Lead to premature ageing

Phosphates used in fizzy drinks, as well as many other processed foods, have been found to speed up the ageing process. 

This is not bad just in terms of potential wrinkles, but also health complications that come with age, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular calcification.

Increased risk of Alzheimer’s

In 2017, scientists in America found that higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with an increased risk of all dementia, AD dementia and stroke.

The Framingham Heart Study, which ran over 20 years, stated that those who had consumed one to seven servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per week were nearly 2 per cent times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who consumed none.

Weight gain

This one may seem obvious. However, what you may not know is that diet soft drinks can still affect our waistline dramatically. A 2015 study of 749 adults found that the “waist circumference gain” of people who consumed diet soda on a daily basis was nearly four times greater than non-consumers across a 10-year period.

It concluded that there was a “striking dose-response relationship, increasing diet soda intake was associated with escalating abdominal obesity”.

Increased risk of liver damage

Studies have found that just two cans per day of sugar-sweetened beverages can contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The NHS advises that a healthy liver should contain little to no fat but it is estimated that up to 1 in every 3 people in the UK has early stages of NAFLD, where there are small amounts of fat in their liver.

Cause early puberty

A 2015 Harvard Medical School study of 5,583 girls aged nine to 14 found that those who drank just one-and-a-half cans of soft drink a day had their first periods earlier than those who did not by 2.7 months.

Although the margins seem small, experts argue that women who start their periods younger are at higher risk of future health complications.

Damaging to teeth

Soft drinks can be damaging to teeth – so curbing your fizzy drink habit is the key to keeping your pearly whites healthy. According to Dr Rhona Eskander, Waterpik oral care ambassador and dental professional, recommends drinking unsweetened tea or water instead. “Soft drinks, whether sugar-free or not, contain acid. They can be damaging to teeth and can lead to increased cavities and dental erosion.” She adds that if you must drink soft drinks, try to avoid brushing your teeth immediately after “since acid softens your teeth’s structure, making them more vulnerable to abrasion.”

This article is kept updated with the latest advice.

Can you catch Covid when you have a cold?

According to scientists, not all colds are caused by coronaviruses – so people shouldn’t get complacent and think they are immune to the virus if they’ve recently had a cold.

Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading stated that “it could be a grave mistake to think that anyone who has recently had a cold is protected against Covid-19, as coronaviruses only account for 10-15 per cent of colds.”

How do I know if I have Covid or an allergy?

Having a high temperature (over 38C or 100.4F) is a common sign of a cold or Covid. However, coronavirus can cause loss or change of smell or taste without a blocked nose.

Other allergies can cause a scratchy feeling in your throat. Sore throats are also common in Covid or colds but are more likely to feel painful rather than itchy. 

How do I know if my headache is a cold or Covid?

According to Zoe, a Covid headache has particular features that mark it out. They are typically moderate to severe: lasting for three to five days on average and don’t feel better after using painkillers. They are also generally felt on both sides of the head and could feel like they are “pulsing”, “stabbing”, or “pressing”. 

Headaches tend to be one of the first signs of Covid but can linger for a while in people with long Covid. Around 15 per cent of people with Covid have a headache as their only symptom. 

How do I know if my runny nose is Covid or a cold?

A runny nose can be caused by the common cold or by Covid-19. Getting a runny nose caused by Covid is much more likely when rates of the virus are high in the population at large. When rates are lower, it’s more likely to be caused by other conditions, like an allergy or a cold. 

Could my cold be RSV?

It might be, although it’s hard to tell the difference between symptoms. RSV is one of the most common causes of childhood illness, but it can also affect adults. Like the common cold, cases of RSV largely vanished during the lockdowns, but rose steadily afterwards. In adults and healthy children over the age of one, symptoms tend to be mild, and infections usually clear up within a week. 

Most babies and young children who catch RSV can be treated at home, in the same way that parents would treat a common cold. The infection usually goes away within two weeks.

More severe cases require a trip to the hospital, where your child might be offered oxygen, IV fluids and medications to open their airways.

