The trouble with health warnings – the latest of which comes from the British Heart Foundation, suggesting that 20 million couch potatoes are risking an early death – is that they seem so abstract. How do you go from knowing you should exercise more, to actually doing it? Especially when you still have flashbacks to school sports day humiliation, or worry that the solitary pair of shorts in your wardrobe may no longer fit.
1 Walk more
Just get off your bum and on your feet. It sounds obvious, but research shows that walking can reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and more. As soon as it becomes habitual, you won’t even consider it as exercise – just try and do at least 30 minutes a day. Get off the bus early and catch up with a podcast or immerse yourself in an audiobook and time will pass much quicker. If you hate walking alone, Walking for Health has an online group finder.
Running packs in a lot of exercise in a short time. Photograph: Ryan Edy/Getty Images
2 Do it in intervals
Sometimes people feel they need to set aside hours to feel the benefits of exercise. But scientists have long extolled the virtues of short, hard workouts. A study from McMaster University in Canada comparing health markers for a group doing longer, steady workouts with another doing short, intense ones showed virtually identical gains. A sample session on an exercise bike would be a gentle warmup of five minutes, then 30 seconds of all-out cycling four to six times, with a four-minute easy pedal between the efforts. Though you do really have to make those 30 seconds count …
3 Try the NHS’s Couch to 5km programme
Running might seem an unlikely recommendation to the lazy-at-heart, but it has the great advantage of being time-efficient – you get a lot of exercise done in a short time, with minimal faffing with kit, equipment or facilities. Now is the ideal time to start, with lighter evenings and warmer weather. The brilliant Couch to 5k app from the NHS offers a way in for the most reluctant runner. And if you need a last push out the door, a recent study showed that even five minutes running a day can significantly lower your risk of dying prematurely.
4 Hit the weights
Despite study after study proving its benefits for all, strength training is still sometimes viewed as something that is only for bulky guys in old-school gyms. But lifting light weights won’t bulk up your muscles – it will just keep them strong, and help you to burn more fat, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, and improve insulin sensitivity. It’s particularly important for women, as it cuts the risk of osteoporosis – and it may also be effective for reducing low back pain.
Lifting weights helps burn more fat. Photograph: Mike Harrington/Getty Images
5 Set targets
Study after study has shown that incentives can help you stick with plans. Why not reward yourself every time you exercise – get a jam jar and put in a £1 coin for every class you attend – or, if you prefer, sign a binding online contract, or make a bet with a friend you really, really want to prove wrong. Sometimes, stubbornness is the most powerful force of all. And if that’s not enough, remind yourself of this: a National Institutes of Health study that followed 250,000 men and women between 50-71 found that those who were just slightly active but didn’t manage to exercise 30 minutes five times a week, were still 30% less likely to die earlythan those who were totally inactive.
Finding and obtaining a health insurance policy that fits your needs can feel like a huge chore. With the time it takes to sift through information about plans and compare them, it can feel like it just isn’t worth the effort when you don’t end up using your benefits.
People who recognize that modern medicine isn’t always the right choice of action for their bodies have a tough time when it comes to insurance companies. However, you can find a policy that fits your needs while still adhering to your wellness plan.
So how can we navigate health insurance when it comes to alternative medicine?
Alternative Medicine Costs Less, but You Pay More
More and more, people are turning away from conventional healthcare providers that use pharmaceutical drugs and instead utilizing alternative medicine. Alternative medicine is a broad term that could include chiropractic care, herbal remedies, naturopathy, massage, and even supplements.
Integrative medicine is the term used when a patient chooses to use alternative medicine in combination with traditional medicine, in which case some of the costs may be covered by their insurance company.
For those seeking alternative treatments—which has grown into a mass of people spending billions of dollars every year—there’s often little luck when it comes to getting insurance providers to pay for these therapies. This is surprising considering that alternative medicine often costs significantly less than traditional medicine, yet patients are forced to pay this cost out of pocket.
Knowing the extent of your insurance coverage can keep you prepared in the event that you want to utilize alternative remedies under your current insurance plan, or when considering a new plan. It can feel tedious to research plans—but your efforts can be well worth it.
What to Ask Your Insurance Company
Here are four questions to ask your insurance representative about your policy if you’re into alternative medicine.
What Forms of Treatment Are Considered to Be ‘Alternative’?
It seems a bit ludicrous to think that ancient practices like herbal medicine and acupuncture are considered “alternative” nowadays, but this is, in fact, the case. This means that natural preventative measures you take to avoid disease and sickness can cost you more than toxic pharmaceuticals.
It’s your job to find out which forms of treatment are considered to fall under the category of alternative medicine and which do not. Asking this simple question can help clarify which treatments are covered under the policy and which will not be covered or be only partially covered.
Does This Policy Cover All of My Healthcare Needs?
If you’re looking at a specific policy, consider what your healthcare needs are and whether or not they’re covered.
Do you visit the chiropractor regularly for adjustments? What about massage? Herbal therapy? You need to find out whether these things will be covered under your plan. If they are, you need to find out if they need to be ordered by a physician or “preapproved” before the company will grant you full or partial coverage.
Knowing the extent of your coverage can help you choose the best plan for your needs. If the treatments you receive are covered, the next step is to find out just how much of them will be covered under that policy.
What Are the Limits for Costs of Alternative Medicine?
Even if your treatments are covered, there is likely a limit on the cost they will cover. Talk with your insurance representative about specifics when it comes to the costs for your alternative medicine. There might be only a few allowed visits and limits on what they’ll pay—for instance, 10 chiropractic visits per year and then you’re done. Ask what you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket for needed services.
