2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the body fails to produce enough insulin. That means the main treatment is to stock up on insulin, either as an injection or through a pump.

3. You’ll often see type 1 diabetes developing in children. We don’t know exactly what causes it, though it’s likely that genetics and environment both play a factor. There’s no way to prevent yourself from getting the condition; you just have to learn to manage it.

4. If you develop diabetes later in life, it’s likely to be type 2 diabetes. This is when the insulin you do have in your body doesn’t work as it should. Metformin is normally the first choice of medication and can be taken by mouth. Taking insulin isn’t always necessary.

5. Around 90% of people with diabetes have type 2. It is most often caused by lifestyle factors, such as a lack of exercise and poor diet leading to obesity. That means that for many people, it can be avoided. Pre-diabetes is the term used for people whose lifestyle puts them at high risk of diabetes but don’t have the full-blown condition yet. It’s a warning sign.

6. There are other types of diabetes as well that are rarer and not as well-known. The most common of them is gestational diabetes, which appears during pregnancy, but there are others. Symptoms and management may vary between types.

7. Often, symptoms of diabetes can appear innocuous. Things like increased thirstiness and urination or weight loss may not ring warning bells. As the condition develops further, it may affect your vision and your body’s ability to heal wounds. Without proper treatment, symptoms will keep getting worse.

8. Some of the worst complications of diabetes include blindness, strokes, heart disease, kidney failure and poor blood flow leading to amputated limbs. Depending on the type of diabetes, you may enter a hyperglycemic state or ketoacidosis. As you can see, it’s a diverse range of complications affecting all parts of the body.

9. Testing for diabetes involves measuring the amount of glucose in the blood.

10. The quicker it is recognized and treated, the better.

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2. Risk factors for high blood pressure include being over 65, being overweight, having an unhealthy diet (particularly one that’s high in salt), consuming too much caffeine or much alcohol, not enough sleep and genetics. Black people are at higher risk than white people, and poor people are more at risk than the affluent. If you have any of these risk factors, take extra care.

3. Testing your blood pressure is the only way to know its level. It’s a standard procedure at many doctor’s visits, but you can also buy a machine to measure it at home. You put the cuff around your arm and it will squeeze you tightly.

4. Blood pressure readings are given as a systolic figure over a diastolic figure. A healthy blood pressure should be close to 120/80 mmHg. If it’s 140/90 mmHg, you may need to take steps to bring it down.

5. Don’t panic if your blood pressure is too high. Many people can manage it with lifestyle changes. You can’t do anything about age and genetics, but you can exercise more and improve your diet. This might be enough to get your blood pressure back to a healthy level.

6. If this is not enough, there are medical interventions available. There are multiple types of blood pressure medication, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, so you’ll need to talk to your doctor to figure out what’s best for you.

7. In some cases, high blood pressure can be a symptom of another condition, such as kidney or hormone problems. In these cases, you may have to treat the underlying cause first.

8. There are some medications that can increase your blood pressure. These include some common anti-inflammatories, cold medicines and the contraceptive pill. Recreational (including illegal) drugs can also contribute to hypertension. Even licorice can have an influence. In these cases, you may need to reduce or outright stop the drug.

9. Keep in mind that you need to be cautious with your blood pressure, but don’t be paranoid about it. It can be managed.

10. Your doctor should be able to answer any concerns.

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Then came industrialization. Science did many wonderful things that allowed us to reliably produce more food than we ever had before and import what we couldn’t grow ourselves. We could have fruit and vegetables throughout the year, not just when they were in season. We could feed our rapidly increasing population. We could make sure everyone had the right combination of nutrients. And from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, we started to realize just how chemicals could impact plant and animal growth.

A lot of good came from recent innovations in farming, but it wasn’t perfect by any means. People began worrying about those extra chemicals and what they might do to the body. Excess use of antibiotics led to antibiotic resistance. Soil health and groundwater were damaged. As monocultures – areas growing one crop and one crop alone – spread, biodiversity faded.

