Metabolism
Blood sugar, insulin and weight, the engine of aging.
153 answers, from 1,053 studies
Last updated: October 2026
Key questions
Does Japanese interval walking work better than ordinary walking?
Interval walking demonstrably delivers more than ordinary walking: better fitness, stronger legs and lower blood pressure, and…
Moderate evidence
Is brown rice healthier than white rice?
Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice and produces a lower blood sugar spike, but only in its ordinary form, not the…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What is the Korean slow-ageing diet and does it work?
A Korean eating pattern built on wholegrains, legumes, vegetables, fruit and fish is linked in several studies to fewer…
Moderate evidence
What do psyllium and flaxseed do for your blood sugar?
Taking psyllium before a meal demonstrably lowers the blood sugar peak in people with type 2 diabetes, and with longer use…
Which form of intermittent fasting works best?
Alternate-day fasting has the strongest short-term evidence for weight loss, but the advantage over simply eating less is…
Moderate evidence
Which form of fasting works best against belly fat?
Alternate-day fasting and the 5:2 pattern show the strongest evidence for loss of belly fat, but the studies are short-term or…
Moderate evidence
What does a NAD supplement do, and does it work in people?
NAD supplements demonstrably raise NAD levels in your blood, but whether you actually benefit from that remains uncertain. If…
Preliminary evidence
Does the timing of your meals affect how long you live?
The timing of your meals is associated with biological ageing and risk of death, but cause and effect have not been proven.…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does the 16:8 schedule work better than other forms of intermittent fasting?
16:8 works better than shorter fasting windows in the short term, but over the long term it is not demonstrably better than…
Moderate evidence
What exactly does magnesium glycinate do in your body?
Magnesium glycinate is well absorbed, but for most healthy people it is not demonstrably better than citrate. For those with…
Does avocado help lower your blood sugar spike after a meal?
If you eat half or a whole avocado in place of carbohydrates, there is preliminary evidence that your post-meal blood sugar…
Moderate evidence
What works better against belly fat: cardio or strength training?
Cardio beats strength training when looking purely at belly fat, but the combination of both performs best. Opt for…
Strong evidence
What works better against belly fat: eating less or moving more?
Eating less has, on average, a slightly larger effect on belly fat than moving more, but the combination works best. Choose…
Strong evidence
Does a Mediterranean diet help reduce belly fat?
A Mediterranean diet demonstrably helps reduce belly fat, and a polyphenol-rich variant with green tea and walnuts appears to…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does eating low-carb make a difference for belly fat?
Eating low-carb probably helps with belly fat, but the effect depends strongly on how strictly you follow it and whether you…
Preliminary evidence
Can GLP-1 agonists regenerate cells in the pancreas?
These medicines restore beta cells in rodents, but whether this also happens in people has not yet been demonstrated. Until…
How do you safely taper off Ozempic?
Whether gradual tapering is better than stopping abruptly is not yet known, but stopping abruptly leads to weight regain and…
Preliminary evidence
What are the side effects of Ozempic?
Semaglutide causes digestive complaints, mainly nausea, in one in four users; these usually resolve over time. Rarer signals…
Does Ozempic help with weight loss and how does it work?
Semaglutide demonstrably helps with weight loss: an average of 15% of starting body weight after just over a year. It works by…
Strong evidence
What are effective ways to lose weight?
The combination of eating fewer calories and exercising for more than 250 minutes per week is the most proven effective…
Strong evidence
What factors influence your metabolism?
Muscle mass, abdominal fat, age, sex and the way you lose weight together determine how fast your metabolism runs. Building…
How can you speed up or improve your metabolism?
You can influence your metabolism, but the effects are more modest than popular claims suggest. Most of the gain lies in more…
Moderate evidence
Does drinking water help with weight loss?
Drinking water probably helps with weight loss, especially when done before meals or used to replace sugary drinks. The effect…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Can you drink coffee with milk while fasting?
Milk in coffee breaks your fast: it stimulates insulin release and counts as food intake. If you want to keep your fasting…
No · Preliminary evidence
What does 12:12 fasting deliver compared with 16:8?
