You might think relationship advice has already exhausted the obvious suggestions. Communicate more. Make time for each other. Put your phones away. Now researchers in the Netherlands have added something rather more glamorous to the list: go and be amazed together. A new study by Matteo Perini and colleagues at Radboud University,

We all have a chronological age — the number of years since we were born—but this may not tell us how old our bodies really are. Two people of the same age can have very different levels of cardiovascular fitness, metabolic health, cognitive function and susceptibility to disease. This has led to growing interest in biological age; an attempt to measure how quickly an individual’s body is ageing compared with others of the same chronological age.

You are probably used to thinking that a worthwhile workout should leave you red faced, sweaty and wondering whether your legs have quietly resigned. But fitness does not always reward frantic effort.

Mark Attewell, a personal trainer for David Lloyd clubs, points out that although the traditional “go hard or go home” approach has its benefits, moving slowly can have plenty going for it too.

Today Dr Virdi answers questions on fitness for older adults in their 60s, 70s and above, specifically on Walking and Cardio. Don’t forget to send in any questions you might have for Dr Virdi. All personal details remain confidential. We will only publish your question.

Question/s:

“Is walking enough exercise? How many steps should I aim for each day? How long should I walk? What should my heart rate be during exercise?”

Could a carefully prepared cocoa drink help you remember where you left your keys? A small Columbia University Medical Centre trial suggests that cocoa flavanols may improve a specific type of age-related memory decline, although the findings are not a magical excuse to build a chocolate fountain in the kitchen.

If you have ever replayed an awkward conversation from three years ago while brushing your teeth, your brain may be doing more than simply being dramatic.

Researchers are increasingly interested in what is called repetitive negative thinking, or RNT, which includes repeatedly worrying about the future or ruminating about the past.

This week's article is based on something that genuinely shocked me when I read about it recently, and that is that even a single course of antibiotics can create a long lasting effect on the gut.

Antibiotics are among modern medicine’s greatest achievements, saving millions of lives every year. Yet their effects extend beyond the bacteria causing an infection. Antibiotics can also disrupt the vast community of microorganisms living in the gastrointestinal tract known as the gut microbiome, which plays an important role in digestion,

Walking onto a crowded gym floor and watching everyone lift differently makes it impossible to know who is actually doing the right thing. It is easy to get lost in the noise, but stripping away the confusion starts with busting the most common weightlifting myths.

One common myth is that cardio is always best for losing fat. Josh Summersgill, a weightlifting and Olympic training coach, says resistance training can be more effective because it may increase testosterone and growth hormone, which support fat metabolism and muscle development.

Today Dr Virdi answers questions on fitness for older adults in their 60s, 70s and above, specifically on Balance. Don’t forget to send in any questions you might have for Dr Virdi. All personal details remain confidential. We will only publish your question.

Question/s:

“What exercises help prevent falls? How can I improve my balance?

Is walking enough to prevent falls? What should I do if I’m afraid of falling while exercising?”

If you enjoy a steak, there is no need to throw your barbecue into the garden just yet. But new research suggests that eating a lot of red meat could be one lifestyle factor worth reconsidering when it comes to breast cancer.

A major analysis published in The Lancet Oncology examined breast cancer data from 1990 to 2023 across 204 countries and territories.

Your brain needs glucose to function, so sugar is not exactly the villain in this story. The problem starts when added sugar becomes a regular guest at every meal.

Research has increasingly explored the relationship between high sugar intake and cognitive performance, with some studies finding associations between sugary drinks, poorer memory and changes involving the hippocampus, the brain region heavily involved in learning and memory.

If you have ever lost weight only to find it quietly returning like an unwanted houseguest, you are not alone. New research suggests that walking around 8,241 steps a day could help you keep more of that weight off. The figure comes from a systematic review and meta analysis published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,

For this week’s article I wanted to look at something which we all hear about and know about but perhaps do not entirely understand how health can be affected, and that is the subject of microplastics. There is of course a lot of misinformation that makes the truth difficult to interpret.

Wearable trackers can be brilliant little cheerleaders, but for some people they also become tiny, overly committed supervisors. Research highlighted by Kath Hudson at Health Club Management (HCM) points to unhealthy behaviours such as losing sleep over a sleep score, skipping an activity if it is not recorded, device dependency and wearable fatigue, which is a very modern way to become exhausted by your own gadgets.

Today Dr Virdi answers questions on fitness for older adults in their 60s, 70s and above, specifically on Balance. Don’t forget to send in any questions you might have for Dr Virdi. All personal details remain confidential. We will only publish your question.

Question/s:

“What exercises help prevent falls? How can I improve my balance?

Is walking enough to prevent falls? What should I do if I’m afraid of falling while exercising?”

When temperatures climb, it is tempting to believe you need an expensive sachet of electrolytes in every glass of water, preferably in a flavour with the reassuringly aggressive name “Arctic Blast”. The reality is rather less glamorous. For most people, ordinary water is perfectly capable of doing the job. The Times reports that health authorities generally recommend around 6 to 8 cups, or 1.6 to 2 litres, of fluid a day, with more needed in hot weather.

For years, when you heard the word protein, you probably pictured chicken, steak or a rather serious looking tub of protein powder. But the humble combination of rice and eggs deserves a little more attention. The reason is protein complementarity. Rice provides protein, but it is relatively limited in the essential amino acid lysine, while eggs are considered a high quality protein containing all nine essential amino acids.

Today Dr Virdi answers questions on fitness for older adults in their 60s, 70s and above. Don’t forget to send in any questions you might have for Dr Virdi. All personal details remain confidential. We will only publish your question.

Question/s:

“Should older adults lift weights? Will strength training damage my joints?

If you have ever looked at a long list of health goals and thought, “I will start on Monday,” there is some good news. Research from the University of Sydney suggests that you do not need a complete lifestyle overhaul to improve your heart health. In fact, a few extra minutes of sleep, a little more movement, and an extra serving of vegetables each day could make a meaningful difference.

For this week’s article, I wanted to cover something which I think a lot of us are becoming very familiar with in terms of the weight loss world and that is the GLP1 agonist injections. However today I am not going to discuss the weight loss side of things so much as the fact that that these particular injection medications are turning out to be a new era in cardiometabolic medicine.