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You can find a comprehensive NHS website with advice on excercise & your health here.

Exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Not only does regular exercise help to maintain overall fitness and manage weight loss, it can lower the risk of many life-threatening conditions.

People who exercise regularly are likely to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life. In fact, studies have shown that being physically unfit is just as dangerous as smoking in terms of lowering life expectancy.

Regular exercise also improves mental and emotional health. The chemicals and hormones that are released in the brain through exercise can help deal with stress and promote happiness.

All these health benefits are the reason why many people are encouraged to exercise. However, many people think exercise is too expensive or simply takes up too much time.

In reality, as little as half an hour of moderate activity every day, such as brisk walking, can be enough to improve health and fitness. There are many different ways to exercise, and it is possible to find something to suit any kind of lifestyle.

Other Resources:

• NHS Choices
• Easy Health
• British Heart Foundation
• National Obesity Forum

You can find more information about looking after your heart here.

Coronary heart disease is the UK’s biggest killer, with one in every four men and one in every six women dying from the disease. In the UK, approximately 300,000 people have a heart attack each year.

Angina affects about one in 50 people, and in the UK there are an estimated 1.2 million people with the condition. It affects men more than women, and your chances of getting it increase as you get older…..Learn More

Keeping yourself healthy & leading a healthy lifestyle is the best way to look after your heart.

More Resources:

• NHS Choices
• Healthy Heart

You can find comprehensive advice about your sexual health on this NHS Choices website.

You can’t tell if someone’s got a sexually transmitted infection (STI) just by looking at them, so it is vitally important that you consider your sexual health carefully.

This NHS website offers comprehensive help & advice on contraception, STI’s, and every other aspect of your sexual health.

The following can be found along with more detailed information at this NHS Website.

Travel Immunisation:

Getting travel vaccinations

The following vaccines are available on the NHS for travel overseas (whatever the purpose of travel):

• typhoid fever
• hepatitis A
• poliomyelitis.

Rabies vaccine is available on the NHS for travellers working overseas whose occupation puts them at high risk of exposure to the virus.

The following vaccines are not normally available on the NHS for overseas travel:

• hepatitis B
• Japanese encephalitis
• meningococcal vaccines
• tick-borne encephalitis
• yellow fever

Your GP may charge for these vaccines (including an administration fee), or may refer you to a specialist travel clinic.

Yellow fever vaccines are only available from designated centres, your GP surgery should be able to advise the nearest centre.

More Resources:

• NHS24

The following and more advice can be found on the NHS Choices website here.

Hayfever is a very common condition affecting two in every 10 people in the UK. It is caused by an allergy to airborne substances such as grass or hay pollen, which affects the upper respiratory passages (nose, sinus, throat and eyes).

Hayfever usually occurs during the spring and summer months.

Exactly when you get it depends on which pollens you are allergic to.

From May to July, grass and flowers are in pollen, making these the most common cause of hayfever at this time.

During spring, from March to May, pollens from trees are the most common cause of hayfever.

Some people do get hayfever into the autumn months. However, this is rare and is usually caused by weeds such as nettles and docks, late flowering plants and mould spores.

Hayfever symptoms can be similar to a cold, and include a runny nose, watery eyes and repeated sneezing attacks.

As with all allergies, the symptoms happen as a result of your immune system (the body’s defence system) overreacting to a normally harmless substance. In this case the substance is pollen.

When the body comes into contact with pollen, cells in the lining of your nose, mouth and eyes release a chemical called histamine that triggers the symptoms of an allergic reaction.

You are more likely to get hayfever if there is a history of allergies in your family, particularly asthma or eczema.

Hayfever usually begins in the early teens and peaks when you’re in your twenties. Research shows that many people become less sensitive to pollen as they get older and by the time they reach their mid-40s, hayfever may no longer be a problem.

Other Resources:

• NHS Choices website here
• Allergy UK
• National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
• Asthma UK

The following information is from the comprehensive NHS Choices website about alcohol, you can visit it here.

