There are many claims made about gut health. We are told that having the right gut bugs will make us slim, boost our immune system, even cure depression. But for all the health claims you may read, there is still a lot to discover about what gut bugs can and cannot do.

How to care for your gut’s microbes

Even though our internal world is still largely a mystery, we do have a good idea of how to keep the gut microbiome as diverse and healthy as possible. One way is through the foods we eat, and those we avoid.

The most important step is to eat a plant-rich, whole food diet, says nutrition scientist and gut health expert Dr Joanna McMillan. This includes fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, seeds and the oils made from them.

At the same time, limit or avoid ultra-processed foods. These are foods made from ingredients that are already heavily processed so that the resulting food product is far removed from the original plant or animal food.

Why the focus on plant foods?

There are two groups of plant compounds that are key for gut health and fuelling your microbiome, says Dr McMillan – fibre and polyphenols.

All the different types of fibre are carbohydrates that our digestive enzymes can’t break down, so they arrive intact to the large intestine (colon). Many of these types of fibre are fermented by the gut microbiome, explains Dr McMillan.

The gut microbiome works hard to support us, too. It produces substances that help prevent the growth of harmful bacteria, reduce inflammation in the gut and the rest of the body, provide fuel for the cells lining the gut to keep them healthy, and support the immune system.

The best sources of fibre? All plant foods, but particularly legumes and wholegrains.

Polyphenols are compounds found widely in plant foods, says Dr McMillan, and like fibre, they also promote a healthy, diverse microbiome.

“Your friendly gut bugs convert these polyphenols into more bioactive compounds with diverse health benefits throughout the body,” she explains.

Recent research has shown polyphenols have prebiotic effects, promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut. They are also anti-inflammatory and prevent the growth of potentially harmful bacteria.

The best sources of polyphenols?

Extra virgin olive oil has more than 30 polyphenols, says Dr McMillan. Other good sources of polyphenols are colourful fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds.

Do you always but the same fruit and vegetable?

Sticking to the same fruit and vegetables every day is likely to decrease the range of your gut microbiota.

“If you want to increase gut microbe diversity, you should try and have 30 different plant-based foods a week,” says dietitian and gut health expert Dr Megan Rossi.

Sounds impossible? Gradually introduce foods you may not normally eat, such as barley, quinoa, chickpeas, eggplant, Brazil nuts, pumpkin and chia seeds, asparagus, and kale. For example, you can base a salad on barley, add some nuts and seeds, three types of vegetables, a little dried fruit, and a dressing based on olive oil. That will give you up to eight different plant foods.

There’s something deeply re-energising about gliding through the water, whether it’s chlorine or salt water.

You come out feeling relaxed and buzzing. Renewed. But you can’t help wonder… was it a good use of your time? Would you have been better off going for a run or doing an exercise class? And what about that thing your friend says that swimming makes you put on weight?

Don’t worry! Swimming is an amazing form of exercise, and wonderful for your physical and mental health. Here’s why:

1. It strengthens all your muscles

Swimming gives you a full-body workout. It works muscles throughout your entire body, including your legs, glutes, arms, neck, shoulders and core. Remember, water is 800 times denser than air, so it gives you a great resistance workout.

2. It lowers stress and helps with depression

Ever got out of the pool and felt the weight of the world had lifted off your shoulders? You didn’t imagine it. Swimming can induce a relaxation response similar to yoga.

The relaxation response is thought to be due to the constant stretching and releasing of your muscles, combined with deep rhythmic breathing. Plus, the feeling of being away from everything in the water (where your phone can’t beep at you) can help relieve stress.

3. It burns calories

Swimming can burn equal or greater calories than running, although it depends on how hard and fast you go.

Running for 10 minutes burns around about 100 calories (depending on your weight and speed).

With 10 minutes of swimming, you burn 60 calories with breast stroke, 80 calories with backstroke, 100 calories with freestyle, and 150 with butterfly stroke.

4. It regulates blood sugar

A 2016 study found that short bursts of high-intensity swimming three times a week can balance blood glucose. That’s great news for those with diabetes or it you are at risk of diabetes.

