If death is a topic we like to avoid – six out of ten people have not made a will – the thought of becoming incapable of running our own lives is even more taboo. Fewer than one in ten adults in England and Wales have taken steps to appoint someone they trust to step in and look after their affairs if they become incapacitated. Yet the prospect of living out old age in ill health and mental confusion is...Read more

NEWS COPY By Astrid Hall A worrying number of middle-aged Brits have such bad eyesight they rely on ‘long-arm syndrome’ to see phone and tablet screens clearly. Researchers who polled 2,000 adults aged 45 plus found just under four in 10 have to resort to holding their device at arm's length to focus their eyes properly. Long-sightedness - which becomes more prevalent as we grow older - leaves many struggling to read small print. Text on medicine bottles, food labels,...Read more

Putting your feet up could be slowing you down There’s nothing like putting your feet up in that favourite chair however, according to new research we’d better not get too comfortable. Sedentary lifestyles can impact on many facets of health and the Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have realised research illustrating the potential adverse effects of too many hours in front of the television or reading a book. Us woman are particularly at risk with...Read more

Maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels may help to prevent the onset of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, research led by the University of Birmingham has discovered. The research also found that while Vitamin D can be effective at preventing the onset of inflammation, it is less effective once inflammatory disease is established because diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis leads to vitamin D insensitivity. Another key finding of the research was that the impact of vitamin D on inflammatory disease cannot...Read more

The University of Glasgow has released a damning report on the potential harm Grandparents pose to children's health. Researchers from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, published the results of the review – which looked at 56 studies with data from 18 countries, concerning the care provided by grandparents who are not the primary carer of their grandchildren – today in the journal PLOS ONE. Until now research has largely focused on the potential role...Read more

When creating your Halloween pumpkin masterpiece, save the seeds to roast and eat as a healthy snack. Pumpkin seeds health benefits include reducing hair thinning, reducing menopause symptoms in women, prostate symptoms in men, and overactive bladder problems in both. Pumpkin seeds nutritional benefits Pumpkin seeds are available as green kernels, or as whole seeds with their hulls still intact. Pumpkin seed kernels are an excellent source of protein (58% by weight) and healthy oils (29% by weight) of which...Read more

THE MOVEMBER FOUNDATION The Movember Foundation is the only charity tackling men’s health on a global scale, year round. By 2030, we will reduce the number of men dying prematurely by 25%. Millions have joined the movement, raising over £440m to help us fund over 1,200 men’s health projects focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention. Our fathers, partners, brothers and friends face a health crisis that isn’t being talked about. We can’t afford to...Read more

"Type 2 diabetes could be beaten into remission if patients shed around 15kg, [2.4 stones]," reports BBC News. In the past type 2 diabetes was thought to be a lifelong condition. There is increasing evidence that even if it can't be cured, it is possible to put the condition into remission through weight loss. A pressing problem is, as The Daily Telegraph reports, that "less than 1 in 1,000 people" achieve remission. Achieving weight loss through a combination of diet...Read more

The charity is joining forces with NHS England to encourage older people to seek help and is calling on GPs to spot the warning signs. Nearly half of adults (7.7million) aged 55+ say they have experienced depression and around the same number (7.3 million) have suffered with anxiety, according to new YouGov research for the charity Age UK – revealing the scale of the mental health challenge facing older people in the UK today. The death of loved ones (36...Read more

One in ten men aged 50 taking the Heart Age Test have a heart age at least 10 years older than they are, according to analysis by Public Health England (PHE). The online test is the only known way of measuring our heart age, which shows how many years we can expect to live healthily without a heart attack or stroke. The higher our heart age, the higher our risk. Analysis of 1.2 million test results shows the majority of...Read more