Ask your provider if getting a prescription for these services will help secure you coverage. In any case, it’s crucial to always keep your receipt for services in the event that it’s needed for reimbursement. If there are limits on cost, this means your benefits from this plan will only go as far as the number they give you.
Do My Practitioners Need to Be in Network?
Some insurance companies require that your healthcare practitioner be in their network in order for them to cover the cost. Talk with your insurance company about their policy regarding this. It’s helpful to check if your doctors or other healthcare providers are going to be able to continue giving you covered services under your future healthcare plan.
It’s also a good idea to ask if there’s any coverage for your services if you go out-of-network.
Other Things You Can Do
Although insurance companies aren’t allowed to discriminate against different procedures or providers, this doesn’t mean that they have to provide coverage.
You shouldn’t forgo health insurance just because you don’t see a traditional doctor or get standard tests done every year. Anyone can experience an accident that could lead to a hefty hospital bill. In cases like these, preventative measures do little to help us avoid the costs.
Navigating the insurance world can be confusing and scary, especially for those of us who value and utilize alternative therapies to better care for our bodies. Choosing an insurance plan that best fits our needs can help minimize out-of-pocket costs and help us feel better about having health insurance.
By asking questions and being knowledgeable about the plans available to you, you can make the best decision for you and your family in regards to health insurance and alternative medicine!
For backpackers, long-term travelers, or anyone who travels widely for work, sampling new local cuisines is one of the things to look forward to most. Who wouldn’t be enthusiastic about to trying traditional tacos in Mexico, sampling steaming-hot street food in Southeast Asia, or digging into a bowl of fresh spaghetti in Italy?
But if you don’t eat meat or fish, things can be trickier. Though the vegetarian movement is growing across the world, in many places meals still center on meat, and even the concept of vegetarianism can be met with a blank look. It isn’t easy for vegetarians to stay healthy on the road, particularly if you’re on a backpacker’s budget. Often, veggie-friendly restaurants hike their prices up, because they know vegetarian tourists will pay for a good meal.
But it doesn’t have to be so difficult. If you’re a committed vegetarian and avid traveler, here’s how to stay healthy while traveling the world.
CHOOSE YOUR DESTINATIONS WISELY
Admittedly, this isn’t always something you can control – if you travel for work you often don’t get a say where you’re sent. But if you’re traveling independently, you have the luxury of choosing destinations where Vegetarians are spoilt for choice – and sometimes these aren’t the countries you expect.
Take Belgium, for example. While it’s not exactly known for being a veggie-friendly country, it’s also home to the city with the largest number of vegetarians per capita: Ghent. This trailblazing town is also home to ‘Donderdag Veggiedag’ – Meat Free Thursdays, an initiative created to tackle growing obesity and greenhouse gas emissions. This soon spread throughout the city, and vegetarian street maps are handed out to visitors to Ghent.
Away from Europe, there are vegetarian hotspots across the globe. India is quite simply a vegetarian’s dream: around a third of people here are vegetarian, and most restaurants have clearly marked meat-free meals. In Southeast Asia, the Buddhist culture that pervades Thailand means vegetarian meals are plentiful, and because dairy is rarely used vegans will also be in their element. In the Middle East, Israel offers a mouth-watering array of vegetarian treats, from pita bread and hummus to falafel to baba ganoush.
Do your research before you go and consider what meat-free food options will be easily available. Bear in mind that some South American countries are notoriously bad for vegetarians.
DON’T BE SCARED TO SAMPLE STREET FOOD
Many vegetarians I’ve spoken to shun street food, believing that it’s usually meat-orientated and unhealthy. While this is often the case (particularly in the U.S.), in many countries the majority of street-food is in fact vegetarian by default. Meat is universally expensive, and the point of street food is usually that it’s quick and cheap.
Take Guatemala, for example. This country is the darling of backpackers across the globe and offers a wide-array of healthy and delicious vegetarian street food. This is starkly contrasted against its meat-loving neighbors – Mexican street food is infrequently vegetarian and in other Central American countries, meat makes an appearance at most street food stalls. In Guatemala, you can enjoy a whole array of vegetarian street food, from empanadas to rellenitos to salads and soups.
IF IN DOUBT, ASK
Though even the idea of vegetarian food is still alien in some cultures, most people will be happy to help you out if you ask.
The local diet in much of Central America is known to revolve around simple meals of meat or fish with rice, beans, and vegetables. Take Costa Rica, for example, where the traditional meal of ‘casado’ consists of rice, beans, plantains, salad and some meat. One vegetarian traveler described how, on explaining she was vegetarian (“soy vegetarian” in Spanish), the restaurant staff happily replaced the customary meat with grilled cheese. This is a great way to stay healthy in Central and South America, as due to their reliance on beans these meals provide vegetarians with enough protein.
Bear in mind that ‘vegetarian’ can mean something else in other countries: it can refer to someone who doesn’t eat red meat but does eat chicken and fish. In Thailand, the term “vegetarian food” often isn’t understood unless you’re in touristy hubs, and asking for just vegetables – “pak” – is sometimes inferred as asking for pork. If you’re unsure, refer to yourself as a Buddhist, and it’ll be instantly understood that you don’t eat any meat.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, COOK
Cooking for yourself rather than eating out in a foreign country can seem like an admission of failure for vegetarians, especially if you’re someone who excitedly looks forward to trying new food. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Head to a local market and pick up some of the oft-used ingredients there, and make a vegetarian version of one of the national dishes.
For example, you don’t have to buy fish to make a delicious ceviche; vegetarian ceviche is becoming a thing, and the blend of fresh vegetables with citrus makes an exceptionally healthy as well as a delicious meal. If you’re in Asia, replace the meat or fish in dishes with extra veg or tofu; a few tweaks to the traditional Tom Yum recipe will result in a wonderful vegetarian alternative that’s packed with vitamins.
