Weekly Emails

SMH

Metformin blunts muscle hypertrophy in response to progressive resistance training

This story serves to remind me that we are not wired to think scientifically. Full stop. It is the quintessential human flaw. But scientific thinking is a skill to be practiced and improved upon.

I dig a little deeper into the recent study that suggests (to some) the answer is yes.

There are not many topics in clinical medicine more polarizing than hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women suffering from menopausal symptoms. Recently, The Lancet published a study finding “definite” excess risks of breast cancer associated with the use of HRT (with the exception of vaginal estrogen), and the issue included an accompanying editorial entitled “Menopausal hormones:…

I realize it may seem like Groundhog Day for you to see more prose from me about how to think about studies rather than the tactical bits we think we can immediately extract and employ from them. Just remember, it’s better to learn how to fish than to be given … you get it.

I’m left bewildered: there are more questions than answers in most scientific pursuits, but I want to stress the point here that these aren’t rhetorical questions.

But in the short-term (at least up to a week for most people), I believe you can maintain muscle mass while fasting, particularly if you’re resistance training.

All of this is very interesting, but what I find much more interesting in this study is that the placebo group did not lose any substantive LBM, while losing about the same amount of fat (10 lb) as the testosterone group, despite the severe CR/energy-deficit.

If that weren’t enough to set me off, consider the overall weakness of this study, and the choice of the word “proven” borders on journalistic manslaughter.