What should I do if I don’t know if it’s a cold or Covid?

Unfortunately, despite the “classic” symptoms no longer being the most common, the government is only giving free PCR tests to people with a fever, loss or change in smell or taste or a new, continuous cough. 

Experts say that given the changing nature of the illness, people should get a test even if their symptoms are milder or seem more like a cold. “Do stay at home and get a test,” Prof Tim Spector, lead scientist on the Zoe app, said, recommending people who think they may have a cold get a lateral flow test. 

“If it’s positive, get a PCR test to make sure, but treat it as if you’ve got Covid,” he said.

How can I tell the difference between earlier strains of Covid and the omicron variant?

The omicron variant has double the mutations of the delta variant and there are now cases of it worldwide.

Key symptoms include fatigue and a high pulse rate but do not include those associated with the earlier strains, such as a fever or loss of taste or smell.

The omicron variant differs to earlier strains and is more easily distinguished against the common cold. Those who contract the common delta variant of Covid tend to display symptoms of coughing, a runny nose, a sore throat and headaches – which are associated with the common cold.

What is the government’s plan for Covid?

As of Thursday 27 January, England’s Plan B measures are no longer in force – including wearing face masks in schools and on public transport.

Boris Johnson made his announcement after addressing the fact that over 90 per cent of over-60s across the UK have now had booster vaccines to protect them, and scientists believed the omicron wave has peaked.

Dr Susan Hopkins, the strategic response director for Covid-19 at Public Health England, warned that hospitals could still become overwhelmed.

Experts from Sage had previously predicted a “pretty miserable” “fourth wave” with infections from other respiratory viruses including bronchiolitis and pneumonia expected to increase among children and the elderly.  

This article is regularly updated with the latest advice.

The door swings open and a cold beam of artificial light fills my room. Someone with a clipboard says good morning, but it’s impersonal: full of tiredness and boredom. The door shuts and I’m alone again. I turn on a bedside light. It’s seven o’clock but I’ve been awake for hours, woken into a living nightmare.

I’m in London’s oldest private psychiatric hospital, the Priory in Roehampton, having been admitted the previous day as an emergency. During the night, duty nurses have checked on me every hour, making sure I haven’t strung myself up or escaped out of a window, although they’ve given it the gleam of normality by saying it’s ‘for everyone’s safety’ until they know me better.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t manage either. It’s as if a bomb has gone off in my head. I feel like a small child again. Even the simplest decisions, such as when to go to breakfast, cause panic. If I go now, will I be early? Or too late? Am I hungry? What should I wear to have breakfast at a psychiatric facility? What if I have to talk to someone?

Thoughts crack like lightning, shifting to my husband and 10-month-old daughter back at home, but I’m too shell-shocked, sleep-deprived and medicated to even cry. The one shining positive that grounds my stomach and drops my shoulders is that, for the first time in weeks, maybe months, I feel safe. The professionals have got their hands on me and I won’t have to cope with my mind on my own any more.

Three years ago – the day before my 32nd birthday – I became one of the 10 per cent of British people who will suffer some kind of disabling anxiety disorder. 

Back then, I felt totally at odds with the diagnosis and it’s still something that seems to conflict with so much else about me. I’d amassed, in no particular order, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), chronic insomnia, a phobia of going to bed (clinophobia) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Stress and anxiety had percolated, fed off each other and imploded in a sort of slow-motion car crash over at least seven years. Depression, unsurprisingly, had recently joined the party. I would have night-time panic attacks as quietly as possible, screaming into a pillow, so as not to wake my husband or baby.

GAD, which affects an estimated one in 15 people, is defined by the NHS as ‘a long-term condition that causes you to feel anxious about a wide range of situations and issues, rather than one specific event’. It’s characterised by at least six months of persistent, excessive and unrealistic worry about everyday things, and is often accompanied by many other non-specific psychological and physical symptoms. 

Mine wasn’t linked to postnatal depression, nor could it be neatly packaged as the result of one traumatic experience or moment of abuse. In some ways, at my worst, I believed that would have been easier. At least it would have been understandable, explainable.