16:8 fasting demonstrably produces more weight and fat loss in healthy adults than 12:12, which showed no measurable effect…
Does the sauna help with weight loss?
The sauna makes you sweat, not slim: the weight loss is temporary fluid loss that disappears as soon as you drink again. If…
No · Moderate evidence
Does semaglutide as a pill work just as well as the injection?
For weight loss, the pill (25 mg daily) and the injection (2.4 mg weekly) are comparably effective. If you have diabetes there…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does orforglipron, the weight-loss pill, work as well as Ozempic?
Orforglipron works well for blood sugar and weight, but in obesity it is probably less powerful than injectable Ozempic and…
Moderate evidence
Is intermittent fasting safe if you have type 2 diabetes?
Intermittent fasting can be safe in type 2 diabetes, but only if you do this in consultation with your doctor, because your…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does creatine help with weight loss?
Creatine is not a slimming aid and is not recommended for fat loss as a primary goal. If you combine it with strength…
No · Moderate evidence
What is spermidine and where is it found?
Spermidine is a molecule that occurs naturally in your body, declines with age, and is obtained through fermented foods and…
What does taurine do in your body?
Taurine has demonstrable functions in the retina, the heart and the brain, and its importance for infants is well-established…
Does berberine help with weight loss?
Berberine leads to modest weight loss in some studies, but a large, well-designed study found no effect on visceral abdominal…
Moderate evidence
Can you reverse liver fat accumulation and fibrosis?
Early liver fat accumulation and even fibrosis are largely reversible through weight loss of 10% or more. Start with a…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What do mitochondrial mutations mean for how quickly you age?
Mitochondrial mutations likely contribute to ageing, but exactly how large that contribution is, and through which mechanism,…
Does a fasting-mimicking diet work better than simply eating less?
A fasting-mimicking diet has promising effects on several health markers, but whether it works better than simply eating less…
Moderate evidence
What does urolithin A do to your muscles and mitochondria?
Urolithin A shows positive effects on the health of your cells' energy factories and on muscle strength in small studies, but…
Does a NAD+ infusion do something that an NMN pill does not?
No study directly compares a NAD+ infusion with an oral NMN pill, so an advantage of the infusion has not been demonstrated.…
How much berberine do you need per day?
For blood sugar regulation in type 2 diabetes, 500 mg three times daily (1500 mg per day) for at least 8 to 12 weeks is the…
Moderate evidence
What do we really know about metformin and ageing?
In people with diabetes, metformin shows clear health benefits. Whether it also slows ageing in healthy people is being…
What does stable blood sugar do for healthy ageing?
A stable, low blood sugar is associated worldwide with more healthy life years. The association is clear, but the exact gain…
Do your hormones influence how quickly you age?
Hormones do influence ageing, but do not control it entirely. Fat distribution, muscle mass and inflammatory processes are all…
Does black seed oil work as a supplement?
Black seed oil has shown measurable effects on blood fats, blood pressure and inflammatory markers in multiple meta-analyses,…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does a NAD infusion (IV drip) make sense?
A NAD infusion has no proven advantage over cheaper oral supplements, and even those show barely any demonstrable effect in…
No · Preliminary evidence
Does the fasting-mimicking diet, such as Prolon, actually work?
The fasting-mimicking diet improves measurable risk factors such as blood sugar, blood lipids and abdominal fat across…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Which is better for raising NAD+: NMN or NR?
NMN and NR raise NAD+ equally well, so the choice between the two probably makes no difference to the end result. Whether that…
Moderate evidence
Which form of iron is best absorbed?
Haem iron from meat, fish and poultry is absorbed best. If you choose a supplement, divalent iron (ferrous sulfate) works…
Moderate evidence
What is the link between fatty liver and type 2 diabetes?
Fatty liver and type 2 diabetes reinforce each other: they share the same underlying mechanism and roughly double each other's…
Does excess weight really make your hormones worse?
Excess weight disrupts your hormones in multiple ways simultaneously, and this is not a coincidental association. In men,…
Does chewing slowly really help with better digestion?