Some of the earliest attempts to return to an “organic” way of farming came in the 1920s as a reaction to the perceived dangers of chemical additives. Spouses Albert and Gabrielle Howard were English botanists who were inspired by the traditional agricultural methods of India, where they worked for the colonial government. Along with Lady Eve Balfour, they would later be considered founding members of the organic movement in the English-speaking world.

Another organic pioneer was Rudolf Steiner. He founded what is now known as biodynamic agriculture, which is similar to organic farming. The major difference was that Steiner was also an occultist, and some of his more esoteric beliefs made their way into his practice.

Principles of organic farming and organic food increased in popularity throughout the latter half of the 20th century, but it is in the 21st century that it has really taken off. Organic is no longer a niche interest. From people searching for more ethical and environmentally friendly ways to live to scientists looking for concrete evidence to prove the value of organic, it seems everyone wants to modernize this ancient way.

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Lots of people have a complicated relationship with food, and nutritional psychology tries to figure out why. It looks at the physiological and biological aspects of nutrition, along with individual and cultural attitudes. That makes it an interdisciplinary field spanning a wide range of topics.

One of the big challenges of trying to encourage people to eat better is changing how they think. Whether it’s deconstructing the idea that unhealthy food will always taste better than healthy food, trying to teach people how to control portion sizes, overcoming the influence of peer pressure on what we eat, or breaking free from the dangerous though patterns that can lead to eating disorders, it’s clear there’s a psychological component that has to be understood when tackling attitudes to dieting.

There’s also increasing evidence that what we eat doesn’t just affect our physical body, but our mental health (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31735529/). People with depression, anxiety and similar disorders may exacerbate their symptoms if they eat the wrong thing, but it’s also much harder to make good food decisions when your mood is already low. Understanding the link between mental health and food is vital if psychologists and psychiatrists want to achieve the best outcomes for their patients.

Studies into the connections between nutrition and psychology are relatively recent. There’s still a lot of evidence to collect. People are, however, increasingly realizing that humans are complicated. Health depends on a dizzying mix of factors, and acknowledging that it’s rarely as simple as one cause and one solution has been an important part of how healthcare has developed more generally. Increasing our understanding of the psychological aspects of nutrition is just one part of this.

Don’t worry too much if the neverending advice on how to eat right makes your head hurt. This isn’t an easy subject. Eating in a way that improves both your physical and mental health is something that a lot of people need help to understand.

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2. It’s not a case of diet or exercise – you need both. You can’t exercise properly if you haven’t eaten right beforehand, loading up on the nutrients that give you energy, build up your muscles and generally improve your performance.

3. Exercise can come in different forms. The best routines are those that include strength, flexibility and cardiovascular training, rather than exclusively focusing on just one. You need a combination of everything to get the best results from your workouts.

4. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have your favorites. If you’ve struggled to find a form of exercise that you enjoy, that might just mean you haven’t found the right one for you. Be willing to experiment with walking, cycling, gym workouts, yoga, swimming and all the common (and uncommon) sports to try to find one that can keep you engaged.

5. Another important thing to know is when not to exercise. Regular rest periods are important to give your body time to recover. That’s especially true when you’re healing from an injury, but anyone can cause themselves damage when they overtrain.

6. Doing some exercise is often an important part of rehabilitating after an injury, but too much too soon can set you back again. Always remember that even a small amount of exercise can be beneficial, especially compared to complete inactivity.

7. The benefits of exercise aren’t just physical. It can also have a powerful impact on your mental health, from giving you a sense of achievement to boosting your endorphins.

8. This impact can be increased by the collaborative nature of many forms of exercise. Joining a group can improve motivation and create a sense of community.

9. Motivation can be one of the biggest challenges to exercising properly, but it’s one that needs to be overcome.

6. If you have any doubts about the best way to go about getting fit, especially if injured, make sure you talk to your doctor or physio beforehand. A good instructor or personal trainer should also be able to adapt any exercise routine to suit your specific needs.

