Providing independent clinical excellence since 2005
In cardiometabolic medicine, muscle is not a cosmetic tissue but a metabolic organ. Evidence consistently shows that strength, not muscle mass, predicts insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk, and survival. Many older adults are not losing muscle tissue — they are losing muscle function, and that is the pathology that matters.
When people think about cholesterol, they often imagine it as something floating in the blood, disconnected from body fat. In reality, the type and location of body fat — particularly visceral fat (VAT) — profoundly influence how the liver packages and clears cholesterol. Raised VAT doesn’t just sit silently around the organs; it acts like an endocrine organ, sending chemical distress signals that shift lipid metabolism in an atherogenic direction.
Menopause often brings a hidden shift in fat storage—from hips to abdomen—driven by falling oestrogen and loss of muscle. This article explains why visceral fat matters more than weight, how simple screening can detect risk early, and how HRT, lifestyle change, and modern tools can protect long-term heart and metabolic health.
N-of-1 medicine shifts the focus from population averages to personal biology. This blog series explores how individuals can run simple, safe self-experiments — using themselves as the control — to test plausible health hypotheses, track meaningful outcomes, and discover what genuinely improves their own health and wellbeing over time.
Ten minutes of strength training, five days a week, is enough to change metabolic health. Like brushing your teeth, it works because it’s sustainable. Keep the time fixed, increase the weights gradually, and focus on strength, not scales. Small daily habits protect muscle, reduce visceral fat, and support long-term health.
Measuring your waist isn’t about shape or clothing size. It’s a simple health check that reflects harmful visceral fat around the organs. Measuring the narrowest point can miss risk. For meaningful results, waist must be measured at a fixed anatomical point and tracked consistently over time.
A 2026 BMJ systematic review confirms that weight regain is the rule after stopping pharmacological weight-management therapy. Across drug classes, most lost weight is regained within 24 months, with parallel loss of metabolic benefit. This reflects biological defence of adiposity, not patient failure.
Medical imaging is the only reliable way to assess true body composition. Weight and smart scales cannot distinguish bone, muscle, or visceral fat. DEXA and low-dose CT provide accurate insight, while home tracking tools support the behavioural change needed to lower visceral fat and long-term cardiometabolic risk.
Smart body composition scales are not metabolic truth machines. Their value lies in engagement, not precision. During weight loss—especially with GLP-1 therapy—hydration and glycogen shifts distort “muscle” readings. Used within a tiered system that prioritises waist, strength, and function, they can support behaviour without undermining progress.
January isn’t just about weight loss. Much winter weight gain occurs as visceral fat, which drives insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk. Measuring your waist, not just your weight, gives a clearer picture of metabolic health. Building muscle and reducing visceral fat supports a healthier metabolism long after January ends.
Reducing saturated fat intake is known to lower “bad” cholesterol (LDL-C) and reduce heart disease risk, but responses vary widely between individuals. Research shows that genetics strongly influence how much LDL rises when people eat foods like butter, cheese, or fatty meats compared with unsaturated fats such as olive oil, nuts, and oily fish. Even on the same diet, LDL responses can differ by up to 1 mmol/L, reflecting genetic differences in intestinal cholesterol absorption and how efficiently LDL is cleared from the bloodstream.
One of the greatest challenges in the online world is investigator bias. Any “expert” with a strong conviction — whether pro- or anti-statin — can easily find studies that appear to confirm their view. The internet is full of such cherry-picked data. When presented with confident authority, this can sound utterly convincing to a lay audience. The reality is that true medical understanding does not come from one paper, one YouTube video, or one self-proclaimed authority.