Dropping off plus other Health and Beauty snippets

FALLING asleep in under five minutes could be an indication of sleep deprivation.

Dr Sophie Bostock, also known as the Sleep Scientist, explained in a recent podcast, that adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep, while children are advised to have between nine and 13 hours.

According to the NHS, most people take an average 14 minutes to drop off, Dr Bostock said.

“If you are falling asleep within five minutes of getting into bed, the chances are that you could probably benefit from more sleep,” she added.

Don’t stand up NOT everybody can get outside to exercise, however much they would like to.

That’s exactly why chair yoga, via free YouTube or Zoom sessions, can help adults – especially the over-65s – to enjoy all it has to offer in safety, however frail or lacking in flexibility they might be.

Benefits include loosening and stretching painful muscles, reducing chronic pain, decreasing stress, and improving circulation.

Yoga also reduces anxiety, helps to lower blood pressure, protects joints and builds strength and balance.

There are no hard and fast guidelines on how often to practise chair yoga, although doctors and exercise experts recommend two days a week as a good starting point.

No surprise there IN an Australian trial, some people with moderate to severe depression who also had a poor diet were put on a Mediterranean diet.

They were also given seven sessions with a dietitian while another group received counselling from a trained researcher, also for seven sessions.

All remained on their usual medication, which included antidepressants.

After 12 weeks researchers at Deakin University found that a third of those on the Mediterranean diet were in remission from depression, compared with 8 per cent in the control group.

The raw truth NATURAL, raw wine requires organic grapes, no additions and no modifications during fermentation.

Filtering is out, as are sulphites, produced naturally during fermentation and sometimes added to preserve freshness or minimize oxidation.

Raw wine advocates who maintain that it produces fewer hangovers and an easier “morning after” have been proved wrong, however.

“There is absolutely no proof that your natural wine hangover will be any less severe,” said Andrew Waterhouse, professor of Wine and Food science at University of California.

Vape warning RESEARCHERS in the US concluded that vaping can cause cancer-linked DNA damage to the mouth at the same rate as cigarettes.

Vapers who regularly used e-cigarettes, believing they were healthier than conventional tobacco, saw as much damage to DNA in their mouths as smokers. Flavour pods in particular were the most dangerous, the researchers said, without specifying which they considered to be worse.

Canadian investigators also found that mice exposed to flavoured vapes consistently suffered cellular and molecular damage to their lungs.

Versatile metformin DIABETES medication metformin could be useful in helping to prevent long Covid.

Clinical trials found that metformin decreased the risk of developing long Covid by 42 per cent if prescribed while a person was infected.

This latest study has established another use for metformin, which is now taken for weight loss as well as diabetes in the US.  It will soon be available for obese NHS patients following a recommendation from UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

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