and maintain muscle mass, with higher intakes (2.3–3.1 g/kg/d) only necessary during hypocaloric periods to maximize lean body mass retention.

Aim for 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day if you are training. If you are cutting calories to lose fat, bump this up to 2.3–3.1 grams per kilogram to protect your muscle. You do not need to exceed these amounts for muscle growth in a caloric surplus.

Creatine monohydrate supplementation (5g/day for 5-7 days, followed by 3-5g/day maintenance) significantly increases intramuscular creatine and phosphocreatine stores, leading to enhanced high-intensity exercise performance, greater training adaptations, and increased lean body mass in athletes.

Take 5 grams of creatine monohydrate four times a day for 5-7 days to saturate your muscles, then switch to 3-5 grams daily to maintain levels. This is the most proven supplement for increasing strength and power output. It is safe, legal, and does not cause kidney damage or cramping as commonly feared.

Regular exercise (specifically thrice-weekly moderate-intensity aerobic activity and twice-weekly resistance training) improves cancer-related health outcomes including fatigue, anxiety, depression, quality of life, and physical function, and does not exacerbate lymphedema.

If you have cancer or are a survivor, ask your oncologist about exercise. They can refer you to a program. The recommended dose is 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity 3 times a week and resistance training 2 times a week. This improves fatigue, mood, and function, and is safe even if you have lymphedema.

Regular exercise training induces direct structural and functional vascular adaptations (such as improved flow-mediated dilation and arterial remodeling) via hemodynamic stimuli (shear stress and pressure), which contributes to cardiovascular risk reduction independently of changes in traditional risk factors like blood pressure or lipids.

To improve your cardiovascular health, you must engage in regular physical activity. This is not just about burning calories or lowering numbers on a lab test; the mechanical force of blood flow during exercise physically remodels your arteries to be healthier and more resilient. Consistency is key to maintaining these structural changes.

Sarcopenia should be screened using the SARC-F questionnaire and formally diagnosed using grip strength or chair stand tests combined with DXA measurement of muscle mass.

Healthcare providers should screen older patients for muscle loss using the SARC-F questionnaire. If positive, confirm the diagnosis with a grip strength test or chair stand test and a DXA scan to measure muscle mass.

Adiposity (high BMI) is a robust, convincing risk factor for increased Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) incidence, supported by meta-analyses of observational studies and Mendelian randomization.

Maintaining a healthy body weight is one of the most powerful ways to prevent Type 2 Diabetes. The evidence is extremely strong: higher BMI directly correlates with a significantly higher risk of developing the disease. Focus on sustainable lifestyle changes that support a healthy weight, as this is a primary lever for T2DM prevention.

Low consumption of whole grains is a convincing risk factor for increased Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) incidence.

Increasing your intake of whole grains is a highly effective strategy to reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The evidence is very strong: people who eat more whole grains have a significantly lower risk of developing the disease. Prioritize whole grains over refined grains.

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is a convincing risk factor for increased Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) incidence.

Reducing your intake of sugar-sweetened beverages is a highly effective strategy to reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The evidence is very strong: people who drink more sugar-sweetened beverages have a significantly higher risk of developing the disease. Consider replacing these with water or unsweetened beverages.

Low adherence to a healthy dietary pattern is a convincing risk factor for increased Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) incidence.

Adhering to a healthy dietary pattern is a highly effective strategy to reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes. The evidence is very strong: people who follow a healthy dietary pattern have a significantly lower risk of developing the disease. Focus on whole foods, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limit processed foods.

Adherence to a combination of five low-risk lifestyle factors (never smoking, BMI 18.5-24.9, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity ≥30 min/day, moderate alcohol intake, and high diet quality) significantly increases life expectancy free of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

To maximize your disease-free years, focus on five key areas: never smoke, maintain a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9, engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, consume alcohol moderately (if at all), and eat a high-quality diet (top 40% of the Alternate Healthy Eating Index). Adhering to four or five of these factors can add approximately 10 years to your life expectancy free of major chronic diseases compared to having none.

Lifelong physical activity prevents the age-related decline in cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max), maintaining fitness levels comparable to individuals four decades younger and significantly reducing mortality risk.

To maintain your heart health and longevity, you must keep doing aerobic exercise throughout your life. Don't stop when you hit middle age; consistent training keeps your fitness level comparable to someone much younger and cuts your risk of early death significantly.

Physical inactivity is a direct cause of 40 chronic diseases and premature death, while physical activity prevents or treats these conditions.

Sitting is a major risk factor for chronic disease. To prevent conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, you must incorporate regular physical activity into your life, as inactivity directly contributes to these illnesses.

Adherence to ideal combined lifestyle behaviors (smoking, BMI, physical activity, diet) significantly reduces the risk of incident cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, regardless of an individual's genetic risk score.

Focus on the four pillars: don't smoke, keep your weight in a healthy range, eat a diet rich in key components, and stay physically active. Doing this well significantly lowers your risk of heart disease and diabetes, even if you have a high genetic predisposition. Your lifestyle choices matter just as much for high-risk individuals as they do for low-risk ones.

Higher levels of physical activity reduce the risk of six specific cancer sites (bladder, breast, colon, endometrial, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia) with strong evidence, while moderate evidence supports inverse associations with lung, ovarian, pancreatic, and renal cancers.

Aim for regular physical activity to lower cancer risk. You do not need a specific dose to start; even breaking up long periods of sitting with standing or walking offers benefits. Consistency matters more than intensity for general risk reduction.

High amounts of sedentary behavior increase the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, and incident type 2 diabetes, with evidence graded as strong for these associations.

Sitting for long periods increases your risk of dying early and developing heart disease or diabetes, even if you exercise. To protect your health, try to break up long periods of sitting with light movement throughout the day, in addition to your regular exercise routine.

US adults significantly improved diet quality between 1999 and 2016 by decreasing low-quality carbohydrates (primarily added sugars) and increasing high-quality carbohydrates (primarily whole grains), plant protein, and polyunsaturated fats.

Focus on swapping low-quality carbohydrates for high-quality ones. Specifically, reduce added sugars and increase intake of whole grains, plant-based proteins (like nuts and whole grains), and polyunsaturated fats. While overall diet quality has improved, these specific swaps are the key drivers of that improvement.

An isocaloric Mediterranean diet intervention significantly lowers total, LDL, and HDL plasma cholesterol in overweight and obese adults within 4 weeks, independent of energy intake or physical activity changes.

If you are overweight or obese, switching to a Mediterranean dietary pattern can lower your total and LDL cholesterol within just 4 weeks, even if you do not lose weight or change your exercise habits. Focus on replacing meat and refined cereals with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts. The greater your adherence to this pattern, the more your cholesterol drops.