In addition to helping you find healthy, delicious and varied vegetarian meals, traversing vibrant and bustling local markets is one of the best ways to understand a new culture. Buying fresh fruit and vegetables will always be cheap and healthy, and whether you’re on a budget or not, is a great way of ensuring you’re getting your five-a-day.
Be brave and imaginative, and you may find yourself with a new understanding of a country’s culture – as well as a lasting appreciation of their cuisine.
A musical about cancer? I see no reason why not. For much of its length this show, co-presented with Complicite Associates and written by Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel with a score by Tom Parkinson, offers a robust demystification of it subject. Only in its later stages does it turn from a piece of theatre into a dubious form of group therapy.
The premise is simple. Emily, a single mum, takes baby Owen into hospital for a series of scans. We share her helpless anxiety as her son is taken from her and she follows the stories of a group of cancer patients. They include a radical feminist, a pregnant 18-year-old, a woman seeking a miracle cure for a terminal condition, a defiant working-class smoker and a young man with a testicular problem who is accompanied everywhere by his mother. They are a representative bunch, all, we later discover, based on real-life cases.
Clearly the point of the show is to sabotage cliche responses to cancer: not just the vocabulary of “struggle” that surrounds it but also, as one character says, the “aggressive sorrow” and special “cancer face”, assumed by friends. The advantage of the music is that it gives each patient his or her moment in the spotlight while showing collective attitudes. Purloining a phrase from Susan Sontag, Kingdom of the Sick is a jaunty choral number capturing the sense that cancer patients are part of a large, ever-growing club. But we are also reminded that each case is different: Mark, the heavy smoker pining for his estranged daughter, sings a Willie Nelson-type cowboy song while Laura, destined for a hospice because of ovarian cancer, rips off her clothes to launch into a shake-it-all-about 70s rock routine.
Battering at an open door … A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
But, as the show proceeded, my reservations started to mount. It increasingly seems to be battering at an open door. Far from being reticent in speaking about illness or death, I would say we have never been more open about it: I am at an age when any social occasion is prefaced by what a friend calls “the organ recital” and, when I was diagnosed with a kidney tumour three years ago, I saw no need to hide the fact. Although I welcome the show’s candour about cancer, it also lapses at the end into an extraordinary form of self-display: as cast and audience are invited to shout aloud the names of patients they know, I felt I was attending a secular revivalist meeting.
Kimmings herself directs with great verve and there are good performances from Amanda Hadingue as the distressed single mum, Golda Rosheuvel as the miracle-seeking Laura, Rose Shalloo as the teenager facing genetic issues and Naana Agyei-Ampadu as a tough American who wisecracks her way through trouble. The show is bold in confronting cancer with ebullient music rather than hushed reverence but when Kimmings, in a climactic voiceover, endorses the point, it comes dangerously close to self-congratulation.
• At the Dorfman theatre, London, until 29 November. Box office: 020-7452 3000.
You will be amazed to know that camel spider, as the name suggests in not a spider at all. It is an arachnid in the order Solifugae which means “those who run away from the sun”. This large, brown, hairy and fierce spider like animal is very dangerous and is also well known by the names- Jerrymugium, Sun Spider, Sand Spider, Sun Scorpion and the Wind Spider.
The length of this creature is not fixed and varies across species, ranging from 0.5 inches up to 6 inches. Its abdomen is divided into segments and long hair that shines in the sun covers its long legs. The most striking and dangerous part of this spider’s body is its sharp plier like jaws which are used to crush and chew their prey.
WHERE CAN CAMEL SPIDERS BE FOUND?
Camel spiders are usually found in deserts around the world. They are averse from sunlight and during the day time, hide themselves under the rocks or bury themselves in the soil or sand to protect their body from the day time heat. Camel spiders are night creatures and are active after dusk.
CAMEL SPIDER BITE SYMPTOMS
A camel spider attacks a human only if it feels threatened. Its bite is not poisonous and normally leaves a severely fierce looking wound at the area of the bite. If you are sure that you have been bitten by a camel spider, then you must have one or more camel spider bite symptoms mentioned below:
Acute pain
A camel spider bite results in severe stinging pain due to the creature’s jaws which look like a crab’s pincers.
Swelling and Redness
Trauma to the surrounding tissues results in inflammation and redness of the skin surrounding the wound. This inflammation is a normal response of the human body to the spider’s bite.
Bleeding
Depending on the severity of the bite, extent of attack, size of the spider and area of the body that has been attacked, mild to profuse bleeding may occur.
In some cases, camel spider bite symptoms become worse due to other underlying medical conditions or allergic reactions. It is better to visit a doctor immediately in such cases as immediate medical attention will be required.
CAMEL SPIDER BITE TREATMENT
Since camel spider bites are non-venomous in nature, it can be treated at home without immediate medical intervention from the doctors. In case the affected person has other medical conditions like diabetes, blood pressure, thyroid or allergies, then it is best to consult a doctor and seek medical treatment to avoid infection.
The below treatment or first aid steps can be followed immediately after a camel spider bite:
The very first and most important step is sanitizing the wounded area. Wash it with mild soap, saline solution or an anti- bacterial disinfectant.
Once the wound is thoroughly cleaned, dry it so that no water is left.
Carefully apply an antibiotic cream and leave the wound for ten to fifteen minutes.
Once the cream begins to dry, cover the area of the bite with a band aid or bandage. Avoid placing cotton as it will stick to the cream covering the wound and can result in infection.
Once the bandage is on, ensure that you change it regularly to avoid staph and other bacterial infections. In case you develop symptoms like vomiting and fever after few days, rush to a doctor and seek medical treatment to treat the infection which in some cases can become life threatening.