Outwardly, it didn’t add up. I was mother to a gregarious, healthy baby who slept and smiled more often than she didn’t. I was married to a brilliant man who has always been a pool of tranquillity, humour and good sense. We lived in a comfortable home in west London. I was close to my family and there were no devastating diagnoses or unmanageable conditions that were pulling us simultaneously apart and together. 

I enjoyed life, had a good circle of friends and a decent career as a journalist. Though not a supermodel, I was content with my looks. I liked the clothes I was able to buy and the person inside them.

What happened? It’s a question I’ve returned to frequently but, as hours of group therapy and psycho-education taught me, the key to recovery had nothing to do with solving that question.

Sleepless nights 

My sleep issues began in my mid-20s when I was living in London and working for a newspaper. Like almost everyone else I knew, I worked hard and went out frequently. 

Life was busy and demanding but enjoyable and gratifying. Yet every few months, two or three nights would pass when I couldn’t fall asleep. It wasn’t that I would wake and not be able to go back to sleep, I would never get there to begin with.

According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), insomnia is defined as difficulty getting to sleep or maintaining sleep, early waking or non-restorative sleep, that impairs your ability to function and occurs despite opportunity for sleep. Short-term insomnia lasts less than three months, long-term or chronic insomnia lasts longer and commonly co-exists with other psychiatric and medical conditions, such as anxiety and depression.

Normally, most sleep issues clear up on their own, so I kept calm and carried on. During the day, if I felt adrenaline, I pushed it down deep inside my stomach, quashing butterflies that were unhelpful to the job at hand. I moved to another newspaper – this one. 

For a time, my sleep levelled, but it slipped after a year or two and I started managing only two to four hours more frequently. Adrenaline, which my body had grown used to producing like a faulty trip switch, was triggered by less and less. I felt it when rushing to nearby Westminster to cover the 2017 terrorist attack (understandable), but also before interviewing the owner of an 80-year-old accordion, or when someone sneezed. 

Sometimes it was useful, but often it wasn’t. On the way home after a busy day, I’d be so awash with it that my mind couldn’t be static.

You’re not resting in between training

Speaking to Troy, he informs that it is imperative to get good quality sleep each night. “People forget that the body needs this time to recharge, reset and recover – physically and mentally,” says Troy.

He goes on to talk about the importance of rest and training for fit muscles. “Without rest, the muscles don’t have time to recover which can lead to overtraining, fatigue and potential injury.” You can also rest your body through an active recovery such as a long walk or yoga session – as this will stretch out your muscles on your days off.

You’re too stressed

Another scarcely mentioned factor in fat loss is the level of stress you experience on a daily basis. “The more stressed you are the more your body is secreting catabolic hormones like adrenaline and cortisol,” says Scott.

This is a natural process, but the body has evolved to deal with it in an extreme fight or flight scenario. Instead, in today’s office-based world, we get a constant, low level of stress, which means cortisol is gradually released all day long. The result? A lower immune resistance, leaving you vulnerable to colds and flus.

That stressful job or difficult personal relationship could be costing you a lot more than a washboard stomach. 

Presentation is key

Scott notes a final reason – that mainly applies to the men in search of a six pack. ‘It took me years to realise that the hard work behind my carefully-honed abs was being undone by my hairy, pale abdomen. Shaving it made a huge difference.”

He adds that if you are looking to have your abs out for a particular event, make sure you avoid heavy foods that could make you bloated. “The wrong meal can completely ruin your aesthetic.”

This article is kept updated with the latest advice and information.

It’s never been more crucial to get a good night’s sleep. It’s a new year and, looking at our social calendars, we’re clearly settling into it.

With both physical and mental health on many peoples’ minds more than ever, we have looked at how you can sleep better, including what to do before, during, and after a night’s shuteye.

A lack of sleep or that of poor quality can leave us feeling grumpy and irritable, as well as fatigued. It’s hard to work at your best when tired but sleep deprivation can also have serious effects on your health.

