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This 2019 piece documents the work of English anesthetist John Carlisle, who has developed and used statistical methods to identify published research papers with questionable results. Carlisle’s work has found data issues within and outside the anesthesiological research space and has led to high-profile retractions, such as that of the PREDIMED, a study that drove increased interest in the Mediterranean diet in 2013.

Dr. Michael Eades argues insulinocentric bias has kept most researchers focused on using insulin over the past 90 years of Type 1 diabetes treatment. The problem, he claims, is that the treatment has proven largely ineffective at getting and keeping patients’ blood glucose levels in normal ranges. Citing a landmark study by Dr. Robert Unger, Eades observes that glucagon, not insulin, may be the primary hormone causing the metabolic chaos seen in the disease. But despite the promise of alternative T1DM treatments emerging in clinical studies with animals, mainstream medicine continues to pursue insulin pumps and an ever-expanding array of injectable insulins and insulin analogs.

“Millions of Americans use dietary supplements and a variety of diets to protect their heart health. But a large new analysis found that there was strikingly little proof from rigorous studies that supplements and some widely recommended diets have the power to prevent heart disease. The findings are likely to elicit controversy and continued debate. But the researchers said one clear message from their analysis was that the more than half of Americans who use dietary supplements should be wary of claims that multivitamins and other supplements will improve their heart health. …When [the authors] looked at various diets recommended for cardiovascular prevention, they found a similar lack of solid evidence. That was certainly the case for low-fat diets, which health authorities have recommended for decades as a way to lower cholesterol and heart disease risk. ...the most rigorous randomized trials provided no evidence that eating less fat, including saturated fat, had an impact on mortality or cardiovascular outcomes.”

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick offers a brief history of Type 2 diabetes, from references to the disease by ancient Roman physicians, through a well-known 17th-century discourse, and into the 20th century, when a shift in eating habits corresponded to a sudden rise in diabetes incidence. Kendrick observes that the shift occurred as the diet-heart hypothesis, the belief that consuming saturated fat raises cholesterol levels and promotes heart disease, became more widely accepted. As the dietary guidelines changed, people began consuming less fat and more carbohydrates — to devastating effect.

Dr. Maryanne Demasi earned a Ph.D. in rheumatology from the University of Adelaide, but perhaps the most formative experience she had with the medical sciences occurred while she was an investigative journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). During her tenure with the ABC, she produced a two-part series called “Heart of the Matter,” which challenged the role of cholesterol in heart disease and addressed the overprescription of statin drugs. The fallout from the series was not swift, but it was decisive. In this presentation, delivered on June 8, 2019, at a CrossFit Health event at CrossFit Headquarters, Demasi shares her personal experiences and the challenges she faced while trying to relay the limitations of statin data to the public.

A 2010 basic research study finds fructose supports greater RNA production in pancreatic cancer cells than glucose, and by extension may preferentially support cancer cell growth and replication.

“The only liver disease becoming more widespread in the U.S. is one driven by obesity and diabetes, even as other types of liver disorders linked to drinking or hepatitis are becoming less common, researchers say. For the study, researchers examined nationwide health survey data collected in five cycles between 1988 and 2016. Over this period, the proportion of adults with what’s known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rose from 20% to 28.3%, mirroring increases in rates of obesity and diabetes over the same period.”

This 2015 trial used Womens’ Health Study data and a consideration of three alternative lipid biomarkers to demonstrate that LDL cholesterol markers significantly under- or overestimate heart disease risk in a meaningful segment of the population. Specifically, in individuals with low levels of insulin resistance — such as those following a low-carb diet alongside regular exercise — high LDL-C levels may not indicate elevated heart disease risk. Conversely, insulin-resistant individuals with low LDL-C levels may still be at a high risk of heart disease.