Health & Wellbeing

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I discovered the reason it’s so hard for women over 40 to lose weight, and the secret to overcoming it

I’ve always loved eating, the trouble was I never felt full.

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‘I have the PhD to back up what I’m doing’ – Dubliner Sarina Kajani on using social media to spread good science

Growing up in Dublin, Sarina Kajani had always wanted to be a doctor . But when she didn’t get the Leaving Cert points to study medicine, she went into science in UCD as an alternative. It was a move that would completely change her career trajectory.

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All middle-aged women should try this sport – it is my new therapy

I’ve been a people pleaser my whole life. I’ve avoided conflict at every turn and yet, here I am, at the grand old age of forty-something, punching people on a Saturday morning.

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Testicular cancer: ‘I had a dull ache and a lump that came and went. Get checked out as early detection is your best shot’

Almost 170 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer every year in Ireland and it is the most common cancer to affect males between the ages of 15 and 34. But while receiving a diagnosis of this kind can be devastating for both the sufferer and their loved ones, early detection can make all the difference to outcomes. The Movember campaign running during the month of November, urges men to become aware of any changes in their body, check themselves regularly and seek advice if any concerns.

How to live a happy and successful life: part one – self awareness

Whenever I collaborate with people or teams around performance and well-being, I always start with a discussion about self-awareness. Self-awareness is a mental skill that helps us monitor our thoughts, feelings and actions. Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. It is pausing to look in the mirror and get into a state of self-focused attention.

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Ask Allison: The older I get, the less I want to go anywhere. I’m just suiting myself but my sister says I’m depressed. Am I?

Question: I am in my mid-50s and the older I get the less I want to go anywhere. I loved the lockdowns and I have been lucky enough to continue working from home. My kids are self-sufficient now and don’t need me for much, and my husband goes for a few pints with his friends every now and then and has a very social job. I have to say, not mixing with people suits me. I do almost everything online now in terms of shopping etc, and I like to go for walks by myself in the evening for exercise. My sister asked me recently if I was depressed and noted that I turn down many invitations and seem to have stopped participating in the world. I don’t think there is anything wrong with me except that I am finally suiting myself. What do you think?

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Ask the Doctor: my wee smells strange and I have a feeling of fullness — could it be a UTI?

Question: I am in my late 40s and have never suffered from any bladder or other urinary tract infections. Recently I have noticed a strange smell from my wee, and also a very full feeling around my ovaries at certain times of the month — I think around ovulation time. I have had a lot of IVF over the years so I recognise that feeling of swollen ovaries. What do you think this is and do I need to see a doctor?

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A widower’s diary: ‘Christmas will be a different affair this year. But strangely, I’m looking forward to it’

Kate loved Christmas. She would plan every last detail, and delight in each part of it. By now she would have all the Christmas shopping done. And wrapped. And hidden in some nook or cranny around the house. It’s our twins’ birthday in the middle of December too, so their birthday presents would have been sorted too. And wrapped, of course. There would be a plan around what we were cooking. And for when, and for whom. It was a logistical operation, planned with military precision.

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Tourette syndrome: ‘It started just before my 12th birthday. I’m proof you can have Tourette’s and live a fulfilling life’

Growing up is tough, and though being a teenager can be a wonderful and exciting time , it can also be fraught with anxiety as young adults embark on a journey to adulthood, trying to find their own identity along the way.

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‘The idea that females wouldn’t enjoy sex is bonkers’: zoologist Lucy Cooke’s radical truths about the birds and the bees

You might think it’s just human females who bear the brunt of patriarchy and sexism, but you’d be wrong — the animal kingdom endures it too. Not that female animals are aware of it — they’re too busy fighting and having sex — but our understanding of the female of each species to be passive, nurturing and vulnerable comes from centuries of men being in charge of science.

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Adoption: ‘The sadness of my start impacted me for years – trauma can affect the mind and the body’

Karina Fee had always known she was adopted. As a child, for her bedtime story, she would ask her parents to tell her about the day they brought her home as a four-week-old baby.

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‘As women, we are starved of information our whole lives about our own bodies and what’s happening in them’ – Hertility’s Dr Helen O’Neill

There is a new world of health before us, driven by science, by technology, but also by changing expectations around how we approach our individual bodies and minds; around who can grant — or deny — access to health interventions; even what ‘health’ is. We no longer see this solely in terms of its opposite — ill-health.

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The rise of leavism: Do you use holidays to catch up on work?

If you’re overwhelmed at work, you might think logging in every weekend or checking your emails as soon as you wake would be a simple way to keep on top of your workload. But for overstretched and anxious staff, it’s a small step from putting in those extra hours to falling into a new, dangerous trap just to get ahead of the game: booking annual leave, then using it to catch up on your office to-do list.

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Men and mental health: ‘It’s hard for men to open up – I was binge eating, sleeping too much and spending a lot of time alone’

New research from the HSE has found that one in two adults in Ireland have experienced difficulties with their mental health and almost 30pc have personally cared for or supported a relative, a colleague, or a friend with mental health issues.

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‘I wasn’t showing any signs of lung cancer — the only red flag was pain in my back’

After developing a back injury following a fall in her teens, Denise Cannon was used to feeling pain in her lower back. But in February 2015, it became excruciating so she went to see her GP, who prescribed painkillers. It was believed she was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, so she was referred to hospital for tests. After undergoing an MRI two months later, she was told she had a suspected fracture. This led to a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, but further tests revealed the shocking news — the fracture was due to a secondary tumour caused by lung cancer.

