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Every day thousands of people make the journey to work, and for many, this means sitting at an office desk for hours on end looking at a computer

 

While office work brings many benefits in addition to providing an income, including work satisfaction and social interaction, it can also cause ill health. Recent research studies have charted a number of conditions linked to work, including a rise in figures for dementia for people regularly working long hours, back problems from poor seating, stress linked to bad management and heavy workloads, plus the spread of viruses from shared office equipment.

However, there are ways to cope with the stresses and strains of office life.

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For years we’ve been told that to avoid certain illnesses we should be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

But where did this figure come from, and what exactly does it mean?

Does it include a few olives on top of a takeaway pizza? Or a handful of mushy peas served up with some fish and chips? And what about that tin of pineapple rings in syrup?

Experts now say that five is the minimum we should be consuming. In fact, to really safeguard our health we should be eating nine portions a day. And it’s important that we get the right mix of varieties of fruit and vegetables as each contain a unique set of different vitamins and minerals.

 

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It’s interesting to observe how often the media reports one health alert telling us to avoid something, while a few days later, we hear that the food or activity to be avoided could also be good for our health, writes Louise Ellis.

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The latest rumour about the singing star Susan Boyle is that she was turned away from joining a local choir just weeks before her sensational success on 'Britain’s Got Talent'.

 

This had nothing to do with her talent, but was simply because the choir was full, due to a surge in popularity of group singing.

Choirs are experiencing a renaissance. And as more and more people join up, the benefits of this new hobby are being noticed by the medical profession, with people reporting all sorts of health improvements. Singing involves breathing in a different way, which increases the airflow, so helps with lung and cardiovascular problems. It also encourages a natural high, counteracting stress and depression.

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It seems that new diets come and go with almost the same regularity as the passing of the seasons.  Whether it’s low carb, or low fat, cabbage soup, or south beach, each different diet regime promises a sophisticated new way of solving people’s weight gain problems, writes Louise Ellis.

 Yet at the core of weight maintenance is a balance between how many calories we consume – and how many we expend through daily activity. It takes just 100 extra calories a day, which is just one chocolate  biscuit or half a pint of lager, for a person to gain a pound of weight in a month. This is the reason why people, who don’t think they overeat,  gradually find themselves going up a dress size.

Simple calorie counting is now becoming an increasingly popular approach to weight loss, giving people more freedom and control over their lifestyle. Many new websites are springing up to help us monitor our daily intake.

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Taking a day off eating once a week or month can have substantial health benefits, and can even add years to your life.

 

 

 

Studies have found that intermittent fasting can reduce the risk of heart disease, and also strengthens the way the body deals with stress, helping to fight major illnesses. Experts think that intermittent fasting for one day per month or fortnight is achievable, when you know that you can go back to normal eating only a few hours later.

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A 'salt cave' has been set up in a former church in London offering a new treatment for asthma and allergy sufferers

 

Salt treatment has become popular in many countries across Europe, after it was discovered that Polish salt miners had fewer pulmonary problems than other people.  It is expected to be made available on the NHS as an alternative to conventional treatment, often involving steroids, which can have side effects.

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