5. It helps you live longer

No, really. Researchers at the University of South Carolina looked at 40,547 men, aged 20 to 90, for over 32 years. They found those who swam had a 50 per cent lower death rate than runners, walkers, or men who didn’t exercise.

What about just submerging yourself in water? Is that good too?

Yes. And there’s different benefits for cold vs warm water. Immersing yourself in very cold water, that is around 15 degrees Celsius, can help with pain, muscle recovery and boosts your metabolism. Some studies suggest it can reduce symptoms of depression.

Ice baths take this idea up a notch. The “Wim Hof method” promotes ice baths or very cold showers combined with deep breathing. Wim Hof says it stimulates your vague nerve, which boosts your parasympathetic nervous system and affects conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Lowering yourself into warm water is a gentler way to promote relaxation. Research from Washington State University finds that warm water immersion, like a bath, balances your nervous system and helps lower stress.

“The effects of aquatic immersion are profound, and impact virtually every body system,” says Dr Bruce Becker, director of the National Aquatic & Sports Medicine Institute at Washington State University.

First the bad news. There’s no real cure for a hangover. No food or supplement, powder or pill – least of all the ‘hair of the dog’ (also known as drinking more alcohol).

What’s a hangover?

Your liver can handle moderate amounts of alcohol but if you drink too much you risk a hangover the next day.

Alcohol and its by-product, acetaldehyde, are toxic to your body. Together, they cause the symptoms of a hangover – fatigue, dizziness, headache, dry mouth and nausea. Someone with a hangover can also experience impaired memory, concentration and visual-spatial skills – potentially a safety risk to others in the workplace.

Is there any good news?

By focusing on what you eat and drink before and during your drinking session you can prevent the worst hangover symptoms.

• Slow down alcohol absorption by ensuring you eat before or while you’re drinking.
• Help prevent alcohol’s dehydrating effects by alternating alcoholic drinks with water.
• Avoid darker coloured drinks, such as brandy, whisky, rum and red wine. They have a higher level of compounds called congeners which are believed to make your hangover worse.
• Have a sports drink before bed as this helps replenish fluid and electrolytes lost through the dehydrating effect of alcohol.

Looking for evidence

Google ‘hangover cure’ and you will come up with everything from bananas, charcoal tablets, and ginseng, to green tea, Bloody Mary and pizza.

The British Medical Journal has even published a systematic review of randomised controlled trials looking at hangover cures and found no compelling evidence for any of them. Their conclusion was to avoid a hangover in the first place with alcohol abstinence or moderation.

What can help

Apart from waiting for your body to get back to normal, there are some things you can do that may help you feel a little better.

• Rehydrate with water and/or sports drinks.
• Eat a couple of eggs. Eggs contain an amino acid called cysteine which helps to break down acetaldehyde.
• Get moving if you can. The endorphin release from exercise will make you feel better.
• Try aspirin and a strong coffee. They can help clear your head as you wait it out, although they won’t sober you up any quicker.

But orthodontists are concerned about the potential risks of these, which include damage to the roots of teeth, gum recession, loose teeth and teeth that need to be removed.

Customers are required to take teeth moulds themselves and work progressively through different sets of aligners sent to them in the mail, which move their teeth over time. A remote orthodontist oversees their progress through photos.

A lot of people underestimate how complicated changing teeth is because it ultimately affects your bite, which affects your jaw and your jaw joint and the muscles of your face.

A survey found 35 per cent of orthodontists who responded had treated a patient in the past 12 months following failed use of at home aligners.

2. The last thing I ate must have made me sick.

It is understandable to blame food poisoning on the last meal you ate, and this may be the case. But the food that caused your illness may have been eaten days before your symptoms appeared. Different bugs cause symptoms to start at different times after eating the contaminated food. You should consider all the foods eaten over the three days before symptoms first appeared.

3. Food that’s “off” will smell.

Most food-poisoning bacteria and their toxins don’t obligingly warn you of their presence with a particularly bad smell or taste. The “off” smell of putrefaction is usually due to relatively harmless bacteria, and food which seems normal in appearance, taste and smell can have enough harmful pathogens to make you ill. If in doubt, toss it out.

4. If you are vegan, you are unlikely to get food poisoning.

Even though meats, seafood, poultry, eggs and dairy are the leading causes of food poisoning, vegans are not off the hook.

