Metabolic Health – NatWonk – Dr Bier’s Research Reviews

HbA1c and Risks of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Death in Subjects without Known Diabetes: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

February 8, 2026

| Cancer, Longevity & Mortality, Metabolic Health

Comment: The traditional clinical focus on hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) often assumes a benign risk profile until the formal 6.5% diabetic threshold is reached, which is something we in the Naturopathic world know to not be true. This dose-response meta-analysis dismantles that assumption, identifying that every 1% increase in HbA1c is associated with a 3% increase […]

Time Restricted Eating and Intermittent Fasting Synthesis

January 25, 2026

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| Cancer, Cardiovascular Health, Diet & Nutrition, Metabolic Health, Synthesis

The Wonk Debate – Audio Critique & Clinical Commentary: The “Metabolic Panacea” Delusion: When Fasting Signals Catabolism and Mortality Updated: 1-25-2026 The “Metabolic Panacea” Delusion: When Fasting Signals Catabolism and Mortality The current fervor surrounding Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) and Intermittent Fasting has created a profound Core Tension: a collision between the biochemical promise of “metabolic […]

Effects of Time-Restricted Eating on Weight Loss and Other Metabolic Parameters in Women and Men With Overweight and Obesity

January 25, 2026

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| Diet & Nutrition, Metabolic Health

Comment: This is a really important study, as it is a randomized controlled trial, vs some of the other retrospective ones. And it is showing some of the same negative outcomes, strengthening the findings of those weaker trial designs. We are beginning to see a consistent, sobering pattern in the literature regarding Time-Restricted Eating (TRE). […]

Variation in PCSK9 and HMGCR and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes

December 13, 2025

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| Metabolic Health

Comment: This study presents a fascinating potential validation of the ‘on-target’ theory regarding lipid lowering and metabolic risk. The fact that genetically mimicking PCSK9 inhibition yields the same small increase in diabetes risk as mimicking statins implies a common downstream pathway—likely intracellular cholesterol accumulation in pancreatic beta cells. This means we should be looking at […]

Association Between Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol-Lowering Genetic Variants and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-analysis

December 10, 2025

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| Cardiovascular Health, Metabolic Health

Comment: This study is a potential critical piece of the puzzle because it bridges the gap between clinical observation and biological causality. We have known for some time from major clinical trials that statin therapy is associated with a slightly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, a lingering question has always been whether […]

A six-year longitudinal study identifies a statin-independent association between low LDL-cholesterol and risk of type 2 diabetes

December 2, 2025

| No Comments

| Metabolic Health

Comment: This study reinforces a critical physiological reality often obscured by the aggressive ‘lower is better’ paradigm for lipids. While the cardiovascular benefits of managing dyslipidemia are well-established, we frequently ignore the risks of hypocholesterolemia, such as in this study. Beyond the diabetes signal identified here, very low LDL (<70 mg/dL) has been consistently linked […]

Association of Skipping Breakfast with Metabolic Syndrome and Its Components: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

October 24, 2025

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| Cardiovascular Health, Diet & Nutrition, Metabolic Health

Comment: I am in general not a fan of intermittent fasting as my experience is it puts the body in a state of stress, which may give short term gains, but longer term negative outcomes. This is a study showing that skipping breakfast increases metabolic syndrome, including blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipids and central […]