To reduce inflammation and redness around the wound, you can apply ice packs and ice compressions ten minutes every day. It will numb the area around the wound and decrease pain and inflammation.
If you follow the mentioned steps carefully, your camel spider bite will completely heal in a couple of weeks. In case of other complications, your doctor may advice cleaning of the wound, scraping off the area of the bite, tetanus injections and strong antibiotic course for a few weeks.
Young people are being urged to get vaccinated against meningitis W. Now accounting for a quarter of all meningitis infections in England, there has been a rapid rise in cases of this strain, with a corresponding increase in fatalities, and university campuses can act as petri dishes for a host of infectious diseases. Here is a selection:
Measles and mumps
Most festival-goers this summer just hoped to have a working pop-up tent and sufficient dry shampoo. But Public Health England has confirmed a significant number of measles infections linked to music festivals and other large public events, with 38 suspected cases at events in June and July alone. Tellingly, the Vaccines weren’t playing. In the US, by the time of Harvard’s 26 May commencement ceremony this year, there were 59 confirmed cases of mumps on campus, with 713 cases throughout England last year.
Usual symptoms include headaches, fever, joint pains and the hamster face of parotid gland swelling. Rarely, complications can lead to meningitis, pancreatitis and hearing loss. Testicles can swell to up to four times normal size and 10% of men have a drop in sperm count. However, this is rarely significant enough to cause infertility.
Glandular fever
Glandular fever – also called infectious mononucleosis, mono, or “the kissing disease” can turn a romantic afternoon into a fortnight with a sore throat, swollen glands, a fever and the voice of Phil Mitchell. Apart from kissing, it can also be spread through exposure to coughing and sneezing, as well as sharing eating and drinking utensils.
One in four people develop glandular fever at some point. If you get it, rest, take paracetamol if needed, avoid alcohol, and avoid contact sports for three weeks to decrease the risk of your spleen rupturing.
Syphilis and other STIs
Any condition that causes chancres and condylomata lata (ulceration and wart-like lesions) is best avoided. These two things are not pretty. Syphilis is a condition of blame and border disputes – Italians, Germans and the British named syphilis “the French disease”, the French named it “the Neapolitan disease”, the Russians called it “the Polish disease”, and the Polish named it “the German disease”.
The most commonly diagnosed STI in England last year was chlamydia, with 200,288 cases. Meanwhile, rates of syphilis and gonorrhoea continued to rise (proportional increases of 20% and 11% respectively). Those aged 16-24 experienced the highest rates of chlamydia, genital herpes and genital warts – not quite the freshers’ society they planned to join. Nowadays, a shot or two of penicillin should cure syphilis – so there’s no need to bear responsibility for creating a flashmob of syphilitic students.
Patients look to you for reassurance, but your job isn’t to always know the right answer – it’s to find the person in the building who does. The only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask. Ask for help, share problems and try and find solutions for others who come to you for help.
Oliver Long, consultant anaesthetist, London
Don’t be a smart arse
Always seek advice from everyone and anyone including nurses, domestics, porters and your medical peers. Develop a bedside manner for your ward/hospital colleagues as well as with your patients – no-one likes a smart arse, medical degree or no medical degree.
Jude, community hospital nurse, Gloucestershire
Enjoy it – make friends and maybe even find love
It’s the hardest and best two years of your life. The job, and more importantly, your reaction to it, will define the person you will be, the speciality you will choose and the life you will lead. It is also where you will meet many friends that you will keep for life. As a final note, I find anecdotally that many foundation doctors also meet the love of their life in the first two years of training.
Tony, GP, Manchester
Related: What really happens the day junior doctors start work in the NHS
Don’t view patients as a set of signs and symptoms
Take a step back from observations and test results and look at the whole patient. Try not to view them as just a set of signs and symptoms that need to be sorted out but as a complex individual who lives beyond this admission to hospital.
Listen to relatives. Respect your patient’s autonomy even if they are making unwise or unsafe decisions. Listen to your patients more than you talk to them.
Always make time to eat. Keep a water bottle with you. Hungry doctors don’t function as well as fed and watered ones.
Tom Palmer, doctor – emergency medicine, London
Don’t hide
On the senior team, we have seen people come and go and we expect problems, there’s very little that can surprise an NHS consultant. If you share it, it is likely we can solve it.
Find time to wallow in misery
You will be miserable and that’s fine, don’t apologise for it and make sure you schedule time to groan in the mess. On the shop floor, remember who you are and stay cheerful, you will be amazed at how a team of colleagues can carry each other through anything.
Anthony Hopkins, paediatric registrar, south west
Don’t fall out with the nurses
Never ever fall out with the nurses – they are your lifeline, and have an abundance of knowledge (about their patients, the hospital, how to make stuff happen, the location of teabags/mugs/secret chocolate supply etc)
Sarah, specialty doctor, south west
Tidy up after yourself
My advice is clear up after yourself eg blood-taking equipment, notes etc. Leaving stuff around makes you appear that you have little regard for other staff and you will get people’s backs up.
Edward Daniels, staff nurse, drugs and alcohol, Nottingham
Don’t view older patients as old and boring
Some of them are the most amazing people with incredible life stories that deserve to be listened to.
Anonymous, cardiac physiologist, East Midlands
Relax
The first day on your new job is going to be jam-packed. New hospital, new colleagues, new patients, and of course new hospital systems to figure out. These are the first days of the rest of your life in medicine so start off by taking a deep breath.
Christopher Meally, physician associate in cardiology, Warwickshire
Don’t overshare
Don’t talk loudly about how drunk you were on a night out while standing at the nurses’ station (everyone will hear you) – you deserve to let your hair down as much as the next person but your patient needs to see you as a professional, not imagine you staggering along the street.