Plants and plant-based foods can become contaminated as easily as any other food if they come into contact with bacteria found in soil, unclean surfaces or equipment, or food handlers who are sick or have dirty hands.

Contaminated bean sprouts, for instance, have been linked to outbreaks of E. coli infection. Raw rice can contain bacteria called Bacillus cereus that survives cooking. If rice is unrefrigerated for more than two hours after cooking, the bacteria can multiply and make you sick.

5. Refrigeration will kill off bacteria.

Refrigeration is important for slowing down the growth of bacteria, but it doesn’t kill it.

Cool hot food until it has stopped steaming before putting it in the fridge. Don’t leave food to go cold completely as slower cooling allows bacteria to grow. And make sure you eat or freeze leftovers within two to three days of cooking.

You are actually just switching your attention astonishingly quickly, over and over again. It is not only exhausting, but makes you even less efficient than if you did one thing at a time.

Dr Earl Miller is a neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience at MIT in the United States.

“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves,” says Dr Miller. “The brain is very good at deluding itself.”

Dr Miller says trying to multitask is an extra problem when you’re juggling similar tasks, for example talking on the phone while writing an email. He says it’s impossible to focus on both because they involve the same part of the brain, the part responsible for communication.

Multitasking makes you slower

Researchers have proven that trying to switch between too many things too often actually reduces your productivity.

The only time it is possible to multitask to any extent at all is when one of the tasks in habitual or automatic. Think: cleaning your teeth while mentally compiling your to-do list. But as soon as you need to focus on something new, such as discovering a sore tooth, your brain switches away from your to-do list.

Research Fellow at Deakin University’s School of Psychology, Dr Gillian Clark, says our brain doesn’t have capacity to allocate attention to everything all at once.

“This switching to and from is really inefficient,” Dr Clark says, “It means that we miss things, make mistakes and slow down on all the tasks we’re switching between. Multitasking generally lowers productivity.”

The University of Utah recently ran a comprehensive study to measure how well people think they can multitask, compared to how well they can actually do it. They concluded, “Perceptions of the ability to multitask were found to be badly inflated.”

What’s more, they said, “the persons who chronically try to multitask are not those who are the most capable of multitasking effectively.”

How to actually get more done

So if multitasking doesn’t help you get more done more quickly, then what does?

Doing one thing at a time, according to experts. It’s simple but powerful.

Here are some more tips on how to achieve that:

1. Create a block of time for each task

Most of us have to do multiple tasks within a day, so the trick is to create blocks of time for different tasks, where you can work undistracted by all the other tasks.

You could even set yourself appointments with each task – it seems to increase your commitment to getting it done.

2. Plan your day

Yes, unexpected things will come up, but planning allows you to allocate blocks of time for the tasks you know you have to do, while allowing some wriggle room.

3. When you’re at your desk, only work

If you know you like to procrastinate on news, websites or social media, then train yourself to do that away from your desk. Stand up and use your phone, if you must. That way, you create a habit where being at your desk means focused work.

The symptoms of depression can vary from person to person, and even in age and gender. Here are seven unusual symptoms to watch out for:

• Irritability

Dr Anne Fabiny, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says older men often show irritability or grumpiness as a symptom of depression. “So the stereotype of the grumpy old man could be a sign of a depressed old man.”

Women can also seem angry when they are actually depressed, and can lash out unexpectedly, or turn that anger on themselves in a deep self-hatred.

• Forced happiness

People with depression often try to overcompensate in social situations, putting on an extra happy face to cover up their sadness.

• Excessive alcohol and drug use

It is a tricky one to spot, but around a third of people with depression also have a substance abuse disorder – that is about double the rate of the general population. It can be an early sign of depression, as people try to cope with their feelings by drinking or using drugs.

• Loss of concentration

You find it hard to concentrate at work, which leads to stress and negative thoughts about yourself, which in turn feeds the depression. Difficulty concentrating, even difficulty following a conversation or a TV show that you used to love, can be a sign of depression.

• Physical pain

Some people notice the physical symptoms before they recognise the depression. Physical signs of depression can include:

- feeling tired all the time

- being sick and run down

- headaches and muscle pains

- churning gut

- significant weight loss or gain.

