Two 2026 meta-analyses, one of 43 school programmes and 27,626 pupils and one of 51 trials of fitness work embedded in PE lessons, set the realistic expectation for a fitness-based physical education programme.

High-sensitivity CRP is the everyday blood marker for low-grade inflammation, and interleukin-6 is the one researchers increasingly watch. Here is what each tells you about cardiovascular risk, and why a single reading needs care.

150 minutes a week produces modest weight loss; 225 to 420 produces clinically meaningful loss. What the obesity-exercise review and a three-arm trial say about volume, type and intensity, and the benefits that arrive before the scale moves.

Depression raises obesity risk and obesity raises depression risk, through inflammation, cortisol and leptin. What the mechanism reviews show, and why some people are far more stress-susceptible than others.

In autism, the dose of exercise matters more than the fact of it - vigorous, structured movement reduces repetitive behaviours and builds social and motor skills. And what the small diet trials actually show.

Across 24 randomised trials, exercise made people with HIV fitter, leaner, stronger and happier - and neither helped nor harmed CD4 count or viral load. What to train, how often, and why the medication stays.

Aerobic exercise grows the very structure Alzheimer's shrinks, and a lifetime of activity lowers risk in proportion to the dose. The ketone idea is clever and encouraging - but a few weeks of data is a lead, not a treatment.

Exercise treats clinical anxiety about as well as many accepted therapies, and the harder sessions work best. Where the pooled trials land, and where the diet claims actually stand.

ALS motor neurons are fragile, and intensity is what breaks them - not movement. Why moderate twice-weekly training slowed functional and breathing decline in the trials, and why hard training did the opposite.

An aneurysm is a balloon, and balloons fear spikes, not steady pressure. Why moderate exercise is encouraged, maximal breath-held straining is not, and how size sets the rules.

A narrowed aortic valve caps what the heart can put out on demand. Why mild stenosis has no limits, moderate-to-severe rules out the vigorous and breath-held, and symptoms mean the valve - not the programme - is the treatment.

Angina is a ceiling on the heart's oxygen supply, and training lowers the cost of everything beneath it. What cardiac rehabilitation reliably delivers - and what the trials have not yet shown.

Obesity does not weaken muscle - it adds load. Why heavier people are stronger in absolute terms but weaker per kilogram, why they breathe hard at low lung volumes, and how gait shifts to protect stability and stress the knee.

An Institute of Medicine evidence review and a 92-trial meta-analysis show that activity does not cost academic time, improves attention and classroom behaviour, and lifts achievement only when it is designed to.

An umbrella review of 32 systematic reviews on the built environment and a review of endocrine-disrupting obesogens sort the environmental contributors to obesity by how much the evidence actually supports them.

A USDA systematic review of 21 studies and a five-week preschool trial show that repeated tasting, not persuasion, is what changes what children will eat.

After traumatic brain injury and persisting concussion symptoms, carefully dosed aerobic exercise below the symptom threshold improves symptoms, mood, dizziness, fatigue and quality of life - a reversal of the old 'rest in a dark room' advice. How the sub-symptom-threshold approach works, and why it must be supervised.

For older adults, resistance training reliably improves strength and physical function - the meta-analysis says two to three sessions a week, progressing from moderate to heavy loads. What the numbers show it can and can't do for muscle mass, and the practical prescription for staying strong and independent.

Roughly a third of adults worldwide meet the criteria, and any three of five markers is enough. Metabolic syndrome doubles cardiovascular risk and raises type 2 diabetes risk about fivefold - but meeting activity guidelines is associated with roughly a third lower odds of having it. What the criteria are and what actually shifts them.

Adult obesity has more than doubled since 1990 and adolescent obesity has quadrupled. High BMI contributed to around 3.7 million deaths from noncommunicable disease in 2021. What the definitions actually are, what the numbers show, and where BMI as a measure stops being useful.