Chewing well certainly helps form a smooth food bolus and increases saliva production, but whether it actually leads to better…
Preliminary evidence
How does your body fat affect hormone production as you get older?
Body fat has a considerable influence on your hormonal balance as you age: more abdominal fat disrupts insulin sensitivity,…
What does caffeine do to your stress hormones when you drink a lot of it?
High caffeine intake raises your cortisol, especially during stress or exercise and later in the day; you partially adapt to…
Does the order in which you eat your food affect your digestion?
Yes, the order in which you eat affects your blood sugar and digestion speed: eating protein or vegetables first and…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What is the role of bile acids in healthy digestion?
Bile acids are indispensable for proper fat digestion and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. If you suffer from greasy…
Can low blood sugar disrupt your hormones, and how do you notice it?
Low blood sugar immediately raises stress hormones and causes symptoms such as trembling, sweating and irritability. People…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Are the gut bacteria of lean people different from those of heavier people?
The gut bacteria of people with excess weight differ measurably from those of lean people, but whether those bacteria are the…
What does a high-fat diet do to your gut microbiome?
A high-fat diet noticeably disrupts the gut microbiome: less bacterial diversity, more harmful species and a leaky gut wall…
Does having type 2 diabetes increase your risk of certain cancers?
Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of several cancers, including liver, pancreatic, uterine, and colorectal cancer. If you…
Does drinking apple cider vinegar help your digestion?
There is no research whatsoever showing that apple cider vinegar improves digestion. If you want to use apple cider vinegar…
No · Preliminary evidence
What happens to your cells when you don't move enough?
Moving too little demonstrably disrupts how your cells handle sugar, signals and inflammatory processes. Even a small increase…
Can your gut microbiome control your appetite and hunger?
Yes, your gut microbiome can influence your hunger and eating behaviour via a direct connection to your brain. Eating more…
Does diabetes increase the risk of bone fractures?
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes clearly and demonstrably increase the risk of bone fractures. If you have diabetes, discuss…
What does eating too much sugar do to your gut health?
Eating a lot of sugar probably disrupts your gut microbiome and makes the gut wall more permeable, but it is the combination…
What is sleep debt, and can you actually pay it back?
Sleep debt is a real phenomenon that builds up without you noticing it clearly. A weekend of sleeping in reduces the deficit,…
Moderate evidence
Does diabetes make a person age faster biologically?
Yes, diabetes measurably accelerates biological ageing: the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and early death…
Does the timing of meals throughout the day affect your weight?
When you eat matters: meals earlier in the day appear more favourable for your metabolism than eating late, although the…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What does pregnancy do to your hormone balance in the long run?
Pregnancy and breastfeeding bring measurable, sometimes long-lasting hormonal changes, of which the genital and urinary…
Does eating more fibre help against high blood sugar?
Water-soluble fibre from legumes, vegetables and fruit probably helps lower high blood sugar, but the overall composition of…
Yes · Moderate evidence
What does alcohol do to your blood sugar and insulin sensitivity?
The effect of alcohol on your blood sugar depends strongly on context: on an empty stomach the risk of low blood sugar is…
Does cinnamon really lower your blood sugar?
Cinnamon can modestly lower fasting blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, but whether that makes any meaningful difference to…
Moderate evidence
Does intermittent fasting help improve your insulin levels?
Fasting probably improves your insulin levels, but most studies are small and short-term. Eating early in the day appears to…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does it matter for your weight whether you eat fat or carbohydrates?
In the long term, the ratio of fat versus carbohydrates matters little for your weight, as long as your total calorie intake…
No · Strong evidence
Does strength training work better against high blood sugar than cardio?
Strength training appears to work better than cardio alone in people with diabetes and a normal weight, but in overweight…
Moderate evidence
Does being overweight affect your bone density?
Being overweight does not straightforwardly increase bone density, and the location and amount of fat strongly determine…
What does chronic stress do to your weight in the long run?
Research shows that chronic stress increases the likelihood of weight gain over the long term, particularly belly fat, through…
How bad is sitting for too long for your blood sugar and metabolism?
Sitting for long uninterrupted periods noticeably impairs your blood sugar and metabolism, but short breaks of 2-3 minutes of…
What is glycation and how does sugar damage your cells from the inside?