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2. Everyone has their own natural range of motion. Some people are just biologically more flexible than others, and that’s fine. Some muscles are tighter than others, which impacts flexibility. Trying to push your joints further than they are built to go can cause damage. There are, however, ways you can lengthen the muscles to make your movements looser.

3. The main way to improve your flexibility is through stretching. This may be in flexibility-focused exercises like yoga or tai chi, or as part of the warmup or cooldown for a more cardiovascular workout. Incorporating stretching is an important part of any exercise routine.

4. Stretching is important, but so is stretching safely. Never stretch cold muscles, and stop if it becomes painful.

5. Some people are hyperflexible. They are bendier than other people and may not need to do the same kind of flexibility training. Instead, they may have to focus on resistance training to try to strengthen and stabilize their joints.

6. People who have good flexibility are less likely to injure themselves in any type of exercise and will have better overall performance.

7. If you are trying to do more stretching, you need to recognize that there are different types of stretches you can do. Understanding static and dynamic stretches and their different purposes is an important part of making your stretching routine more effective.

8. Static stretches involve holding a controlled position. Dynamic stretches involve movement (like lunges). The first is better for a cooldown, when you’re trying to bring your muscles back to normal and reduce injury risk. The second is good for warming up as it’s more active and helps get the blood flowing.

9. You are likely to become less flexible as a natural part of growing older. Flexibility training can reduce the impact of aging, but it might not stop it completely.

10. Any balanced and effective exercise regimen should include flexibility training as well as strength and cardiovascular work. It’s an important part of achieving the best overall health.

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Well, to start with, it’s hard to avoid. Meat and dairy products play a prominent role in most diets, and they both tend to be high in fat. Processed foods are also high in the fat stakes. Fat tends to make food taste a lot nicer, which makes it much harder to resist.

It’s not just about flavor or ubiquity, though. Fat is an essential nutrient, so it’s something that the body needs. That’s in part because of the particularly high levels of energy it provides. It also insulates and protects some organs. We often think of carbohydrates as our main energy source, but fat allows us to store energy for long periods of time.

If you’re going to run a sprint race, you’re going to want some sugar or starchy meals before you start to make sure you have the energy to burn. But that energy only needs to last seconds. If you’re an endurance athlete, however, you need enough to survive hours or more with only limited opportunities to refuel. That’s when fat can be beneficial.

When we eat food that’s high in calories but then don’t use those calories, our body stores the energy as body fat. When we do use the calories, however, such as when we’re trying to run a marathon, the fat is quickly burned. That means that professional athletes often eat a lot but still remain fairly skinny. That’s because all their fat is being used.

It’s important to remember that fat is a long-term source of energy. The way the body processes it is pretty complicated and can take a lot of time. You can’t eat something high in fat immediately before a race and expect it to work. You need to plan ahead carefully.

Many people have turned to high-fat, low-carb diets like the ketogenic diet in the belief that it will make them healthier. What is certain is that fat has an important role to play when it comes to energy, even if it’s not always welcome.

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When it comes to sports performance, there are factors you can control and factors you can’t, and body type rests somewhere in the middle. You can’t do much about your height, and your weight can fluctuate based on a dozen different factors. How exactly you try to control your size, mass and body fat will depend on your sport.

It’s not just about your weight, but the distribution of muscle and fat. Boxers are divided by weight class, as are martial artists, wrestlers and weightlifters. In all of these sports, strength is associated with power and can lead to success in competition. You may try to bulk up your muscles, but not so much that you cannot stay within the right weight division.

Gymnasts, on the other hand, will want to keep their weight, particularly their body fat, as low as possible. Performing gymnastic feats means overcoming your own mass so you can execute aerial maneuvers. Excess fat can also block flexibility. That’s why you see so many dainty-looking teenage girls in the gymnastics arena. They have a lot of power compressed into a small space.

