Peta Bee

If your motivation to exercise is dipping along with the temperature, recent research could provide the impetus for you to keep trying, given its conclusion about when the magic happens in terms of health gains. It found that 20 minutes of exercise — brisk walking, jogging or cycling fast enough to make you breathe harder — each day leads to a reduction in...

Mabel, our lurcher, is a docile and loveable four-year-old. Admittedly she may be a little high-maintenance, with a daily routine resembling that of an elite athlete — she requires two brisk exercise sessions lasting over an hour, followed by immediate refuelling and a prolonged recovery period on the sofa — but she is part of our family. It had never...

Good rotation of the trunk, the middle region of your body located above your hips and below your neck, is essential for any functional daily movement that involves twisting and bending. “We are very good at avoiding trunk rotation by using cheating mechanisms and easier pathways of movement, but over time these can lead to strains on the body and to...

Are you a cognitive super-ager? Just as you can take steps towards future-proofing your body with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, so you can enhance your brain’s resilience to age-related disease by boosting what psychiatrists refer to as your cognitive reserve.

Building in good brain maintenance habits incrementally over the years means you can...

We all know that keeping our blood pressure, cholesterol and weight in check are essential for warding off a range of health problems. Last week researchers from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City told a scientific conference how keeping tabs on factors including nutrition, blood sugar and weight can lead to having a “biological” age...

Stretching offsets some of the effects of sitting and can reduce the risk of back pain and body niggles. But the reason to do it goes beyond making oneself more supple and less prone to injury. A new paper from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse (UWLC), published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, suggests that stretching before a workout can have a...

Anita Bean, a sports dietician and the author of The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition, says that eating an easy-to-digest snack 30-90 mins before a workout can help to improve performance.

“Avoid anything too heavy or containing too much fibre within two hours of a workout as it might cause gut discomfort during exercise,” Bean says. “But nut butters...

Counting steps and plotting sleep were once the main attraction of a fitness tracker. But the latest devices will tell you so much more than how hungry, tired or inactive you are, providing data about irregular heart rhythms, menstrual cycles, gut health and the hours we spend in natural daylight. There is no limit to what we can track with smart watches and...

Reach for the tissues and prepare for the first bout of seasonal misery. Colds are doing the rounds and even if you haven’t yet been exposed to the telltale sounds of sneezing, sniffing and the clearing of throats among your friends and colleagues, the threat is likely to be lurking perilously close. According to the National Institute for Health and Care...

Put away the diet books, throw away the scales. Staying slim and living a longer and healthier life does not come down to your body fat percentage. Rather, it is about how much lean muscle you have, according to a leading doctor in osteopathic medicine and family medicine practitioner in the US.

Dr Gabrielle Lyon has spent years researching longevity and the...

There is no single, correct or perfect way to run and every runner will have their technical quirks. But if your particular style causes biomechanical weaknesses that can lead to injury or if the way you run is inefficient and wastes energy, you probably need to make adjustments. Sam Murphy, running coach and author of Run Your Best Marathon (Bloomsbury)...

As if middle age doesn’t deal enough blows, there’s another to add to the list: poor sleep. “Studies have estimated that 40-70 per cent of older adults have chronic sleep problems,” says Emma Sullivan, a psychologist and sleep researcher at the University of York.

Even worse, those who don’t get enough sleep between their forties and sixties could be more...

We all know that more of some foods and less of others will boost our health. But can you have too much of a good thing? Is there an upper limit for even the most nutritious, immune-supporting foods and drinks — and if so, what is it?

How much is too much? More than 4 tablespoons a day
Olive oil is a great addition to the diet in small amounts. It is good for...

Can you carry extra pounds yet still be considered fit and healthy? If you are someone who hits the gym, swims or runs despite extra body baggage and elevated readings on the scales you should keep it up, according to scientists presenting at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Hamburg this week. Exercising can help to override many of the...

Without wishing to be a killjoy, let me remind you that we have entered Macmillan Cancer Charity’s Sober October, another month in which you can foster your sobriety by cutting down on your booze intake or stopping it altogether. It might seem no time at all since Sober Spring, which advocates a more hardcore three-month break from alcohol, starting in March...

Hello, autumn. October looms and, with it, thoughts of hunkering down for months to face evil bugs (new Covid variant anyone?) along with low mood, dark days and an ever-flabbier figure. But hold it right there. Experts say that autumn is a prime time to set habits that will resiliently winterproof midlife bodies and minds.

So even though the leaves may be...

For thousands of cold water dipping fans, taking a plunge into a chilly pond or the sea is considered a wellbeing boost second to none, raising energy levels, libido and mood while heightening immunity and your body’s ability to ward off illness and disease. What was once a niche activity has gone mainstream with swimmers taking to all kinds of outdoor...

Anyone who works from home will probably not be surprised by findings from a new survey by MyFitnessPal which show that employees consume almost 800 more calories and clock up 3,500 fewer steps on days when they don’t go into the office. Some may question whether it is really only that many extra calories packed away when the fridge is in such close...

Our guts are a battleground for bacteria, good fighting bad for supremacy in their universe. It is from within this environment that microbes create anti-inflammatory compounds that have been shown to help with everything from regulating the immune system to aiding digestion.

Fuelled and maintained by the food we eat, these beneficial gut bugs are known to be...

In less time than it would take most enthusiastic amateurs to cover half the distance, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa crossed the line in the Berlin Marathon in a blistering 2hr 11min 53sec, smashing the previous women’s record of 2:14:04 for the 26.2-mile distance and beating her personal best time by almost four minutes. It was “an incredible experience,” she...