Sugar damages your cells through a chain of chemical reactions that harm proteins, cell powerhouses and tiny blood vessels.…
Does type 2 diabetes increase your risk of dementia?
Type 2 diabetes substantially increases the risk of dementia, and the younger you are at diagnosis, the greater that risk.…
What is the difference between a high blood sugar and a blood sugar spike?
Fasting blood sugar and post-meal spikes are two separate quantities that you need both of for a complete picture; in diabetes…
What does alcohol do to your hormones when you drink it regularly?
Regular heavy drinking demonstrably disrupts multiple hormonal axes simultaneously, with consequences for fertility, stress…
Does cold showering or an ice bath speed up your metabolism?
Cold water clearly speeds up metabolism for as long as you are in it, but whether this produces any meaningful effect on…
Moderate evidence
What does excess weight do to your inflammation levels?
Excess weight structurally raises your inflammation levels through multiple biological pathways. Exercise, and strength…
What does intermittent fasting do to your insulin sensitivity?
Intermittent fasting improves insulin sensitivity in most people, but watch out for possible muscle loss and hormonal effects,…
Can too much sugar weaken your immune system?
Consistently eating too much sugar disrupts the gut barrier, drives chronic inflammation, and locks immune cells into a state…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Can poor sleep cause me to develop diabetes earlier?
Consistently sleeping too little or too poorly demonstrably raises the risk of diabetes. Seven to eight hours of sleep per…
Yes · Strong evidence
What does excess weight do to your brain in the long run?
Excess weight harms your brain in multiple ways at once: less brain tissue, weaker connections and a higher risk of dementia.…
Does muscle tissue burn more calories than fat, even at rest?
Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than fat tissue, and strength training produces a measurable increase in resting…
What is visceral fat and why is it more dangerous than subcutaneous fat?
Visceral fat is more dangerous than subcutaneous fat because it sends irritating substances and fatty acids directly to the…
Does the order in which you eat your food matter?
Eating vegetables and/or protein first and carbohydrates last demonstrably blunts the post-meal blood sugar spike, even in…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does magnesium help with insulin resistance?
There is reasonable evidence that magnesium has a beneficial effect on insulin resistance, particularly if your magnesium…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Why do you gain weight more easily after 40?
After forty, your body burns fewer calories, mainly due to muscle loss and a lower resting metabolism. You therefore do not…
Does a large belly increase my risk of cancer more than being simply overweight?
A large belly raises the risk of several types of cancer more than being simply overweight, especially in men. Having your…
Yes · Strong evidence
Is brown fat really different from regular fat, and can I activate it?
Brown fat is genuinely different from regular fat and you can activate it, with cold exposure having the strongest evidence.…
Yes · Strong evidence
What does chronically high cortisol do to your belly fat and blood sugar?
Chronically high cortisol demonstrably increases deep belly fat and disrupts blood sugar regulation, which over time promotes…
How does metformin work in your body?
Metformin lowers blood sugar primarily by causing the liver to produce less new glucose, without the risk of dangerously low…
Does metformin help with weight loss?
Metformin helps with weight loss, but the effect is modest: expect a few kilograms, not a dramatic transformation. Lifestyle…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Can you take metformin without having diabetes?
Metformin has a reasonable evidence base for specific groups without diabetes (prediabetes, PCOS, overweight with insulin…
Moderate evidence
Does strength training help against insulin resistance?
Strength training probably helps against insulin resistance, although the effect is most strongly demonstrated in combination…
Yes · Strong evidence
How do you measure insulin resistance?
There is no single best method for everyone. For daily use, a fasting blood draw with HOMA or QUICKI (calculation methods for…
Does insulin resistance accelerate ageing?
Insulin resistance is associated with measurably faster biological ageing, greater muscle loss, and possibly a higher risk of…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Which foods improve your insulin sensitivity?
Diet can clearly improve your insulin sensitivity. The Mediterranean diet has the strongest evidence base, but the timing and…
Strong evidence
What are the earliest signs of insulin resistance?