Make an effort to understand and value all members of the team
Everybody is essential, from the admin staff to the occupational therapists and other lesser known allied health professionals, and sometimes it can be easy to under-appreciate a team member’s contribution.
Hannah Wightman, occupational therapist, East Midlands
Don’t neglect your social life
If you have any time left over from working 48 hours a week, do not neglect your social and personal life. You will need this time to recharge your batteries.
Deborah Tomlinson, retired nurse of 40 years, London
Pass the granny test
Make sure everything you do passes the granny test. If it wouldn’t have been good enough for your granny, it’s not good enough for your patient.
Claire, mental health service manager, north west
If you would like to contribute to our Blood, sweat and tears series which is about memorable moments in a healthcare career, please read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.
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‘I think fathers are just as critical to a child’s daily life as mothers, even though the timing is diverse,’ says Penelope Leach. Photograph: Alamy
Childcare guru Penelope Leach has defended herself against fees that she sides against fathers in her new book, which suggests overnight stays with an absent mother or father are damaging for really tiny children.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, she says her book, about helping children caught in the breakdown of their parents’ connection, is “pro-fathers, not anti-them. The major purpose I wrote it was to assist dad and mom to perform collectively after marriage break-up, and a massive element of that is so fathers get the part they deserve and their youngsters require.”
Before publication, Loved ones Breakdown has been fiercely criticised by both fathers and psychologists for its assertion that below the age of 4, children must continue to be with their main caregiver – typically the mother – and not remain overnight with the absent parent. She asserts that it can undermine children’s security, make them much more irritable and perhaps interfere with their social advancement.
But she is hurt, she says, by stories of a furious reaction from fathers. “In the huge majority of circumstances, it’s the mom who is the major attachment figure: younger babies require a main caregiver and currently being separated from that figure can result in them difficulties. If a father was the main caregiver, I would say the child should not be staying overnight with the mom.
“But I feel fathers are just as essential to a child’s daily life as mothers, however the timing is distinct. They have a tendency to come into their own in the second 12 months, rather than at birth, and kids who have a shut relationship with their fathers do far better by way of existence in each and every way.”
Nevertheless, she is accused, by psychologists of possessing inadequate proof for her assertion that sleepovers can be detrimental. In the book – subtitled “assisting children hang on to both their parents” – she cites a review from Australia which, its authors say, has been misinterpreted. Not too long ago far more than 100 psychologists, mainly from the United States, signed a consensus statement which rejected those findings. “Policymakers and determination makers should recognise that depriving young kids of overnights with their fathers could compromise the high quality of building father-child relationships,” they explained.
Professor Charlie Lewis from Lancaster University was 1 of the Uk signatories. “The evidence however does not assistance her [Leach],” he explained. “Metanalyses [critiques combining the final results of big numbers of studies] that appear at whether or not or not it is much better for the non-resident parent to have contact with the little one display that the far more speak to there is with the non-resident mother or father, the greater the end result for the little one.”
He additional that co-residency, where the youngster lives sometimes with the mother and often with the father, “is a marker of the maturity of the two mothers and fathers”, which meant a better partnership, which was extremely much in the child’s interests.
Leach says that she does not want to be believed towards divorce – or separation the place parents are not married – which is now so regular: relationships break down irretrievably around 42% of marriages end in divorce. Her concern is about the youngsters who “are being utilized as weapons in the marital war when truly they are its victims”.
“We can argue about all sorts of issues around the edges, but we can’t argue about the harm it does,” she says. “Divorce or separation will always be poor for kids – there’s no obtaining away from it. It ranges from disruptive and sad to tragic. What’s greatest for kids is if their mother and father adore a single an additional for ever … but there are constantly tons of items that you can not get excellent for your kids.”
She reveals that she herself was a youngster caught in the crossfire as her mother and father – novelist Nigel Balchin and his wife, Elisabeth – split up, soon after a companion-swap arrangement with artist Michael Ayrton and his wife, Joan. She is an anonymised case research in her personal guide, a woman of eleven who is sent to boarding college because her father are not able to bear to allow her reside with her mom and new spouse, while her older sister escaped to drama school and much younger sister stayed with mum.
“I felt I would vanished,” says the little one in the guide. She does not know whether she survived the trauma, she told the Guardian. “We in no way know, do we, due to the fact you never know how you would have been,” she explained. “Early trauma can depart folks sensitive to stress later on on in their daily life, and I believe I am a person who demonstrates that. I’m not a laid-back kind of man or woman.”
Seven years in the past, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post collapsed from exhaustion and burnout. This, she says, was the wake-up contact she required to make some constructive alterations in her life.
Ms Huffington has written ‘Thrive’ about the experiance and shared 3 tiny alterations everybody can make to keep away from a equivalent illness.
The initial tip: Get at least thirty minutes a lot more rest than you do now.
Second: At the finish of each and every day, pick a time to flip off all electronic devices and remove them from your bedroom.
Third: Drop anything at the finish of each and every day. This can be anything that is no longer serving you, be it a grudge, a resentment, or a undertaking.
Image the scene: you’re 13 or 14, perhaps even younger, and all hell is breaking loose in your body. By some means, pubes have started sprouting overnight, your nipples are in agony, and you happen to be bleeding from that hole in the middle that you weren’t prepared to feel existed nevertheless. Each and every time you appear in the mirror, the war would seem to have broken out on a diverse front. You happen to be establishing lumps and bumps in places in which previously there had been none, you’re grouchy and massively hormonal. And if that wasn’t negative ample, a odd foreign species referred to as “boy” is beginning to present an interest in you by way of the tried-and-tested strategy of insult (typically by asking you why you have not received any tits).
