Sodium, blood pressure and stroke
Lowering sodium intake lowers blood pressure in trials; raised blood pressure is a major, well-characterised risk factor for stroke.
Health pathways and lifestyle research
Explore illustrative links between diet, air quality, activity, stress and health outcomes, with research citations and explicit evidence limits.
Educational only. Population associations are not personal predictions. Pathway widths are synthetic illustration units. Read source populations and limitations.
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Sodium, blood pressure and heart disease
Blood pressure links sodium to cardiovascular disease. A rural Chinese salt-substitution trial reduced cardiovascular events, but changed potassium as well as sodium.
Sugary drinks, adiposity and type 2 diabetes
Higher sugar-sweetened beverage intake is associated with weight gain and higher type 2 diabetes incidence in cohort studies.
Outdoor fine particles and airway inflammation
Fine particulate matter irritates and inflames airways and is linked to chronic respiratory disease and acute worsening episodes.
Outdoor fine particles and cardiovascular events
Long-term particle exposure is associated with cardiovascular disease; blood pressure and vascular inflammation are proposed intermediates.
Household smoke and respiratory disease
Cooking and heating with polluting fuels in poorly ventilated homes is linked to chronic respiratory disease, especially among women and children.
Air pollution and asthma flare-ups
Short-term pollution peaks coincide with more asthma symptoms and visits in time-series studies.
Inactivity, metabolic dysfunction and type 2 diabetes
Low physical activity is associated with insulin resistance and higher type 2 diabetes risk; activity interventions improve glucose control.
Inactivity, adiposity and heart disease
Sedentary lifestyles are associated with weight gain and cardiovascular disease, partly via adiposity.
Regular activity and better cardiometabolic fitness
Regular moderate activity is consistently associated with lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and depression. This is a protective direction, not a disease pathway.
Exercise and depressive symptoms
A network meta-analysis of randomised trials found reductions in depressive symptoms with several forms of exercise. This is a treatment direction, not proof of preventing depression.
Repetitive loading, overuse and tendinopathy
Rapid increases in repetitive load without recovery are linked to tendon overuse injury. This concerns training load, not exercise as such.
Occupational repetitive strain
Repetitive manual work is associated with musculoskeletal pain in cross-sectional surveys.
Chronic stress and sleep disruption
Persistent stress is associated with poorer sleep, and poor sleep with depression and anxiety. Direction runs both ways.
Chronic stress and blood pressure
Stress produces short blood pressure rises; whether chronic stress causes lasting hypertension and stroke independent of behaviour is contested.
Stress, metabolism and type 2 diabetes
Stress hormones affect glucose regulation in lab settings; population links with diabetes are inconsistent.
Job strain and coronary heart disease
A synthesis of 13 European cohorts associated high demands and low job control with incident coronary events. No intermediate mechanism is assumed in this direct link.
Dietary fibre, risk markers and chronic disease
Higher-fibre diets improved several cardiometabolic markers in trials and were associated with lower cardiovascular disease and diabetes in cohorts.
Neighbourhood design and everyday movement
Across 14 cities, selected features of activity-friendly neighbourhoods were associated with more accelerometer-measured activity. The map stops at movement because disease events were not measured.