Early signs of insulin resistance are measurable long before a diabetes diagnosis: elevated fasting insulin, abdominal fat,…
Can your HbA1c also be too low?
An HbA1c below 5.0% is associated with an increased risk of death in people without diabetes, although this is likely a signal…
Yes · Moderate evidence
How often should you have your HbA1c measured?
In stable diabetes, measuring twice a year is standard; when values fluctuate or treatment has changed, four times a year is…
Moderate evidence
What does your HbA1c tell you about your risk of diabetes and ageing?
An elevated HbA1c, even well below the official diabetes threshold, is associated with a greater risk of diabetes, kidney…
How do you lower a high HbA1c?
Several medications demonstrably lower HbA1c: the weekly semaglutide injection has the strongest evidence base, but oral…
Strong evidence
What is a healthy HbA1c value?
In healthy adults, a normal HbA1c falls between roughly 4.79% and 6.15%, with an average of 5.47%. If your value is above…
Do proteins inhibit your autophagy?
Proteins inhibit autophagy because amino acids from your meal keep mTOR active, the best-known brake on autophagy. If you want…
Yes · Moderate evidence
How many hours of fasting are needed to activate autophagy?
There is no proven hourly threshold for activating autophagy in humans. If you use this as a reason for a fasting pattern, be…
At what age does taking NAD+ supplements make sense?
There is no established age at which NAD+ supplementation becomes worthwhile. Studies focus on middle-aged and older adults,…
Preliminary evidence
How does too much LDL or ApoB lead to clogged arteries?
Too many LDL and apoB particles sets off a well-established chain reaction that gradually clogs arteries. Having your apoB…
What is the relation between NAD+ and vitamin B3?
Vitamin B3 is the only dietary building block for NAD+ in your body; that relationship is causal and well supported. Whether…
What is the controversy surrounding NAD+?
NAD+ supplements raise your NAD+ levels, but whether that translates into any health benefit has not been proven, and in the…
Does NAD+ cause weight gain?
Research into NAD+ supplements such as NMN and NR shows that they do not cause weight gain. In people with overweight or…
No · Moderate evidence
What are the effects if you take NAD every day?
Taking 600-900 mg of a NAD supplement per day raises your NAD levels and provides some benefit for endurance, but long-term…
Does coffee activate mTOR?
Coffee does not activate mTOR. Caffeine actually inhibits mTOR, and in humans this mechanism has not yet been directly tested.…
Chronic sleep deprivation: how harmful is it for weight and hormones?
Chronic sleep deprivation disrupts your hormones and metabolism after just a few nights. Structurally sleeping too little…
What is AMPK and how do you activate it (through fasting or exercise)?
Both fasting and intense exercise reliably activate AMPK, with high exercise intensity producing the strongest effect. If you…
Moderate evidence
What is mTOR and why does it matter in ageing?
mTOR is a switch in your cells that determines when they grow and when they clean themselves up. In ageing, that switch is set…
What does insulin do to the ageing process?
Chronically too much insulin is probably bad for healthy ageing, but science does not yet know precisely what the ideal…
Is yo-yo dieting, repeatedly gaining and losing weight, bad for me?
Yo-yo dieting is probably less harmful than is often thought, but whether it is the cause of health damage, or whether…
Moderate evidence
Does eating a lot of sugar give you type 2 diabetes?
Sugary drinks clearly and demonstrably raise your risk of type 2 diabetes. Sugar from solid food barely does. The biggest…
Does it make sense to limit blood sugar spikes, even without diabetes?
Limiting blood sugar spikes makes sense even without diabetes: the risk of cardiovascular disease appears to rise with spikes…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Why is it harder for me to lose weight than it used to be?
Ageing lowers your energy expenditure through muscle loss and a slower metabolism, making weight loss objectively harder.…
Does my metabolism really slow down as I get older?
Your metabolism does not slow down from your thirties onward, but after your sixties energy expenditure does decline…
How dangerous is a fatty liver (hepatic steatosis)?
For most people a fatty liver is stable for the time being, but it substantially raises the risk of cardiovascular disease,…
Does it matter what time of day I eat?
