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We can all remember our first period. No matter how much prep you have, it always comes as a bit of a shock to see blood coming out of a body part for the first time.

On top of the overall weirdness of your body changing, the way periods are spoken about at school barely scratches the surface of the issue.

Then there’s the embarrassment of going to school, the comparison of when you got it in relation to your friends, and knowing what period products to buy and wear.

While you might assume things have moved on considerably from when we were at school, for a lot of teens, the unknown of periods is still awkward and scary. In fact, Plan UK found that 48% of girls in the UK feel embarrassed by their period, while 49% have missed an entire day of school as a result.

But early periods don’t have to be a stressful experience, especially not now that we have more options of what to wear during our period than we did even a decade ago.

Whether your kid has just got their period, or is approaching that age, here’s how to talk to them about periods and the best period wear to shop now.

Girls can get their periods as young as eight, so it can help to talk to them about menstruation before then, according to Ruby Raut, CEO and founder of WUKA, which recently launched WUKA Talks, an education programme for families.

“Parents should start conversations much earlier than most expect, ideally from the age of five or six, by introducing the idea that bodies change as part of growing up,” she says.

“By the time children are eight to ten, they should have a clearer understanding of what a period is and what it might feel like, especially as many girls are starting their periods earlier than anticipated.”

Talking to children about periods from a younger age can help them become familiar with the topic and avoid confusion or anxiety around the time their period starts, Raut explains.

“Early, age-appropriate conversations help ensure that when a child’s first period arrives, it feels expected rather than frightening,” she adds.

We’re so used to the idea of ‘the talk’, whether that’s about periods, sex, or anything body-related.

But these conversations should be ongoing, Raut advises.

“Parents should approach conversations about periods as ongoing, everyday discussions rather than a one-off talk, using simple, calm and matter-of-fact language,” she says.

While these talks should avoid creating unnecessary stress, they should also prepare children for some of the less wanted side-effects of periods.

“It is important to frame periods as a normal biological process that happens to over half the world’s population, avoiding language that creates fear or embarrassment,” Raut explains.

“Being honest about the range of experiences, from feeling completely fine to experiencing cramps or tiredness, helps set realistic expectations without overwhelming teenagers.”

Parents can also normalise periods by keeping their own products visible, Raut advises, and speaking openly about their own personal experiences.

“The essentials are clarity, consistency and creating a safe space where teenagers feel comfortable asking questions without judgment,” she says.

Thankfully, we now have a far wider range of period products available than when we were young.

Period products are expensive – 40% of girls in the UK have had to use toilet roll because they can’t afford sanitary products.

But disposable products like pads and tampons are no longer the only options, explains Raut.

“There are several options for teen period care, including pads, tampons, menstrual cups and period underwear, and it is important to introduce these in a practical, non-intimidating way,” she explains.

“For many teenagers, especially those just starting, period underwear can be the easiest option as it feels like regular underwear, requires no insertion and involves minimal learning. At the same time, pads are also accessible but need to be changed regularly.”

While tampons and period cups are also available, they might require more guidance than pads and pants, according to Raut.

No matter what products you choose, it’s important to show kids how to use them, Raut says.

“Parents can support their children by showing them the products, explaining how each one works, and walking through simple real-life scenarios, such as what to do if a period starts at school.

“Preparing a small starter kit with essentials like spare underwear, a discreet bag and wipes can also help build confidence and reduce anxiety.”

Former I’m A Celebrity contestant Beverley Callard has shared her disappointment at having to miss the all-star series’ final.

Beverley was one of 12 ex-campmates invited back for the latest season of I’m A Celebrity: South Africa, which was filmed last year and has been airing on ITV for the last three weeks.

Earlier this week, viewers saw that the Coronation Street legend was forced to leave the series early on medical grounds, which preceded her being diagnosed with cancer back in February.

Following this, she shared with her Instagram followers on Thursday that she would not be able to join her co-stars at the live I’m A Celebrity final on doctors’ advice.

“Yesterday I should have flown over to England to get ready for the I’m A Celeb final,” she explained. “I was so excited and looking forward to it. And on medical advice, I can’t go, so I’m absolutely gutted.

“I was dying to see them all, and it would have been brilliant. But I can’t go… the flights were booked and everything, [but] no, they said basically it’s too long a day, flying there, then a very late night.”

The soap star added that she would still be taking part in the broadcast, chatting to her campmates and presenters Ant and Dec via video-chat, even if she can’t join them in person.

“So, I’ve got to make the best of a bad job,” she added. “But I am resting, I am doing as I am told.”

It had previously been reported that Jimmy Bullard may have also avoided reuniting with the rest of the cast at the final, after his blazing row with campmate Adam Thomas aired.