Endurance athletes like those involved in long-distance running also try to keep their body fat low. They like to be as lean as possible. You don’t want to be carrying anything you don’t need when you might be going for hours. The focus is on being fast and agile while minimizing the strain on your heart, lungs and muscles.

In sports where stability is important, it can be useful to increase overall body mass, even when that involves increasing fat. Take football linemen, for example. They don’t have to run as much as their teammates, but they do need to be ready to protect the players who do move. There’s power in their inertia.

Some people are naturally suited to certain sports. If you’re particularly tall, your chances of being asked to join the basketball team are high. Once you start to play, however, part of your training plan should be focused on maintaining the best body type.

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The history of yoga dates back thousands of years to ancient India. It’s a series of exercises that traditionally focused not just on physical movement, but also on practices to improve emotional and spiritual wellbeing. In some ways, it’s a form of meditation. Hinduism is probably the religion most associated with yoga, but it’s important in Buddhism and Jainism as well.

Modern yoga doesn’t always resemble its ancient origins. Westernized versions in America and Europe don’t always have the same spiritual focus and are often turned into a more secular form of exercise. New schools have been established with different priorities, serving an ever-widening group of practitioners all around the world. To some people, this is a corruption of yoga’s original purpose; to others, it’s a way to make it more attractive and accessible to more people.

Hatha yoga is one of the most common kinds. It has a particular focus on physical movements known as asanas. These are the forms you’re probably used to seeing whenever yoga appears on the television. Traditional Sanskrit names are translated into English phrases like “downward dog”, “warrior” and “triangle”.

A traditional yoga class will be divided into different sections, allowing you to work on different parts of the body with differing levels of intensity. The “Sun Salutation”, a sequence of asanas that take you from standing to the ground and back again, will often feature near the beginning.

There are asanas that focus on the back, the shoulders, the hips, the abdomen, and pretty much every part of the body. More advanced practitioners may find themselves mastering trickier moves like handstands and headstands. A good yoga session will allow you to work on balance as well as mobility.

People practice yoga for different reasons. For some, it’s a form of spiritual fulfillment that can relieve stress and calm an overactive mind. For others, it’s simply an effective form of physical exercise. You can take what you want from yoga, but if you’re looking to improve your mobility and maybe experience some other benefits as well, it could be a good place to start.

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2. If you want to know that your health is improving because of your regular exercise, you also need an accurate way to measure it. Once you’ve set a goal, you need to monitor your progress. That may be how long it takes you to run or swim a certain distance, or the increasing heaviness of the weights you lift, or whether you can reach a yoga pose you couldn’t manage before.

3. To do this, you need to have a plan for your exercise. Set a target, determine the best way to achieve it, and practice accordingly. Breaking things down to a day-by-day basis can make for much more tangible goals rather than some distant long-term aim.

4. Every day brings a chance for improvement. That doesn’t mean doing the same thing every day. It means ensuring a well-rounded schedule of exercise and rest. The exercise should also vary, making sure you include cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training.

5. Daily performance isn’t just about what you do physically. To be at your best, you need to eat right every day, especially when you’re exercising. We’ve all heard you need five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but you need a balance of every nutrient for the most successful diet.

6. This might sound difficult – and it is – but you don’t have to do it alone. Personal trainers are people who dedicate their lives to determining the most appropriate exercise plan for every single client.

7. Communal training can also be a powerful way to boost performance. Whether they’re providing moral support or a source of competition, having someone else there is a source of motivation.

8. Motivation is good because any kind of long-term fitness plan that requires some daily effort is going to require a lot of mental toughness. Anything that can improve your mindset is welcome.

9. Just don’t overdo it. Pushing too hard is how you end up with injuries, and that will slow your progress more than anything.

10. It’s difficult to get better every day, but with the right planning and support, you can manage it.

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