If you could, you’d rest 18 hours a day and never talk to anyone again. No one speaks to you the way that Courtney Really like/Alanis Morissette/Avril Lavigne/Lady Gaga/Taylor Swift does (delete in accordance to age and taste). It’s no wonder so a lot of of us end up backcombing our hair, throwing on an oversized crucifix necklace and turning into goths for a couple of many years: being a teenage lady is shit.
We each came of age at a notably cruel time – the tit-obsessed 90s, era of the lads’ mag, Webpage three and Geri from the Spice Girls – when not getting the pneumatic boobs of Melinda Messenger was an unspeakable sin, even at age eleven. By the time we were teens, we would go through enough articles in Mizz magazine called issues like “Makeup to make you happy” to know that we need to be covering ourselves in roll-on neon entire body glitter and bindis if we ever wanted to get down to Brimful of Asha with that “luscious lad”.
Our teens marked the beginning of a lifelong love-detest relationship with the media directed at us. We consumed an awful good deal of glossy trash more than the many years, and in February 2012, when we had been a pair of impoverished graduates, we launched The Vagenda – a website devoted to humorously lambasting women’s magazines. Nearly as quickly as we launched, hordes of women, from the age of 13 appropriate up to 85, were getting in touch and wanting to add their voices. Thanks to these outstanding contributors, the Vagenda has covered almost everything from the weave to the vajazzle, miscarriage to motherhood. It made us realise we weren’t the only ones who felt like crap when we study women’s magazines or watched MTV.
We truly feel as although the media want us to be in a constant battle with our bodies, as although they want us to eliminate all traces of anything at all normal, this kind of as entire body hair or crow’s feet or freckles, to turn out to be a doll-like model of femininity. As a result, a girl gets to be piecemeal, fragmented: a assortment of boobs and thighs and bum and waist and calves, as however these body components are somehow separable from her. Feminists such as Germaine Greer and Susie Orbach have been saying this for many years, of program, but practically nothing has truly transformed. In reality, it is getting worse.
Current criticism of our perform has suggested that our stance on women’s magazines is patronising, that readers are savvy ample to be aware of their pitfalls and damaging articles, or that they merely never care. The suggestion is that no one requires them as significantly as we do. We contest that with infuriated passion. Feminist criticism has typically targeted on men’s publications, when the materials in women’s magazines can be just as damaging, if not much more so. This was one particular of the arguments created in Naomi Wolf’s bestseller The Elegance Myth, but we consider the generation of feminists that benefited from her insights have forgotten how significantly of a feminist vacuum the 90s actually have been. Whilst so-known as publish-feminists declared that equality was won and there was practically nothing left to achieve, we swallowed the intercourse tips and the Photoshopping and the urge to get, purchase, get – just as the media giants and their advertisers meant. To our mothers’ generation, The Vagenda might look like reinventing the wheel. To us and our readers, realising that the media we are exposed to could not have our best interests at heart was something of a revelation.
Even publications that used to celebrate women’s liberation in the 70s and 80s have been increasingly watered down and replaced with very easily recycled, oversexed material pandering to a industrial team who’ve got your cash on their thoughts. Presently it can truly feel as if their index fingers are pointing accusingly at you from behind the web page, primed to provide you a hefty shot of insecurity to complement your morning Botox. The mind-boggling message is that a woman’s personal body elements indicate more than she does.
‘The media’s overpowering message is that a woman’s personal body elements indicate much more than she does’ publish Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex
It truly is not as although baby women emerge from the womb already hating their podgy thighs, but a examine published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology in 2009 showed that half of 3- to 6-yr-outdated ladies be concerned about becoming excess fat, and that by age nine, half of them have already been on a diet plan. We can just see them in the back backyard now – “no mud pie for me, ta, a minute on the lips means a lifetime on the hips!” – and it truly is not a quite image. The same piece of research identified that ladies between the ages of 11 and 17 cite seeking good as their number 1 aim in daily life.
We know from expertise exactly where such messages can lead. As a teenager Rhiannon devoted an inordinate volume of power to bleaching out her freckles employing fade out cream. “You’ll finish up like Michael Jackson,” her mum warned, to no avail. Both of us also begged our mums to iron our hair, and by our 20s we have been entirely paid-up elegance shoppers, spending considerably of our tough-earned lady cash (and let us remember, which is even now significantly less than guy money) on identical merchandise differing only in their jazzy packaging and pseudo-sciencey claims that promised the world.
Why are we willing to put ourselves by means of increasingly painful and bizarre procedures in an obvious quest for perfection? Possessing purchased some budget very own-brand waxing strips as portion of a two-for-a single deal employing her pocket money, the intrepid 15-12 months-outdated Rhiannon waited till her mother was out and then locked herself in the bathroom. She applied the wax strip to the left half of her nether areas, but as quickly as she in fact grasped the actuality of what she was about to do, she all of a sudden misplaced every ounce of resolve and became too frightened to tear it off. An hour later on, after many attempts, she finally ripped it off, screaming blue murder. She was stuck with the resultant half-hairy/half-baldy fanny for weeks. And it’s not significantly far better in a salon, exactly where Holly fainted in the course of a notably brutal G-string wax at the embarrassing age of 21.
If you are anything at all like us, you probably examine your reflection at least numerous occasions a day, and you may have even perfected the “subtle store-window check out”, in which a thorough inspection of your flyaway fringe is disguised as a nonchalant perusal of the mannequins. We do not do this simply because there is a special female gene that can make you care a lot more about your appearance. We care far more about our look simply because we have been advised throughout our lives that that’s the place our priorities ought to lie.
