Ovarian cancer affects around one in 50 UK women – that’s 7,100 each year – but it can be hard to diagnose early, as symptoms are often vague to start…
Health
Why more of us are having joint replacement surgery
As more of us stay active well into middle age and beyond, the number of people under the age of 60 choosing to have hip replacements has increased by 76%…
Food waste: Don’t bin it… Eat it!
Every year we throw away seven million tonnes of food and drink – enough to fill around 97 million wheelie bins, or around one and a half wheelie bins for…
Clinical trials: Should you join one?
Medical advances rely on high-quality research to find new or more effective treatments, or abandon old ones. More than 600,000 of us took part in clinical NHS research in 2014,…
Asperger syndrome in adults
Asperger syndrome affects up to one person in 200, and is a high-functioning form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a lifelong condition that affects the way people interact with the…
Halt hay fever in its tracks
Who knew? In the last three decades, the number of people affected by hay fever has trebled. There are now 18 million sufferers in the UK, and even if we…
Multiple sclerosis: A new leap forward?
More than 100,000 people in the UK have multiple sclerosis (MS), a long-term condition that affects the nervous system. It occurs in three times as many women as men and…
Weight loss: 10 reasons why you’re struggling to shift pounds
1 Exercise is making you fat ‘The truth is, exercise doesn’t burn as many calories as we like to imagine it does – and too often we ‘reward’ our efforts…
Menopause symptoms: Do you know them?
1 Which foods are better to avoid? A Spicy B Soya Answer: A Spice is a notorious stimulant and likely to trigger night sweats and hot flushes if you’re one…
Heart failure: Are you at risk?
Acute heart failure (AHF) is the most common cause of hospital admissions, with more than 67,000 a year in England and Wales. And although it’s more likely as we get…
What to eat and when
In Your Twenties And Thirties A hectic time when healthy eating might be low on our list of priorities, but it’s the time for laying down a healthy foundation. Eat…
Obesity: Why it’s so bad for our heath
Over half of us are now overweight in early adult life, and almost two thirds of us are overweight or obese by our mid-fifties. Obesity is becoming such a problem…
Cancer questions answered
Q Why is it so important to avoid infections such as colds? Chemo drugs suppress the immune system so there’s a much greater risk of a mild infection developing into…
Tips for coping with the death of a loved one
Grief is the price we pay for love, but it can feel as if our own life has ended, too. We may never really get over our loss, but we…
Epilepsy: What you need to know
Over half a million people in the UK (one in every 100)have epilepsy, a neurological condition that triggers recurrent seizures. These are caused by sudden abnormal electrical activity in brain…
Getting a grip on hand pain
The 27 little bones in our hands and wrists, anda network of muscles, ligaments and nerves, make our hands incredibly flexible, strong and precise. But repetitive and/or inappropriate use can…
How to protect your hearing
Eleven million people (one in six) in the UK are living with hearing loss, according to a new report, and this could rise to 15.6 million by 2035. But…
Sepsis: 6 things to know about blood poisoning
Sepsis (blood poisoning or septicaemia) develops when our bodies are overwhelmed by infection. It’s five times more fatal than a heart attack or stroke, and kills around 44,000 people of…
Diabetes: Symptoms and how to lower your risk
Around a million people in the UK are set to develop diabetes in the next few years, adding to the three million or so diagnosed, and around 590,000 who don’t…
The surprising health benefits of ‘naughty’ food
Red and processed meat The good news: Red meat is a ‘complete’ protein (containing all the amino acids that the body can’t make on its own). It’s also a great…