I’m just back from a research trip to the Arctic Circle, where I was investigating living in near-darkness (hence my Northern Lights photograph), snowshoeing, and the diet of the Sami people, amongst other things. While I was away, it was the anniversary of my father’s death. He died from a sudden, unexpected heart attack, the…
WHEN TO FALL ASLEEP – AND FOR HOW LONG?
I’ve been thinking about sleep recently. We all know it’s important. But how important? And what else should we know? Three years ago, when I met Professor Hornberger, an expert in dementia and ageing, he was adamant that the quality of sleep mattered most – not the quantity. He explained the importance of slow-wave sleep…
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT SELENIUM?
The talk in geroscience circles over the last fortnight has been all about selenium: can selenium supplements give us the longer healthier life we want? The excitement was sparked by an experiment that found mice given selenium supplements had an improved health span (a longer disease-free period at the end of their lives). How does…
WHY A 12 MINUTE WALK IS ALL IT TAKES (AND A SPECIAL OFFER)
This week a recent report on exercise caught my eye. As the days shorten and darken, as the weather closes in, those long walks we all took in the magnificently sunny lockdown #1 don’t seem quite so appealing. For those of us in the UK, lockdown #2 has been subject to repeated deluges of rain,…
BRAIN-BUILDING, PREVENTING OSTEOPOROSIS, WHAT CARDIOLOGISTS DO FOR HEART HEALTH… AND THE NEW CANADIAN EATING GUIDELINES
I was at a boxing day party of cardiologists this year, many of whom had come straight from the local hospital where they’d been treating Christmas day heart attacks as well as looking after the usual heart-diseased in-patients. I noticed (glumly) that none of the cardiologists were drinking or snatching at the canapes, so I…
What you need to know about sunscreen this summer
I’m conflicted about sunscreen. How about you? Of course, I don’t want to get skin cancer, wrinkles or sunburn, but on the other hand, slathering myself with a concoction of chemicals which block essential longevity nutrients doesn’t fill me with joy either. But, as I’m about to head off to somewhere hot and (hopefully) sunny,…
WHY WE NEED SILENCE TO AGE WELL
As I write this I can hear a pneumatic drill, the drone of overhead aircraft, a neighbour’s dog barking and the thrum of streaming traffic from a nearby road. And that’s just from outside my house. Inside, my washing machine is bleeping (why do all white goods now come with noisy alerts?), a bathroom fan…
AIR PURIFIERS AND THE PERFECT SAUCE TO PEP UP STEAMED GREENS
We’ve been promising to write about air purifiers for a few months. Thank you to the readers who reminded us to get on with it! As it happens, our timing is good: experts have just called for air purifiers to be installed into the schools most affected by air pollution. And because green veggies have…
THE OILS AND FATS WE KEEP IN OUR AGE-WELL KITCHENS
Which oils do you keep in your kitchen? Do you fry with olive oil? What’s the controversy around coconut oil? What about ghee? At our Guardian Masterclass on Tuesday night there were lots of questions about which oils and fats we use, and their age-well properties. We’ve made no secret of our love of olive…
CAN YOU EAT TO BEAT POLLUTION?
Worried about pollution? We are too. This week, researchers announced that air pollution is now killing more people than smoking. The new study focuses on ozone and PM2.5 (they’re the tiny particles of Particulate Matter invisible to the naked eye but able to penetrate our lungs and – possibly – cross into our blood). The…
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