Sleepless nights result in more than just a bad mood, putting you at risk of obesity and other physical health conditions – not to mention increasing anxiety and chances of depression.

According to Cheryl Calverley, CEO at Eve Sleep, sleep is always the answer. “Without good sleep it’s impossible to lose weight or be fitter, improve your mental health and be happier, be a better partner, friend, parent, or son/daughter, be a great leader, manager, team-mate or colleague at work, reach your full potential in whatever it is you want to be and do, or simply live a life as full of happiness as each and every one of us deserve.”

She goes on to say that, frustratingly, many people don’t realise the importance of a good night’s sleep and that prioritising other aspects of wellness ahead of sleep will ultimately not help improve your physical and mental health. “Sleep is where it begins, and ends, and is fundamental to living a healthy and happy life.”

If you’re struggling to sleep, take a look at the tips below for a better night’s rest.

10 tips on how to sleep better

1. Schedule a 30-minute ‘sleep date’

How’s your sleep pattern? On average, UK adults sleep seven and a half hours a night – just hitting the minimum number of recommended hours that we need to function at our best (seven) but still a bit below the higher end of nine hours.

We’re all excellent at making excuses – prioritising everything but our precious shuteye: busy lives, scrolling through social media into the late hours…we are all guilty.

So why not schedule in a “sleep date”? Give your body and mind a reset with this extra segment of sleep – even just an extra 30 minutes could help you catch up and rebalance your body clock.

The idea was suggested by Dr Guy Meadows who co-founded The Sleep School in 2011. He believes a sleep date is a better approach to catching up on lost sleep than having the much-anticipated lie-in on the weekend. “Most of us deprive ourselves of sleep during the week and catch up at the weekend. But a big lie-in makes us feel worse; it gives us jet lag. If you usually get up at 7am and lie in on Saturday until midday, you’re now on New York time.”

Meadows goes on to say “instead, aim to have a midweek catch-up night. Make a thing of it. Put new sheets on the bed, wind down and get the biological sleep you need: seven to eight hours, plus an extra 30 minutes.”

2. Trick your body temperature for a better night’s sleep

We don’t realise how much room temperature can affect our sleep cycle. If the room we’re sleeping in is too hot or too cold, this can mean poor quality of sleep and is often what leads to groggily pressing the snooze button several times over the next morning.

When the body’s core temperature is too warm, it becomes difficult for our brains to make the switch into ‘sleep mode’, and this is often the case on those warm summer nights where you find yourself tossing and turning all evening.

According to experts at the National Sleep Foundation, 18.3 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit) is the optimal room temperature for sleep. It is part of our natural sleep cycle for our bodies to drop two to three degrees in the evening in order to prime our brain and body for a great night’s sleep. This is probably because we have evolved to sleep at night in the open, where the temperature drops naturally. 

If you want to hack this process to your own advantage to get a better night’s sleep, try having a bath with the water at approximately 39 degrees Celsius – this will draw the circulating blood to the surface of the skin, allowing your core temperature to drop a few degrees, perfectly replicating your body’s pre-sleep adaptations. 

3. Use this breathing trick that sends you to sleep in 60 seconds

No, the answer isn’t holding your breath until you pass out. There really is a breathing technique that could send you skipping towards the land of nod in no time at all.

To master this hack, you need to keep the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth at all times, breathe in through your nose for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, then exhale audibly through your mouth for a count of eight. Then repeat between two and four times.

Known as the 4-7-8, this technique was pioneered by US sleep expert Dr Andrew Weil, who says that it helps the lungs to become fully charged with air, allowing more oxygen into the body, and thus promoting a state of calm. “You have to do this two times a day religiously,” he says. “It will become a wonderful way to help you fall asleep. It is utterly simple, takes almost no time, requires no equipment and can be done anywhere.”

Why does it work? Dr Weil calls it “a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system”, which doesn’t tell us a huge amount – but it’s a theme taken up by this MIC article, which explains how any relaxed breathing technique can halt the brain’s stress ‘cascade’, by calming the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands. 