• Sleeping

If you are having new troubles sleeping, including falling asleep, and especially waking up before dawn, it could be a sign of depression. On the flipside, wanting to sleep all day is also one of the symptoms.

• Uncontrollable emotions

Feelings can burst out in unexpected ways with depression, with some people finding it hard to manage their emotions from one minute to the next. If you or someone you know is lurching from laughter to crying to anger to guilt in a short time, it may be a sign of depression.

Losing your temper much more quickly than usual is also a sign, as are seemingly over-the-top responses, such as crying over a tiny thing like spilling water or not being able to find a pen.

Even if you are unsure if your recent changes are signs of depression, it is worth looking into.

Top tips to make sure the sunscreen works

• Your skin should be clean and dry. If you have been swimming, or have sand on your skin from the beach, wash and dry yourself first.
• Thoroughly rub the sunscreen into your skin.
• Remember the tricky spots, especially the top of your ears, your scalp and the top of your forehead, where your hat often rubs against your skin.
• Wait 20 minutes before going into the sun to allow the sunscreen to bind properly to the skin.
• Cancer Council recommends reapplying 20-30 minutes AFTER you have been in the sun, a bit like a second coat of paint.
• Reapply at least every two hours and directly after swimming, sport, sweating or towel drying. Sunscreens labelled as water resistant are tested to be effective for up to 40 minutes of swimming, so it’s best to reapply these too.
• Check the use-by date on your bottle of sunscreen. If it is out of date, it will not be as effective.
• Make sure your sunscreen is stored below 30 degrees Celsius and out of direct sunlight. Keeping your sunscreen in your car glovebox in summer will reduce its effectiveness.

And of course, try to stay out of the sun altogether between 10am and 4pm in summer if you possibly can. In all seasons, check the UV levels in your area. A good weather app will often include the UV forecast.

Remember, sunscreen is your last line of defence. No sunscreen is 100% effective against the UV radiation that causes skin cancer.

It is not just Slip Slop Slap; it is Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide. Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade and slide on some sunglasses.

It’s cheap and readily available. So it can’t be a superfood can it?

No food is actually a ‘superfood’ as this is purely a marketing term, but if one food does punch above its weight in terms of nutritional benefits, it’s the humble red cabbage.

Red cabbage is one of cruciferous vegetables, which also include rocket, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radish and turnips. All these vegetables are low in kilojoules, and rich in folate, vitamins C, E and K, and fibre.

They also all contain phytonutrients, plant-based compounds that may help lower inflammation, and research suggests may reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Choose red cabbage and you will get added value in the form of phytonutrients called anthocyanins. These are the pigments that give red, purple and blue plants their rich colouring. They act as strong antioxidants in your body. Research indicates anthocyanins may protect against many chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and heart disease.

What to do with red cabbage:

• Shred and use as a base for a coleslaw with grated carrot, shredded baby spinach or kale and chopped walnuts.
• Make a warm side dish. Braise a small shredded red cabbage for 10 minutes with 2 tablespoons olive oil, sliced red onion, peeled grated apple, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ¼ cup apple juice.

Whenever you cook with red cabbage, add an acidic liquid such as vinegar, apple juice or wine, otherwise the cabbage will lose its colour and turn blue.

Who is at risk?

1. Manufacturing workers: can be exposed to invisible hazards in the air, such as fumes and dust.

2. Construction workers: are often in contact with dust from concrete and fumes from welding.

3. Engineered stone workers: are exposed to silica dust in all parts of their work process – from preparing and working on the slab, to cleaning up the workplace and disposing of waste.

4. Agricultural workers: may come into contact with a range of hazards in the air, including pesticides, chemicals and fuels.

What can you do?

Workplace Health and Safety legislation means your employer must ensure that standards are in place to protect your lung health.

You can help by ensuring you use your PPE that is designed for the hazardous agent you’re working with. You may need training in how to use it, as well as undergo fit-testing.

Some recommendations:

• Quit smoking. Smoking or vaping of any kind increases your risk of many lung diseases.
• Practise good hygiene. Wash your hands and face before eating and drinking and put clothes in a separate wash basket.
• Talk to your doctor. Have regular check-ups with your doctor, even if you’re not experiencing symptoms.