Eating earlier in the day is more favourable for your weight, blood sugar and hormone balance than eating late or at night.…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Are smoothies and fresh juice just as healthy as whole fruit?
Whole fruit comes out ahead of fruit juice: more fibre, greater satiety, and fewer free sugars. Smoothies fall somewhere in…
No · Moderate evidence
Does the combination of glycine and NAC (GlyNAC) help against ageing?
Early studies in older adults show that GlyNAC can simultaneously improve multiple signs of ageing, from muscle strength and…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does urolithin A from pomegranate do anything for your muscles and energy?
Urolithin A has the strongest evidence for improving muscular endurance in older adults and muscle strength in middle-aged…
Yes · Moderate evidence
Does my weight and metabolism change during the menopause transition?
During the menopause transition, your body composition changes profoundly: more fat mass, less muscle and more dangerous…
Can losing weight noticeably improve my blood pressure and cholesterol?
Losing weight noticeably lowers your blood pressure and improves your cholesterol profile, but which value improves the most…
Yes · Strong evidence
What works better for weight loss: semaglutide or tirzepatide?
Tirzepatide consistently produces greater weight loss than semaglutide, but both medications have comparable gastrointestinal…
Strong evidence
Is my gut flora linked to being overweight?
Your gut microbiome is probably linked to excess weight through multiple mechanisms, but a proven causal relationship in…
Do you actually live longer if you structurally eat fewer calories?
In laboratory animals, eating less convincingly extends lifespan, but this has not yet been demonstrated for healthy people…
Moderate evidence
What are mitochondria, and can you make them younger or more energetic?
Exercise is the only demonstrably effective way to improve mitochondria; for supplements such as NMN or urolithin A, the…
Strong evidence
Does being overweight increase my risk of cancer, and if so, which types?
Excess weight increases your risk of at least 13 types of cancer, including uterine, colorectal, breast and liver cancer.…
What is a healthy HDL (good cholesterol) level, and can I raise it?
Raising HDL through lifestyle is possible, but your genes set the ceiling. Lowering triglycerides through less sugar and…
Moderate evidence
What is a healthy waist size, and why does it matter?
A larger waist is linked to a higher risk of early death, diabetes and heart disease, independently of overall body weight. If…
What do artificial sweeteners do to your gut microbiome?
Whether artificial sweeteners truly disrupt your gut microbiome is not yet clear: studies contradict one another. Until there…
Does berberine help against high blood sugar (the natural metformin)?
Approach this with caution. Berberine measurably lowers blood sugar, but EFSA was unable to establish a safe intake level due…
Yes · Moderate evidence
How bad is fructose compared to regular sugar?
Fructose places a greater burden on the liver than glucose and raises triglycerides, belly fat and uric acid more. But regular…
How do I know if my blood sugar is healthy (prediabetes)?
Prediabetes can be measured reliably, but no single blood test provides complete certainty on its own. If in doubt, have…
I am overweight: what will losing weight do for me?
Losing weight delivers measurable health gains from as little as 5% weight loss: better blood sugar, lower blood pressure and…
Does excess weight accelerate ageing?
Excess weight demonstrably accelerates biological ageing, but metabolic health counts at least as heavily as the number on the…
What is NAD+ and why does it decline as you age?
NAD+ is an indispensable energy carrier and guardian of your DNA, and your body produces less of it as you age. The mechanisms…
What does your thyroid do to your metabolism and energy?
Your thyroid is one of the most powerful regulators of your resting metabolism, and both too little and too much hormone has…
Do diabetes pills (SGLT2 inhibitors) also work against ageing?
For people with heart or kidney problems, large studies in people show clearly that these pills do considerably more than…
Moderate evidence
Does a walk after eating help control your blood sugar?
A short walk after eating, or better still several short walking breaks of 2 to 3 minutes spread throughout the day, is a…
Yes · Strong evidence
Are diet sodas and artificial sweeteners bad for you, and if so, why?
Diet soda and artificial sweeteners have not been proven harmful, but the signals are not reassuring enough to justify…
Moderate evidence
What is metabolic syndrome and how do I get rid of it?
