Come Walk With Me First things first, the 2025 London Festival of Walking is hosting a free conference (2 May) on strolling, featuring the neuroscientist, Professor Shane O’Mara, and yours truly (that’s me, Annabel). If you’re interested in the biology, neuroscience, politics or simply the joys, of walking, you can claim a place by registering…
LOOK AFTER YOUR FEET THIS SUMMER
Look after your feet and they will look after you. Fair enough. Especially as it’s full-on walking season. On which note, I hope you’re all managing to get out each day if only for a short walk. Ideally, for a long walk. Preferably an hour a day. We all know that movement is good…
SMELL, STRESS, POETRY AND THE BRAIN
It’s national walking month, apparently. For me, every month is a walking month but I’ll admit that May is a particularly enchanting time to walk in Britain – hawthorn blossom, bluebells, birdsong in abundance. And air drenched in perfume. Making May the ideal month in which to walk more. And to walk differently. We know…
THE ENDURING MAGIC OF MOVEMENT AND A GIVEAWAY
I hardly need to remind any of our readers that movement is the single most important thing you can do for your future health, surpassing every supplement, every sleep aid and almost every dietary intervention. As the days shorten and darken, exercise is sometimes the first thing to go. And yet barely a week goes…
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…
COULD WINTER SEA SWIMMING LIFT YOUR MOOD?
Last week Teenage Daughter asked me to go for a sea swim with her. It was February. It was cold. I had just rolled out of my deliciously warm bed. But having spent the last year saying ‘No’ to all her requests (Can I see a friend? No. Can I go out? No. Can I…
THE BODY ON GRIEF
The pandemic has been a testing time for all of us. But for me and my family, our darkest ‘hour’ came in December. We lost two of the most important men in our lives: my almost-step-father died after a long illness in a distant nursing home, unable to see family or friends; a week after…
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,…
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…
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…
