In the first of a new series on the under-pressure workers holding the UK together in this difficult winter, doctor Laura Mount reveals how staff sickness, spiralling waiting lists and political pressure have left GPs on the brinkby Last modified on Fri 11 Feb 2022 13.17 ESTMount, 44, has been a GP for 15 years. She is a partner at the Folly Lane medical centre in Warrington, Cheshire, which is also where she grew up and has lived her entire life, apart from her training in Sheffield. In addition to being a GP, Mount is the clinical director of a primary care network, coordinating six GP...…In the first of a new series on the under-pressure workers holding the UK together in this difficult winter, doctor Laura Mount reveals how staff sickness, spiralling waiting lists and political pressure have left GPs on the brinkby Last modified on Fri 11 Feb 2022 13.17 ESTMount, 44, has been a GP for 15 years. She is a partner at the Folly Lane medical centre in Warrington, Cheshire, which is also where she grew up and has lived her entire life, apart from her training in Sheffield. In addition to being a GP, Mount is the clinical director of a primary care network, coordinating six GP...WW…

It’s tempting to use coffee and sweet treats as pick-me-ups, but they are only temporary solutions. Here’s how to keep yourself going for longerLast modified on Mon 5 Apr 2021 06.33 EDT“Use exercise to nourish you, not punish you,” says , a clinical exercise specialist who works with people with cancer. “Find a way to move that will give you energy, rather than using exercise to tire yourself out.”To find motivation to get moving, even when you are feeling worn out or low, Russell encourages her clients to focus on achievable goals. “Even 10 minutes of movement will energise you,” she says....…It’s tempting to use coffee and sweet treats as pick-me-ups, but they are only temporary solutions. Here’s how to keep yourself going for longerLast modified on Mon 5 Apr 2021 06.33 EDT“Use exercise to nourish you, not punish you,” says , a clinical exercise specialist who works with people with cancer. “Find a way to move that will give you energy, rather than using exercise to tire yourself out.”To find motivation to get moving, even when you are feeling worn out or low, Russell encourages her clients to focus on achievable goals. “Even 10 minutes of movement will energise you,” she says....WW…

Body shaming, media harassment, relentless cruelty – it’s time to reassess the decade that feminism forgotby Sat 6 Mar 2021 03.00 ESTI had largely forgotten about these incidents until I watched , the much-discussed documentary about the media intrusion that contributed to Spears’s 2007 mental health crisis, and her efforts to free herself from a conservatorship administered by her father. Watching footage of a 17-year-old Spears smiling politely as a male interviewer asked about her breasts brought everything back. My God, I thought. For young women and girls, the 2000s truly were a cursed...…Body shaming, media harassment, relentless cruelty – it’s time to reassess the decade that feminism forgotby Sat 6 Mar 2021 03.00 ESTI had largely forgotten about these incidents until I watched , the much-discussed documentary about the media intrusion that contributed to Spears’s 2007 mental health crisis, and her efforts to free herself from a conservatorship administered by her father. Watching footage of a 17-year-old Spears smiling politely as a male interviewer asked about her breasts brought everything back. My God, I thought. For young women and girls, the 2000s truly were a cursed...WW…

Getting fit isn’t all about Lycra and sweat, our everyday activities can also work wonders, with a bit of effortLast modified on Tue 2 Mar 2021 09.00 ESTStamatakis tells me that incidental exercise, which is termed “intermittent lifestyle physical activity” by academics, is under-researched. But a he co-authored in 2018 found that sudden bursts of high-intensity incidental exercise – bounding up a flight of stairs, for example – could be highly beneficial from a health point of view, undermining the long-held belief that physical activity has to last at least 10 minutes to be worthwhile....…Getting fit isn’t all about Lycra and sweat, our everyday activities can also work wonders, with a bit of effortLast modified on Tue 2 Mar 2021 09.00 ESTStamatakis tells me that incidental exercise, which is termed “intermittent lifestyle physical activity” by academics, is under-researched. But a he co-authored in 2018 found that sudden bursts of high-intensity incidental exercise – bounding up a flight of stairs, for example – could be highly beneficial from a health point of view, undermining the long-held belief that physical activity has to last at least 10 minutes to be worthwhile....WW…

They are elusive, infuriating gatekeepers that rule our lives. Easy to crack and hard to remember, forgetting them is pricey – it cost Stefan Thomas £160m in lost bitcoinLast modified on Tue 6 Apr 2021 07.03 EDTThe tyranny of passwords; it colonises modern life. These petty dictators deny us access to our bank accounts, our baby photos, our phone contracts, even our heating. They reproduce as endlessly as bacteria, and yet, like Tupperware lids, you can never find the one you need. They are our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our children, our pets. A talented and motivated adversary could...…They are elusive, infuriating gatekeepers that rule our lives. Easy to crack and hard to remember, forgetting them is pricey – it cost Stefan Thomas £160m in lost bitcoinLast modified on Tue 6 Apr 2021 07.03 EDTThe tyranny of passwords; it colonises modern life. These petty dictators deny us access to our bank accounts, our baby photos, our phone contracts, even our heating. They reproduce as endlessly as bacteria, and yet, like Tupperware lids, you can never find the one you need. They are our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our children, our pets. A talented and motivated adversary could...WW…