Metabolic syndrome is a combination of abdominal fat, high blood pressure, disturbed blood sugar, and poor blood lipids, and…
Strong evidence
Is a glucose meter useful if you don't have diabetes?
Without diabetes, a glucose monitor gives you some genuinely interesting information about how your body responds to food,…
Preliminary evidence
What is insulin resistance and can I reverse it?
Insulin resistance can be meaningfully improved with exercise and a modest weight loss of 7 to 10 percent. You do not need a…
Strong evidence
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Children’s body fat does not rebound at age six
For 42 years, doctors have flagged rising BMI in six-year-olds as an early warning sign of obesity. New research suggests that…
1 min
Five blood proteins flag liver disease sixteen years early
A liver disease linked to obesity and poor diet is usually caught only after serious damage has occurred. A panel of five…
1 min
Weight-loss startup bets against GLP-1 drugs
The obesity drug market is dominated by one type of medicine.
1 min
A long RNA molecule guards liver immunity with age
Inside the liver lives a long RNA molecule that keeps the balance between immunity and metabolism in check. In ageing mice,…
1 min
Gut bacteria metabolite speeds up brain aging
A compound made by gut bacteria appears to damage the brain. And the older you get, the more of it circulates in your blood.
2 min
Sensory nerves drive cancer-related muscle loss
Cancer patients often lose muscle and body weight rapidly, even when they are eating.
1 min
Cancer suppresses appetite through sensory nerves
Many cancer patients lose dramatic amounts of weight, not because they refuse to eat, but because their body actively…
1 min
Statins keep hearts of people with obesity healthy
People with obesity have worse cardiovascular health. That is the conventional wisdom. A 25-year study now challenges that…
2 min
Diabetes accelerates shoulder damage through tendon decay
People with diabetes suffer from serious shoulder problems far more often than those without. The link has been known for some…
1 min
Midlife blood metabolites linked to brain aging
Long before any symptoms appear, your blood may already be signaling how your brain is aging.
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Are GLP-1 drugs actually slowing down aging?
GLP-1 receptor agonists are widely used for obesity and diabetes. But could they do something more fundamental, actually…
1 min
Blood metabolites link midlife lifestyle to brain aging
What your blood looks like at fifty may predict how your brain holds up at seventy. A large study now maps that connection…
2 min
GLP-1 drugs are reshaping health spending
Weight-loss drugs like semaglutide are wildly popular. But the bill is mounting fast: the US spent nearly $5.
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Fat around arteries fuels heart disease from within
A thin layer of fat wraps around most small arteries. In healthy people, it helps vessels relax. In obesity and high blood…
2 min
New aging clock merges proteins and metabolites
A biological clock that simultaneously measures proteins and small molecules in blood predicts chronic diseases more…
2 min
How innate immune memory rewires cell metabolism
Your immune system remembers more than just infections. Immune cells can learn from earlier activation and respond more…
2 min
GLP-1 drugs: who wins the market race?
Wegovy and Zepbound currently dominate the weight loss drug market. But Pfizer, Amgen and others are positioning themselves to…
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Senolytics reshape immunity and metabolism in aged mice
What happens inside the body after senescent cells are cleared? A new study maps the answer in unprecedented detail, and the…
2 min
The placenta keeps its own biological time
The placenta, the organ that sustains a foetus throughout pregnancy, appears to have its own internal clock. Researchers…
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Naked mole-rats age without metabolic decline
The naked mole-rat lives up to ten times longer than comparably sized rodents.
2 min
Diabetes and dementia are more linked than thought
People with diabetes face a higher risk of dementia. But the relationship runs both ways: the two conditions reinforce each…
2 min
GLP-1 drug measurably slows biological aging
A widely used weight-loss drug does more than shed pounds. Researchers found that semaglutide also slows biological aging, as…
2 min
GLP-1 drugs cost supermarkets a billion
People using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss eat measurably less. In the United Kingdom, that already wiped nearly a billion…
1 min
TORC1 links chromosome errors to cell growth
Errors in how chromosomes are divided during cell division seem unrelated to metabolism.