We dwell in a globe now where we are in a position to vote and operate and even occasionally run complete nations, so hasn’t feminism achieved its objectives? Nicely, our primary point of contention is that, while we’re technically permitted to do all these factors, we’re nonetheless supposed to have a cracking cleavage whilst we’re doing them. If you have the audacity to be a woman and walk all around cultivating a prominent profession for by yourself, it’s fairly significantly taken as study that your look will be employed to discredit you.
There have been instances when the two of us have been on the dole, and but have felt it needed to devote our paltry jobseeker’s allowance on new foundation rather than foods – and not because we’re specially vain, but simply because as girls we’re made to come to feel that we need to look a particular way in order to be regarded acceptable. It is perverse that we must crave a smooth, dewy complexion more than a filling, nutritious meal, and will happily reside off teabags on toast if it means that we are capable to achieve it (plus we may well get rid of a few pounds in the process). But this is the way we dwell now.
Charities this kind of as Media Sensible, which helps kids comprehend the distorting techniques employed by the media and teaches them to differentiate in between photoshopped and non-photoshopped pictures, are foremost the way in assisting youngsters to dissect what they see close to them, but it’s an uphill struggle that requirements an tremendous cavalry force. After all, the advertisers get ‘em younger, so it is essential campaigners do, as well. How else can we function in the direction of a globe in which the subsequent generation escapes the fate of its predecessors?
Your teenage many years are some of the most puzzling and isolating you will ever expertise, and with the prevalence of hardcore porn and social media, factors are obtaining even more nerve-racking for teenage women. Everywhere you look there is an objectified female body, and but residing up to individuals photos will only get you shamed. How can you be both a porno princess and a dirty slut?
We want to be teaching younger people the big difference between sexual exploration and exploitation. We need to be educating both sexes the that means of consent. We require to realise that patriarchy (yep, we waited right up until the finish to drop that in there) – in other phrases, the status quo the place males run the planet and women run their households – is poor for men, too. But most of all, we want to confront these men and women who declare that we don’t reside in a man’s world, that we don’t need feminism any more, or that today’s generation of young women are previously outfitted with the resources they want. They are not.
‘When you happen to be a lady, your bras and knickers appear to be everyone’s organization,’ create Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex
The “bra-burning feminists” myth came about during a 1968 protest outdoors the Miss America pageant. In reality, the bra burning never happened, and was a journalist’s attempt to draw comparisons with the Vietnam war protests at which youthful American men burned draft cards. In no way thoughts. It turns out that we do have one thing to say about bras.
The fact is, when you happen to be a girl, your bras and knickers appear to be everyone’s business, and those in the know like to get the process of moulding you into a lifelong buyer started early. As the school-age girls’ magazine Bliss place it in their vogue segment last year, “You will not just want a total new wardrobe, you require a whole new load of underwear as well!” All of which prospects us to question just who specifically this lacy lingerie is in fact meant for.
At some stage or another, perhaps inspired by an Agent Provocateur ad or a Cosmo sex tip, most of us have attempted to embody the character of the lingerie-clad vixen. Maybe it really is since we’re constantly informed that we need to spice up our intercourse lives, and are so regularly exposed to girls in their scanties in newspapers, on billboards and in music movies. Ever since Christina Aguilera upped the ante and teamed those red knickers with a pair of crotchless leather chaps, music movies have all begun to resemble some kind of naked intercourse get together – except, of program, that all the men are wearing outfits.
Far more and a lot more, we are seeing ourselves via men’s eyes, and, regrettably, though underwear would seem an intrinsically feminine endeavour, significantly of it seems to exist only for their enjoyment. Female sexuality has become almost inseparable from our capability to make our bums search good in French knickers.
Of program, we all know that big pants are the most comfy, nevertheless we’re advised we ought to be wearing the smallest, teeniest pants attainable, because that’s what guys like, and will flee in horror from the mere sight of a VPL. That so much of our lingerie is foisted upon us by boyfriends and advertisers adds insult to injury, especially when you see articles known as factors such as “What your underwear says about you”, as though regardless of whether you wear huge, greying pants or tiny, attractive knickers reveals anything profound about your persona.
Most underwear is a nightmare to wear and nearly always entirely incompatible with the simultaneous wearing of garments, not to mention your everyday routine. And no, don’t consider and kid us that we want to buy Valentine’s lingerie or Christmas lingerie or Halloween lingerie or birthday lingerie for anything at all other than his sexual gratification, due to the fact pretending it really is for us whilst telling us to “do like pros do and give him a lap dance in a G-string and heels” (as Cosmo had it) is just taking the piss.
• This is an edited extract adapted from The Vagenda by Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, published by Square Peg on one May possibly. Purchase it for £11.99 from guardianbookshop.co.united kingdom
Physician David Agus’s intention in his pithily titled “A Short Guidebook to a Lengthy Existence” to tackle the confusion of how to reside to be healthy” is certainly commendable but the practicalities concerned, some may possibly think, verge on the obsessional. He is, for instance, really keen on monitoring bodily functions such as the pulse and blood stress that need to, he advises, be recorded daily at distinct occasions for a period of three months. “You will then want to repeat the physical exercise during the yr,” he writes – preferably when each couple of months. This allows for any alterations to be noted and correlated with a personal check out up that calls for reflecting on no matter whether there might be “anything abnormal to report” with breathing, skin, hair, digestion or appetite.
This ritual self-scrutiny it turns out is only the beginning in the (extremely) prolonged journey of staying wholesome. Dr Agus, not surprisingly, is a fantastic believer in wellness checks, commending a routine so extensive it is tough to imagine how 1 could perhaps fit them all in. He helpfully provides a checklist of no significantly less than 25 – that for an individual like myself in my early sixties involves not only a yearly “physical” from my medical doctor with all the usual blood tests for diabetes and cholesterol – but hearing exams, eye tests, bone density screening and regular monthly skin examinations for “marks or changes”. In addition I need to apparently have both a prostate and rectal examination – supplemented at periodical intervals with a total scale stomach ultrasound and colonoscopy.
