Very often I have a conversation with a patient who is just feeling exhausted. They often say they cannot understand why they are feeling so tired despite being active, eating well and taking multivitamins every day. It is true that sometimes even if people do everything right, sometimes the body might go a little wrong and many people turn to the world of vitamin and mineral supplements. But do they help?

Today Dr Virdi answers questions on Peri-Menopause and Menopause. 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.

Questions:

“Do I need hormone tests to confirm perimenopause or menopause? Are there other conditions (thyroid, anaemia, etc.) that could mimic these symptoms? How often should i have blood tests or health checks during this stage?”

You know that person who can find something wrong with absolutely everything? The coffee is too hot, then too cold. The weather is miserable, but when the sun comes out, it is unbearably bright. And don’t get them started on the traffic. If you recognise a little of yourself in this description, there is a reason to pay attention.

Constant complaining may do more than irritate your friends and turn dinner into a grievance committee.

If your chocolate cravings become particularly intense when your period arrives, you might be pleased to discover that reaching for a few squares of dark chocolate could have some benefits beyond making you feel a little happier.

Researchers have investigated whether this favourite comfort food can help ease menstrual cramps, with one small study finding encouraging results.

If you are going to lace up your trainers, you may as well get a little more from the effort. The trick, according to sports scientist Rhodri Whittaker of Absolute Body Solutions Gyms, is intensity. You do not necessarily need to exercise for longer, but you can make parts of your workout harder. That might mean adding short bursts of speed to a run, increasing the resistance on your bike or walking quickly enough to make you feel as though you are late for a meeting you really should have prepared for.

Romance is often portrayed as a candlelit dinner, a surprise weekend away or an expensive bunch of flowers. Lovely, certainly, but there is something decidedly less glamorous that can make you feel more loved: your partner remembering to put out the bins without being reminded.

When you are juggling work, household chores and the endless business of being an adult, you do not necessarily need another grand gesture. Sometimes, you just need someone to notice that the kitchen is a mess and do something about it.

Menopause is increasingly being recognised as more than a reproductive milestone - it may also represent an important transition in brain and whole-body ageing. New research published in Nature Medicine in September 2026 provides some interesting evidence.

You probably already know that exercise is good for your heart, but there is a rather more interesting reason to keep moving as you get older. Your heart can become stiffer with age, particularly if you spend much of your time sitting down, and that stiffness can make it harder for the heart to fill properly.

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?”

If you are going to lace up your trainers, you may as well get a little more from the effort. The trick, according to sports scientist Rhodri Whittaker of Absolute Body Solutions gyms, is intensity. You do not necessarily need to exercise for longer, but you can make parts of your workout harder. That might mean adding short bursts of speed to a run, increasing the resistance on your bike or walking quickly enough to make you feel as though you are late for a meeting you really should have prepared for.

There are mornings when you wake up feeling less like a functioning adult and more like someone who has been gently hit over the head with a frying pan. Perhaps you stayed up too late, your children had other plans for the night, or you simply spent several hours staring at the ceiling.

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?”