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Severe obesity reshapes the heart’s muscle proteins
In severe obesity, the heart works differently at the molecular level. A study in Science now shows exactly what changes…
1 min
B cells reprogram their metabolism upon activation
When the immune system detects a threat, B cells do not just produce antibodies. They also completely restructure their…
2 min
Lysine modification links cell metabolism to gene activity
A small chemical tag on an amino acid turns out to play a surprisingly large role in cell biology.
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Sirtuin 1 links exercise to metabolic benefits
Exercise improves metabolism in dozens of ways, but pinpointing which molecule causes which benefit is genuinely hard.
2 min
Metformin targets ATP synthase in cancer cells
Metformin has been the most prescribed type 2 diabetes drug for decades. New research now shows it also inhibits cancer cells…
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Tooth infections disrupt insulin
A silent infection deep inside a tooth can do far more than cause jaw pain.
2 min
Aging muscle stem cells lose glutamine metabolism
Muscle stem cells in older animals struggle to activate. A new study pinpoints the reason: a specific metabolic pathway fueled…
2 min
Weightlessness accelerates aging like a fast-forward
Scientists studying aging face one persistent obstacle: it takes a long time for animals to grow old. An unlikely solution is…
1 min
Obesity and Alzheimer share molecular pathways
Obesity raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The link has been suspected for years, but the underlying biology was murky. A…
2 min
Sugar-damaged proteins are quietly accelerating your aging, here’s what the science says
Your body is full of proteins that have been chemically modified by sugar, not because of what you eat, but because of basic…
2 min
A protein deficiency that should weaken cancer cells actually makes them grow faster
When a key energy-producing protein is reduced in cancer cells, the tumors don’t slow down, they accelerate. New research…
2 min
Losing weight doesn’t fully reset your immune system, it may remember years of obesity
The weight can come off. But according to a new study in mice, the immune system may hold onto a memory of obesity long after…
2 min
Intermittent fasting reshapes the liver, brain and muscles
Periodic fasting has been promoted for years as a powerful way to improve metabolism. But how the body actually responds…
2 min
A metabolic hormone slowed spinal disc aging in rats, and it’s already being tested in humans for other reasons
Back pain from worn spinal discs is one of the most common consequences of getting older.
2 min
When a key metabolic enzyme fades, fat cells age faster, and take the body with them
Fat tissue ages. That much has been known for a while. But what drives the aging process inside individual fat cells has…
2 min
How gut bacteria may be slowly breaking down your brain, and what science is doing about it
Your gut microbiome sends messages directly to your brain through metabolites and inflammatory signals.
2 min
Eating less protein reshapes your fat tissue - and your gut bacteria are doing the work
Restricting protein triggers a conversion of white fat into brown fat, a metabolically healthier tissue type. But the body…
2 min
Immune cells that can sniff out tumors: a new chapter in cancer therapy
Cancer cells leak specific metabolites, chemical byproducts of their abnormally high energy use. Researchers have now…
2 min
BioAge Labs: Promising Early Data for a New Metabolism Drug Targeting Aging
A small biotech company that treats aging as the biological root of metabolic disease has released early clinical results for…
2 min
Liver disease starts more quietly than we thought: how molecular profiles expose early MASLD
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, MASLD, the new name for what used to be called "fatty liver…
2 min
BioAge Labs scores a breakthrough with new metabolism drug targeting aging
BioAge Labs, a biopharmaceutical company focused on slowing biological aging, has presented positive interim results for its…
1 min
The Liver Changes Long Before the Blood Tells: New Molecular Atlas of Early Fatty Liver Disease
More than a billion people worldwide have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, yet the molecular events…
2 min
Your immune system as a clock: how aging dismantles your defenses from the inside out
Your immune system is not just your shield against pathogens; it is also one of the first systems to buckle under the weight…
1 min
Your metabolism as a smoke detector: this molecule puts the brakes on the inflammation that ages you
Chronic low-grade inflammation, known as "inflammaging," is one of the most dangerous silent drivers of aging.
1 min
The mysterious metabolite that puts the brakes on inflammaging
As you get older, your immune system is increasingly on high alert, even when there is no real threat.
2 min
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