Essentials

Atrophy is a simple and opposing process to hypertrophy. Just as exercise can drive an adaptive increase in muscle mass, lack of exercise can cause a reductive adaptation or loss of muscle mass. As one would expect, the entire muscle may shrink in size such that it is easily and visually detectable, but atrophy occurs at every level of muscular organization, beginning with the molecular.

In this 2011 trial, resistance exercise is shown to reduce liver fat content even in the absence of weight loss. Resistance exercise improves muscle’s ability to effectively regulate circulating glucose and fat levels, a change that reduces insulin resistance and liver fat buildup. At minimum, this indicates resistance exercise alone may help reverse insulin resistance and fatty liver disease. More importantly, it suggests treatments that induce weight loss, such as other changes to diet and exercise, may drive more rapid and effective metabolic improvements when paired with resistance training.

This 2019 review analyzed randomized controlled trials testing the effect of one or more dietary factors on heart disease incidence, heart disease mortality, or overall mortality. It found that nearly all common dietary patterns and supplements fail to reduce cardiovascular risk or overall mortality. Notably, no diet focused on modifying the amount or type of fat in the diet had any significant impact on overall mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or cardiovascular risk.

High-level CrossFit trainers consistently use movement progressions to break down a complex movement into more manageable pieces. These pieces act as building blocks for the critical skills needed to successfully execute the full movement.

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.

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.

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 physiological process of increasing the size of an entire muscle is known as hypertrophy. Human muscle has a huge capacity for hypertrophy and is able to increase in size by 200% or more. A person maintains this ability throughout his or her lifespan.