However, he later assured his social media followers: “My version [of the story] will be told Friday! Can’t wait to see you all – well some of yous!!”

I’m A Celebrity: South Africa concludes at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, where viewers will vote for one of the four finalists to be crowned the next I’m A Celebrity “Legend”.

Gladiators star Jamie Bigg, better known to viewers by the stage name Giant, has confirmed that he will be leaving the show at the end of the current series.

In a social media post on Friday morning, Giant explained that stepping away from the show “wasn’t a decision I made”, indicating that he had been “faced with a choice that didn’t align with my values”.

He explained: “Being a Gladiator has been one of the greatest honours of my life. Stepping into that arena, hearing the crowd, representing strength, resilience and being a role model… that’s something I’ll carry with me forever.”

“What I do want to make clear is this wasn’t a decision I made to step away,” he continued. “I was faced with a choice that didn’t align with my values. And if you know me, you know this… I stand by my people and I stand by what I believe in. That’s what being a role model means to me.

“I’m proud of everything I gave to the show and grateful for every single person who supported me along the way. This isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning. Stay strong. Stand tall.”

Several of Giant’s Gladiators co-stars were quick to show him their support in the comments, including Zack “Steel” George, who referred to him as “always the biggest” and Tom “Hammer” Wilson, who hailed him as the “duel king”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “After three formidable series, Giant is leaving Gladiators. We’d like to thank him for everything he has contributed to the show and wish him well for the future.”

The ex-professional bodybuilder and fire fighter had been with Gladiators since it was rebooted by the BBC in 2024.

He previously faced scrutiny after an old YouTube video of his in which he spoke candidly about his past use of his steroids was unearthed.

At the time, he said in a statement: “I have always been open and transparent about my use of steroids whilst I was a professional bodybuilder. During that time, I spoke openly about the legal use of performance enhancements as a competitive bodybuilder and how to safely administer them.

“I stopped competing as a bodybuilder in October 2022 and responsibly came off steroids. I am no longer a professional bodybuilder and am no longer taking steroids and do not advocate the use of them.”

The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) has fully kicked into place for UK passengers after its October rollout.

It’s a biometric system (including a photo and/or fingerprints) that registers non-EU nationals every time they make a short stay in Schengen countries.

The EU’s site says it’s designed to eventually replace passport stamps and offer a more “efficient” version of EU check-ins. But so far, there have been early hiccups: EES has been blamed for border delays that left passengers behind and “hours-long queues”.

In response, airlines like TUI, Jet2, and easyJet have shared advice.

The Schengen countries involved are:

• Austria,
• Belgium,
• Bulgaria,
• Croatia,
• Czechia,
• Denmark,
• Estonia,
• Finland,
• France,
• Germany,
• Greece,
• Hungary,
• Iceland,
• Italy,
• Latvia,
• Liechtenstein,
• Lithuania,
• Luxembourg,
• Malta,
• Netherlands,
• Norway,
• Poland,
• Portugal,
• Romania,
• Slovakia,
• Slovenia,
• Spain,
• Sweden, and
• Switzerland.

The Republic of Ireland and Cyprus are excluded from EES systems as they’re not Schengen countries.

The advice so far includes:

Their site reads, “You should allow extra time to register your biometric details, such as fingerprints and a photo, the first time you enter the EU. There is no cost for EES registration, and your digital record will last three years before you need to register again.”

And responding to an X post by a passenger, the company added: “We ask customers travelling on our European short-haul flights to be there two hours prior to departure. It would be three hours if you’re travelling on a long-haul flight and one if you’re travelling on a domestic flight within the UK.”

In a travel alert, they said: “At some airports, you might still find longer queues, particularly at busy travel periods.”

They added, “To help your journey run as smoothly as possible, please allow a little extra time when passing through border control. Keep any essential medication in your hand luggage in case of delays, and when departing the EU, head straight to passport control after dropping your bags to avoid hold‑ups. Bringing some extra water for comfort is also a good idea.”

The company shared, “There may be longer wait times at Border Control at some EU Airports, especially at busy times. Once you start your EES registration, it should take around 1-2 minutes per person to complete.

“There may be longer wait times than usual when you arrive in destination and before your flight back to the UK. Unfortunately, this is outside of our control. But remember, there’s nothing you can prep before you travel.”

The airline added, “You’ll also need to pass through EES when leaving the EU in the same way you do on arrival. Depending on how busy the airport is, this may result in longer wait times at passport control before boarding your flight to the UK. After checking in for your flight, please head straight to security and passport control in order to arrive at your gate in plenty of time.”