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A widower’s diary: ‘If a letter came for Kate I would have no qualms about opening it. But email feels like an invasion of privacy’

My wife was organised in all things. After she died, it was easy to figure out what documents were where. There were folders marked “car stuff”, “house stuff”, and “important documents”. Everything was labelled. Everything was organised.

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The nine things every woman needs to know about a urinary tract infection (UTI)

Over half of adult women will get at least one urinary tract infection (UTI) at some point in their lives, and about 25pc will get a recurrent urinary tract infection (RUTI).

Ask the doctor: I don’t drink alcohol but my GP says I need liver function tests. Could it be painkillers for period pain?

Question: I got my bloods done recently and the GP said I need to come back and have my liver function tested again in two months as the results were high. I was very surprised at this as I don’t drink alcohol. I do take codeine-based painkillers for one or two days a month if needed for period pain but always well below the recommended highest dose. What causes liver results to be elevated and is there anything I can do to improve this before my next test?

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Ask Allison: I hate being back in the office – my colleagues are so negative and the gossip is making me anxious. Help!

Question: I am struggling since I returned to the office with the amount of bitching that goes on amongst my colleagues. I don’t know if it is because I had a break from it for two years and it was always that way, or whether being forced back into the office is making people negative. I have coffee with people and all they do is give out about other colleagues — very viciously and personally some of them — and I am left with a very uneasy feeling afterwards, as though I have been complicit even though I said very little. How should I behave during these conversations — should I tell the person to stop bitching, for example? Also, how can I handle my anxiety at my exposure to all these potentially dangerous conversations? I am terrified I will say something that will get me into trouble or be quoted out of context.

‘Pieta House’s crisis helpline gets 300 calls a day. I think we’d all sleep better at night if we knew we’d paid for a call like that to be answered’

Arwen Sullivan loved Christmas. Her mother Marie says the tree couldn’t go up soon enough . The 23-year-old physiotherapist and yoga teacher had “any amount of Christmas earrings,” says Marie, including a pair that grazed her shoulders with cascading letters spelling out ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’. So it is bittersweet that ShareJoy, the pre-loved clothing platform launched following Arwen’s death by suicide in 2020, has this weekend opened a raffle for a Late Late Toy Show Christmas jumper, donated by Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ.

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Living with a chronic UTI: ‘At my lowest ebb I was Googling bladder removal – I just wanted to live a full life again’

Statistics show that urinary tract infections (UTIs) predominantly affect women, who are 30 times more at risk of contracting an infection than men.

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Hearing of her death — reported in error — made Roslyn Dee even more determined to view ageing as a privilege

‘I feel bad about my neck,” wrote Nora Ephron over 15 years ago in her funny and extremely caustic collection of essays about ageing. She was 65 at the time. Well, I am 65 and I don’t feel bad about my neck at all. It is what it is — the neck of a 65-year-old woman, untouched by surgeon’s scalpel or Botox needle. In fact, it’s the neck of a woman who, in just a few days’ time, will turn 66, but, as has been the case throughout my life, I am grateful to be able to embrace another year of life on this planet of ours.

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Adult autism diagnosis: ‘If I went back now, knowing I’m autistic, would it be different?’

According to the World Health Organisation, approximately one out of every 160 children has an ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). But while most diagnoses are made during early childhood, some people do not discover they are autistic until later in life.

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Type 1 diabetes in children: ‘He woke up a couple of nights thirsty. One night, he drank a full litre of water’

Niamh Power’s son Reuben wasn’t showing any especially dramatic symptoms when she began to suspect that he might have type 1 diabetes. It was February 2021, a time when schools were still closed, and their family — Niamh, her husband Tom and their six children — were spending most of their time at home in Cork. At the time, their oldest would have been 21, their youngest four. Reuben, who turned nine last month, is the couple’s fourth child.

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A widower’s diary: ‘On the first of December they told us she had weeks to live. A year on, last November seems strange. Limbo-like’

This time last year, my wife was dying. She had a few rounds of chemo in September and October. But at the start of November, her kidneys stopped working and she was taken to A&E. I say taken, but I actually mean I had to leave Kate in a tent outside the A&E in Beaumont, where she sat for a day in agony before being admitted. Cancer and Covid-19 weren’t a good mix.

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‘When you lose your identity from your job, that’s a huge kick in the teeth’: Dancer Ryan McShane on body image and feeling lost after the pandemic

Dancer Ryan McShane posted a split-screen image on his Instagram feed in August of this year, a classic before and after weight loss picture. “I had completely and utter(ly) given up on myself,” the caption underneath reads, going on to explain how he had spent the last 11 weeks working with a personal trainer, Danny (@elitedmk). He hadn’t been keen on posting the picture, he recalls now, but he felt it might help someone else who felt as low as he had before he began working out again.

‘The realisation that our baby would never walk, talk or see, left us in a really dark place. The Jack and Jill foundation brought light’

We welcomed our second daughter into the world last November after a normal pregnancy and healthy delivery, which was a magical moment for us both as parents. We hadn’t fully decided on a name until we saw her, but we knew right there and then that she was our baby, Erin.

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Ask Allison: I’ve struggled with weight since I had children and I really want to be thin again — would hypnotism help?

Question: I have been struggling with my weight since I had my first child 12 years ago. I was extremely slim and attractive before I had kids and my body completely changed afterwards. It isn’t just a fat thing — I am just one of those women who got thicker. My feet are a size larger, for example. I have about two stone to lose, I would guess.

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The internet is obsessed with ‘self-healing’, but what does the latest wellness buzzword really mean?

If you believe in social media trends, we should all be in our ‘healing era’.

Secrets to happiness revealed – switch off your phone and have more sex

From mindfulness to drinking beetroot juice, people are in constant search of happiness, well-being and good health.