Soft mattresses and pillows are great for lounging, but after a full day’s work your back and shoulders will start to complain. These gentle exercises should helpLast modified on Wed 20 Jan 2021 09.07 ESTHouston advises a mixture of stretches for your back. “Sit on a chair and rotate your shoulders forwards and backwards,” she says. “Yoga poses such as the child’s pose (where you sit on your heels and push your shoulders to the ground, head facing the floor) or the cobra pose (where you lie on your front, hands and legs flat on the floor, and arch your head and shoulders off the ground)...…Soft mattresses and pillows are great for lounging, but after a full day’s work your back and shoulders will start to complain. These gentle exercises should helpLast modified on Wed 20 Jan 2021 09.07 ESTHouston advises a mixture of stretches for your back. “Sit on a chair and rotate your shoulders forwards and backwards,” she says. “Yoga poses such as the child’s pose (where you sit on your heels and push your shoulders to the ground, head facing the floor) or the cobra pose (where you lie on your front, hands and legs flat on the floor, and arch your head and shoulders off the ground)...WW…

A hospice nurse, bereavement counsellor, firefighter, climate change lecturer and social worker share their secretsSun 10 Jan 2021 05.00 ESTAdam Graham, 41, hospice nurse, Newcastle upon TynePeople say: your job must be so depressing. It’s actually not. Of course there are sad moments, but they are few and far between. A hospice is not somewhere you go to die; many people return home. We specialise in palliative care, which means making the best of your life. Obviously death is a part of that. But death is a part of regular life, too. A lot of people who come here have lost hope; maybe...…A hospice nurse, bereavement counsellor, firefighter, climate change lecturer and social worker share their secretsSun 10 Jan 2021 05.00 ESTAdam Graham, 41, hospice nurse, Newcastle upon TynePeople say: your job must be so depressing. It’s actually not. Of course there are sad moments, but they are few and far between. A hospice is not somewhere you go to die; many people return home. We specialise in palliative care, which means making the best of your life. Obviously death is a part of that. But death is a part of regular life, too. A lot of people who come here have lost hope; maybe...WW…

With dating on hold, jobs lost and IVF postponed, many women fear their last chance to have a child may have disappeared. How are they coping?Tue 8 Dec 2020 02.49 ESTShe goes over the arithmetic that has tortured her all year long. She will be 34 next month, single, no closer to finding a partner to have kids with. Even if she did meet someone next year, say, would they be ready to start conceiving within a year? Probably not. That could mean she will be 36 before she even starts trying – if she meets someone next year. And there’s the rub – because the Covid-19 restrictions have made...…With dating on hold, jobs lost and IVF postponed, many women fear their last chance to have a child may have disappeared. How are they coping?Tue 8 Dec 2020 02.49 ESTShe goes over the arithmetic that has tortured her all year long. She will be 34 next month, single, no closer to finding a partner to have kids with. Even if she did meet someone next year, say, would they be ready to start conceiving within a year? Probably not. That could mean she will be 36 before she even starts trying – if she meets someone next year. And there’s the rub – because the Covid-19 restrictions have made...WW…

It was once a widely accepted way of explaining why some children struggled to read and write. But in recent years, some experts have begun to question the existence of dyslexia itselfby Last modified on Mon 5 Oct 2020 10.01 EDTElliott thought that was weird, but what did he know? He qualified as an educational psychologist in 1986 and began practising. Over the next decade, he was often asked to assess children for dyslexia. At this time, most educational psychologists believed that dyslexia was a learning difficulty with a neurological basis, which affected bright children whose...…It was once a widely accepted way of explaining why some children struggled to read and write. But in recent years, some experts have begun to question the existence of dyslexia itselfby Last modified on Mon 5 Oct 2020 10.01 EDTElliott thought that was weird, but what did he know? He qualified as an educational psychologist in 1986 and began practising. Over the next decade, he was often asked to assess children for dyslexia. At this time, most educational psychologists believed that dyslexia was a learning difficulty with a neurological basis, which affected bright children whose...WW…

Despite the stories of people drinking more when confined to home, for many this has been a time to tackle their dependencyLast modified on Sun 6 Sep 2020 14.44 EDTOn Sunday, her hangover was “horrendous”. “I was really ill, I had such a headache and I felt incredibly depressed,” she says. She held out for as long as she could, before cracking at about 5.30pm, and drinking another bottle of red wine. That day, Sunday 14 June, was the last on which Davies would drink alcohol. Enough.It was not that that day was a particular low: there had been plenty of others. There was that wedding, last...…Despite the stories of people drinking more when confined to home, for many this has been a time to tackle their dependencyLast modified on Sun 6 Sep 2020 14.44 EDTOn Sunday, her hangover was “horrendous”. “I was really ill, I had such a headache and I felt incredibly depressed,” she says. She held out for as long as she could, before cracking at about 5.30pm, and drinking another bottle of red wine. That day, Sunday 14 June, was the last on which Davies would drink alcohol. Enough.It was not that that day was a particular low: there had been plenty of others. There was that wedding, last...WW…