The airline pointed out that while kids under 12 are exempt from fingerprinting, passengers “may experience longer waiting times on arrival, so allow extra time and factor this in when planning onward travel, including trains, taxis, or flight transfers”.

Plan your journey, arrive early, use Bag Drop as soon as possible if you’re availing of the service, get through security as fast as possible, and “be aware that there may be further checks at passport control after security and before reaching your gate,” they said.

They warned that queues might be longer as airports adjust to the system.

“Have your passport ready and follow EES signs,” they wrote.

“We recommend arriving at the airport with extra time to allow for these additional checks, especially during busy travel periods.”

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about when dementia experts think we should consider giving up booze for good to keep our brains healthy.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Dr Arun Narayanan, a clinical electrophysiologist and an assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said that another beverage – energy drinks – might carry risks for our hearts, too.

“Energy drinks may affect the heart differently [than other caffeinated drinks] because they often deliver caffeine in larger doses, more quickly, and in combination with additional stimulants or additives,” he shared.

“This can increase the risk of palpitations, elevated blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, and, in susceptible individuals, more serious cardiac events. Tea and coffee are generally better studied, more predictable in composition, and less likely to contain multiple stimulant compounds in a single serving,” he said.

We asked the expert what he thinks the upper limit of energy drink consumption should be in a single day, as well as at what age (if any) we should quit it cold turkey.

Dr Narayanan said, “In general, I would recommend limiting energy drinks to no more than one standard-sized can per day, and for many individuals, avoiding them altogether may be the safer choice”.

The expert said 400mg of caffeine a day is often considered the safe limit.

“Unlike coffee or tea, many energy drinks contain high caffeine concentrations consumed rapidly, along with sugar, taurine, guarana, and other stimulants that may amplify cardiovascular effects,” he said.

Too much caffeine may “increase heart rate, blood pressure, palpitations, anxiety, and sleep disruption.”

Dr Narayanan told us it’s not so much about a person’s age as it is their health.

“Rather than age alone, the more important issue is underlying health status. Older adults are more likely to have hypertension, coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, or other rhythm disorders that can be worsened by stimulant beverages,” he said.

“I would advise individuals with cardiovascular disease, arrhythmias, uncontrolled blood pressure, or frailty to avoid energy drinks regardless of age. For healthy older adults, caution and moderation are still appropriate.”

I have insomnia, but not the kind that means I struggle to fall asleep (in fact, the speed and ease with which I nod off at night put me off seeking help for years).

Instead, the problem happens in the early hours of the morning. It reaches roughly 3am, and my body wakes me up – a common enough process, but one which I, for some reason, don’t recover from.

After the disruption, I stay up for hours, only feeling able to sleep when it’s time to get up and go to work. This persists no matter how much shut-eye I do (or don’t) get, how much exercise I do, or how early I go to bed.

If that sounds familiar, you – like me – may have something called sleep maintenance insomnia.

According to Harvard Health, the term refers to a lack of sleep that happens not because someone can’t nod off, but because they wake up and can’t fall back asleep.

In America, it’s believed to affect as many as one in five people (and while there doesn’t seem to be much data on the phenomenon in the UK, one in three adults here are thought to experience acute insomnia at some point).

Harvard Health added that the condition might be especially common in women during midlife.

Health problems, family stresses, depression, and even hot flashes might play a role.

As, they say, can age: “as we grow older, the normal sleep cycle becomes shorter, and we spend less time in deep sleep”.

Dr Karen Carlson, a doctor who runs classes focusing on women’s sleep quality at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, told Harvard Health that going to bed really early to “make up” for missed sleep might not help.

“What sometimes happens is that women are going to bed early trying to sleep and then they wake up at 3 or 4am – and they’re not really meant to sleep more than six or seven hours, but they’re in bed early trying, and they awaken early.”

What may help, however, is “clock blocking”, or ignoring any screen which tells you the time, Johns Hopkins shared.

So, too, can getting up out of bed to do something screen-free and relatively mindless, like folding laundry after about 20 minutes of being awake ― or, as Johns Hopkins sleep expert Dr Luis F. Buenaver said, try to “Read a book, with just enough lights on so that you can see the print comfortably”.

Try as much as you can to stick to your regular routine the day after a bad night’s sleep, he continued.

Speak to your doctor if sleep issues persist for weeks and/or affect your day-to-day life.

GP Dr Dominic Greyer previously shared that strength training, good sleep, reducing inflammation, maintaining your “metabolic flexibility,” and enjoying life (in moderation) separates those who age well from those who don’t.

And a new paper, which focused on the short-lived African turqioise killifish, aimed to work out how different behaviours appeared to affect their ageing trajectories.