A lot more contentiously even now he commends a DNA screen that he claims can identify people individuals at danger from forty circumstances. This, he acknowledges, can be an expensive enterprise costing many hundred lbs – and he must know as he runs a commercial business that offers them. His assertion, however, that they will “reduce your chance of circumstances you could be susceptible to” is not correct.
His health guidelines are a blend of the commonsensical (regular physical exercise, don’t smoke) banal (wash your hands, floss your teeth) and modish (consume fish 3 instances a week). Some, nevertheless, are distinctly odd. He does not approve of juicers due to the fact they “oxidise” the substances in fruit and veggies – but then so does cutting them up on a chopping board and consuming them.
As for stiletto heels, they no doubt will, if unwell fitting, trigger some inflammation by rubbing on the feet. It is, nevertheless, nervousness mongering on a genuinely fantastical scale to suggest this may possibly predispose to Alzheimer’s ailment, cancer or accelerated ageing.
But then Dr Agus’s fundamental premise is an absurdity. There are by no means basic options to complex problems and he is both deluded or deceitful in claiming that his individuals dying from cancer or other “life altering diseases” have only themselves to blame for not adhering to the “few” (!) healthy habits outlined in his book.
If you’re in need of inspiration to consider stock of your life-style and dwell a more healthy existence, give the book a go through but I warn you, it may well far more accurately be entitled “A brief guide to misery and neurosis”.
Nathan Filer with his Costa award-winning guide. Photograph: Tal Cohen/EPA
Judges for 1 of the UK’s most prestigious literary prizes on Tuesday heralded a major new talent when they named psychological health nurse Nathan Filer winner of the 2013 Costa guide award for a moving account of schizophrenia and grief.
Filer won towards far more fancied contenders, not least Kate Atkinson, for his debut novel The Shock of the Fall.
The novelist Rose Tremain, who chaired the judges, stated: “For a 1st novel it is astonishingly positive-footed … I believe there is real pleasure about this winner.”
The book is narrated by Bristol boy Matthew from the age of five to his early 20s and is a gripping account of his descent into schizophrenic sickness following the death of his younger brother. It is informed when he is at school, when he is smoking also much marijuana in a grotty flat and from the psychiatric wards he ends up in.
Tremain stated, however, it was not just about schizophrenia: “It is about grief and this is a topic we all have expertise of. It is grief analysed but handled completely with no sentimentality. It gets near that and there had been moments when I received concerned, but it always avoids them.”
The Costa prize is unusual in that it pits five category winners – novel, first novel, biography, children’s and poetry – against each and every other for the best £30,000 prize like evaluating chicken curry with custard, as one former judge mentioned.
Atkinson had been powerful favourite to win for her eighth novel Lifestyle Following Lifestyle, which would have been her 2nd Costa win. It was not to be. “There’s often going to be a bookies’ favourite,” stated Tremain. “By bookies who haven’t go through the books.”
Filer, aged 33, has worked in psychiatric wards for far more than a decade. When last asked about it he said he meant to carry on with the odd shift and to hold his nursing registration up.
Tremain said: “To take this kind of a marvellously articulated factor from his professional lifestyle and bring it to lifestyle in the way he has is such an extraordinary achievement.”
The guide is the merchandise of Filer’s MA in innovative creating at Bath Spa University, in which he now lectures.
Last year it was the topic of a fierce 11-way bidding war by publishers – constantly hunting for the following possible Mark Haddon and his The Curious Incident of the Puppy in the Night-Time. It was at some point secured by HarperCollins, who presented a six-figure deal.
Filer was plainly not expecting to win, nor was his new wife Emily who he married on Saturday. “I was 100% certain he was not going to win,” she mentioned.
He was thrilled even though. “I wrote this guide simply because I want to share it, I was not creating it for myself… I often desired men and women to read through it and winning this means far more and much more folks will read through it so I am absolutely delighted by that.”
Filer mentioned he had felt a accountability not to propagate myths close to psychological well being and would carry on nursing shifts, like one coming up on Sunday.
There is now an expectation, he is the new creating talent on the block. “Of course a pressure comes with something like this as effectively as the reward but I am not going to sit here and bemoan a pretty issue that has just happened.”
Tremain said the five contenders made up a quite excellent checklist and all the books were talked about in the two-hour meeting. “In the end it was not quite tough for us to agree.” Though “not fairly unanimous” there was no blood, Tremain mentioned. “It was a extremely excellent natured and articulate jury. It was a very entertaining afternoon.”
Filer’s Costa win will be daily life-altering, Tremain acknowledged. “There’s usually a risk with a first-time winner – is this a one particular guide wonder? You will not know. But this extraordinary fashion and self-assurance is not an simple thing to do. If I had to bet on it I would say there are far more books in this writer.”
He is the fifth first novelist to win, with prior winners like Atkinson who won in 1995 for Behind The Scenes at the Museum. The final 1 was Stef Penney in 2006 with The Tenderness of Wolves.
The other books missing out on Tuesday were Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s biography of Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Pike Michael Symmons Roberts’ poetry assortment Drysalter, and Chris Riddell’s children’s book Goth Lady and the Ghost of a Mouse.
The prize, now in its 42nd year, unashamedly rewards enjoyability. It was recognized as the Whitbread prize from 1971 to 2005.
This year’s nine-robust judging panel incorporated actor Natascha McElhone, Pointless expert Richard Osman, singer Sharleen Spiteri, and authors and writers Gerard Woodward, Emma Kennedy, Anne de Courcy, Matthew Cain and John Burnside.