The health dangers of drinking too much:

Drinking too much can put a serious strain on your body. It takes your liver an hour to process one unit of alcohol. So having two or three drinks an hour overloads your system - which means your health could suffer. After a session of heavy drinking take a break for 48 hours to let your body recover. 

When you drink too much or too quickly, for a start you’ll experience:

• Dizziness
• Being sick
• Falling over
• Headaches
• Hangover

You might hope to sleep it all off but the most common side effect of excessive drinking is a hangover.

These vary according to how much you drank and how well your body processes alcohol.

Hangovers can leave you tired and unable to concentrate. This can lower your performance at work and your ability to carry out complicated or physically demanding tasks. It’s also more difficult to control your moods.

Other short-term effects:

• Sexual difficulties like impotence
• Slowed breathing and heartbeat
• Loss of consciousness
• Increased risk of accident and injury

Regular over-drinking

Most people who suffer from health problems because of their drinking are not alcoholics, but rather are those who drink heavily over a number of years.

Many suffer few immediate consequences of their drinking, but cumulatively it takes its toll.

6,000 deaths from coronary heart disease in men each year are directly due to alcohol. And 400 of the 1,700 deaths from mouth cancer per year are linked to heavy drinking - that’s nearly one in four.

In England and Wales, alcohol misuse leads to some 33,000 hospital admissions each year for alcohol-related liver disease.

Regularly drinking more than the recommended number of units over a long period can lead to complications like:

• Certain types of cancer, especially breast cancer
• Memory loss, brain damage or even dementia
• Increased risk of heart disease and stroke
• Liver disease, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer
• Stomach damage
• Potentially fatal alcohol poisoning

Other Long-term effects:

As you get older, the risks increase. Not only is your body less able to process alcohol, but if you fall you are more likely to seriously injure yourself. You may also notice as time passes:

• Smaller genitals
• Lower sperm count
• Loss of body hair
• Irregular periods and lower fertility
• Damage to an unborn child

Your appearance can suffer:

• Weight gain from alcohol’s high calorie content
• Skin problems

Did you know?

Older drinkers are more likely to feel the effects the following morning, due to changes in the body that develop with age such as a decrease in body water content and an increase in body fat content.

Even from the age of 20 onwards, lean body mass (muscle) also reduces, leading to higher blood alcohol concentration for the same amount of alcohol consumed.

DrinkCheck can help you find out more about your drinking. Visit the NHS Choices Alcohol pages here.

Learn more about the Flu and why it’s so important to get your flu jabs on the NHS Choices website.

Flu or influenza is a disease of the lungs and upper airways caused by infection with a virus. The virus spreads in the lungs and airways. There are three flu viruses, known as A, B and C.

The main symptoms of flu are a high temperature that comes on quickly, general aches and pains, and you may also experience loss of appetite, nausea, and a harsh dry cough.

Symptoms usually peak after two or three days and you should begin to feel much better within five to eight days, although a cough and general tiredness may last for two to three weeks….Learn More

You can use the form below to book your flu jab:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Other Resources:

• NHS Choices
• World Health Organisation
• EISS Influenza Surveillance
• Health Protection Agency

You can find more help and advice from the NHS Choices Website

Fruit and vegetables help set you up for a healthier lifestyle. Best of all, there is so much variety to choose from, all year long, there’s enough to keep even the fussiest eaters happy.

To get the best health benefits, your 5 A DAY portions should include a combination of a variety of fruit and vegetables. That’s 5 portions altogether, not 5 portions of fruit and 5 portions of veg.

Here are 5 great reasons to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables A DAY:

1. They’re packed with vitamins and minerals.
2. They can help you to maintain a healthy weight.
3. They’re an excellent source of fibre and antioxidants.
4. They help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.
5. They taste delicious and there’s so much variety to choose from.

More Resources:

• NHS Choices
• Change4Life