The fish, which were partly chosen because they shared “key biological features with longer-lived species like humans, including a complex brain”, shared the same genes and were raised in similar environments.

Researchers found that by midlife (for the fish, 70-100 days), fish that lived longer were already behaving differently from those that died sooner.

Study leader Claire Bedbrook said, “Behavioural changes pretty early on in life are telling us about future health and future lifespan”.

In this study, one of the biggest factors was sleep. Fish that had longer lives mostly slept at night, while those with shorter lifespans slept both at night and during the day.

Incidentally, longer naps, more disorganised nap times, and a higher percentage of naps taken at noon and in the early afternoon have been linked to increased mortality risk among humans.

But activity mattered too.

Fish who swam harder and faster were likelier to live longer, “a measure of spontaneous movement that has been linked to longevity in other species as well”.

And fish that lived longer were more active in the daylight as well. A separate human study found that those who did the majority of their physical activity between 11am and 5pm, or mixed throughout the day, had a lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk than those who moved mostly in the early morning or at night.

The researchers noticed that ageing seemed to occur in two to six stages rather than gradually.

“We expected ageing to be a slow, gradual process,” Bedbrook said.

“Instead, animals stay stable for long periods and then transition very quickly into a new stage. Seeing this staged architecture appear from continuous behaviour alone was one of the most exciting discoveries.”

Similar patterns have recently been noted in humans.

In an editor’s summary, senior editor at the journal Science, Mattia Maroso, said: “These results might lead to better understanding of the ageing process in other vertebrates, including humans”.

And speaking to Stanford Reports, study leader Ravi Nath said, “Behaviour turns out to be an incredibly sensitive readout of ageing… You can look at two animals of the same chronological age and see from their behaviour alone that they’re ageing very differently”.

The other study leader, Claire Bedbrook, shared, “We now have the tools to map ageing continuously in a vertebrate… With the rise of wearables and long-term tracking in humans, I’m excited to see whether the same principles – early predictors, staged ageing, divergent trajectories – hold true in people”.

I’ll rant to anyone I know about the importance of maintaining muscle mass as we age to prevent conditions like sacropeonia and even osteoporosis.

Cardiovascular health has also been linked to longevity.

But what about flexibility? Though it might be less talked about than the other two, this, too, has been linked to a longer life, especially among men.

You may know the importance of lifting weights for strength and understand that everything from tennis to cycling and running can improve your heart health.

What, though, does a person to increase their flexibility – and does it change over time?

We asked personal trainers to share their thoughts:

James Bickerstaff, a personal trainer at Origym, told us: “In your 20s and 30s, your body still has natural elasticity, so muscles and joints move easily and recover quickly”.

Nonetheless, he adds, sitting for long periods of time (as you may do for work) can hold your flexibility back.

“To maintain mobility, focus on stretching major muscle groups by performing dynamic stretches such as leg swings for the hips and static chest openers for the upper body,” he advised.

“Short daily sessions, along with activities like yoga, Pilates, or tai chi, can help prevent stiffness.”

Trainer and owner of Made Possible Personal Training, a gym which works mainly with those aged 50 and up, Heather Lachance, said: “One of the biggest things I try to help people understand is that losing flexibility isn’t a given”.

But in our 40s and 50s, she said, more of us notice we’re not as flexible as we used to be.

“At this stage, adding 10 minutes of mobility work a few times a week, especially dynamic movements before workouts and static stretches afterwards, can go a long way,” she advised.

“Leg swings, hip openers, thoracic rotations, that sort of thing. It doesn’t need to be complicated; it just needs to be done consistently.”

For his part, Bickerstaff recommends swimming and dancing alongside stretches.

“In your 60s and later years, joints become less mobile, cartilage thins, and muscles tighten more easily,” Bickerstaff explained.

“This can make everyday tasks feel restricted and raise the risk of falls. At this stage, flexibility work is about protecting independence and helping you move safely.”

Lachance stated that yoga and pilates can be great in this decade as they provide a “low-impact” form of exercise.

At this age, Lachance said, “The conversation becomes more about maintaining independence, things like being able to get up off the floor, move confidently through space, and reduce the falling risk.

“Here, I pair flexibility with balance and strength work. Chair-based stretching, simple guided routines, and daily movement all play a role.”

Sated hamstring and tricep stretches can help, Bickerstaff agreed, as can resistance bands and plain ol’ walking ― gentle, daily movement is key.

“No matter the age, the message is the same: you don’t need to be able to do the splits, but you do need to move well enough to live your life without restriction,” Lachance ended.

“Flexibility is really about freedom! Freedom to keep doing the things you enjoy without pain or hesitation.”