Repeat the process daily for a few weeks and your brain will learn to treat it as a signal that it’s safe to shut down for a while.

4. Turn off artificial light to avoid weight gain

Did you know that falling asleep in front of the TV can affect your weight? Or that sleeping with a night light on can (gradually) pile on the pounds?

Research from 2019 by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in the US showed that women who slept with a night light or the TV on were 17 per cent more likely to gain 5kg or more over the next five years.

They were also 22 per cent more likely to become newly overweight and 33 per cent more like to become newly obese.

The study followed 43,772 women aged 35-74 over five years. Participants shared information about their weight, BMI and how much artificial light they were exposed to at night.

According to Professor Malcolm von Schantz from the University of Surrey, “The findings make perfect biological sense… Light at night affects our metabolism.”

Artificial light is known to disrupt the production of melatonin, the hormone which the body uses to regulate feelings of sleepiness. Less melatonin equals less deep sleep which means less efficient digestion.

5. Stop ‘snoozing’

‘Dad strength’ (or mum strength) is one of the perks of ageing: strength takes a long time to build and almost as long to lose, meaning that a lifetime of moderately challenging physical tasks can see most people keep their strength well into middle age. 

But, if that is the case, what is the point of strength training? Well, a study conducted by researchers at Iowa State University in June 2021 found that although it was once seen as an optional extra, strength training should be considered at least as important as aerobic exercise. 

The research went on to show that two or more sessions of weight-training a week was enough to reduce the risk of obesity by 20 to 30 per cent over two decades, even for people who do no aerobic exercise.

The good news? Strength training doesn’t need to be complex, difficult, or even sweaty: and it definitely doesn’t require a Lycra-clad coach yelling at you. The keys to an effective strength training plan are rest and progression.

The first one is good news: working out for strength means doing challenging movements with relatively long rests in between, allowing you to fully recover between efforts. It also means there’s no need to train every day. 

As for ‘progression’, this just means you need a way to make the exercises harder. For most movements, you’re still building strength when the most reps you can manage in a single set stays in the 3-12 range: much over that, and you’ve moved over to muscular endurance.

Finally, you need to make sure you’re hitting every bit of your body if possible by making sure you push, pull, squat, and load-carry (carrying heavy shopping, for example). In an ideal world you’d also add a hip-hinge (the thing you do when you swing a kettlebell or deadlift anything off the ground), but that’s a bit more fraught, so focus on the basics to start with. 

Whether you’re going to try these exercises out at the gym or incorporate them into your home workouts, these routines are sure to give your muscles a work-out.

There are two options, A and B, which you should aim to alternate: either do both in the same week, or do ABA one week and BAB the next, taking at least one rest day between sessions. Start with the simplest variation of each movement that you can manage: once you can hit the top of the recommended rep range, switch to a more difficult one in your next workout. 

Workout A

1. Push (horizontal): 5-10 reps, 3 sets

Easy: Wall press-up

Medium: Incline press-up

Hard: Press-up

2. Pull: 5-10 reps, 3 sets

Bent-over row with weights, cans or 2-litre milk jugs.

3. Squat (two-legged): 8-12 reps, 4 sets

Easy: Doorway squat

Medium: Bodyweight squat

Hard: Rucksack squat

4. Carry: 20 minutes, 2 sets

Farmer’s walk

Workout B

1. Push (vertical): 5-10 reps, 3 sets

Easy: Wall angel

Medium/Hard: Overhead press with cans, milk jugs, dumbbells or a rucksack

2. Curl: 5-10 reps, 3 sets

Biceps curls with cans, bands or a rucksack. 

3. One-legged squat variation: 8-12 reps, 4 sets

Easy: Split squat

Medium: Lunge

Hard: Rucksack lunge

4. Carry: 10m each side, 2 sets 

Suitcase carry

Don’t push any of this, and consult a professional in advance if you have any doubts about your ability to manage any of these movements. You should rest for 1-2 minutes after every set, and stop every set well short of ‘failure’ – if you find yourself grinding out slower and slower reps, stop rather than push through.

What to eat to gain better strength