In an effort to slash heart disease, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans [1] have since 1977 been urging people to: 

 

1. Reduce total fat consumption to 30% of total caloric intake.

 

2. Reduce saturated fat consumption to 10% of total energy intake.

 

Government issued dietary guidelines are highly authoritative and regarded by a majority as being backed by solid research. However, as it turns out, this is not the case… 

 

Dietary recommendations regarding intake of total and saturated fat are highly controversial, and the debate is heating up. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of six studies that were available 1977, when the first version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was published, shows: [2]

 

Population studies show that men with low or low-normal testosterone levels are at an increased risk of mortality compared to those with higher levels, and that cardiovascular disease accounts for the greater proportion of deaths in men with low testosterone.[1] 

 

Here I summarize a medical review paper which addressed the following two questions: [1]

 

1.  Is testosterone deficiency directly involved in the pathogenesis of these conditions or is it merely a biomarker of ill health and the severity of underlying disease processes?

 

2.  Does testosterone replacement therapy retard disease progression and ultimately enhance the clinical prognosis and survival?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A key hallmark of aging is a progressive loss of muscle mass, which occurs independently of health status.[1] Exercise and nutrition are the two main anabolic stimuli for muscle growth and its maintenance throughout the life course.[2-11]

 

It is clear that maintaining high physical activity and exercise levels throughout ones lifespan reduces aging related loss of muscle mass and function, compared with living a sedentary life.[12-19]

 

However, even active older adults and master elite athletes still experience some loss of muscle and physical performance with advancing age.[8, 13, 20]

 

When it comes to nutrition, high protein intake [2, 3, 10, 21] and creatine supplementation [4-8, 22] are two of the best documented interventions, which together with resistance exercise training, result in greater increases muscle mass and strength in both young [21-23] and older people [2-8, 10], and prevent its loss with aging. Here I will present the relatively unknown effevts of fish oil (most well-known for its cardiovascular health promoting effects) on muscle growth (anabolism) and its possible contribution to prevention of aging related loss of muscle mass and function...