My muscles are still shaking as I open an app on my phone to assess my workout data. I’m not about to find out how my heart rate or how many calories I’ve burned in my 53-minute weights session, but how much sweat and sodium I’ve lost (750ml of sweat and 508mg sodium, “similar to eating one large pretzel,” if you’re interested.)
The hydration tracker I’m wearing might not be glamorous but feels weirdly on trend in this summer of World Cup hydration breaks and never-ending heatwaves. How much we’re drinking, and sweating, seems to be on everyone’s mind.
Which is good, says sports medicine consultant Dr George Bownes, founder of sports clinic Citius Health, given many of us don’t drink enough water – a problem compounded by air-conditioned offices and shops, which might offer relief but reduce humidity and therefore increase water loss from the body. A 2023 study of 1,112 adults found that 40 per cent were inadequately hydrated. Dehydration affects every aspect of our physical and mental health, from energy to muscle function.
Ukraine launches ‘massive’ drone attack more than 600 miles inside Russia
Ukraine has launched a deadly drone attack on a major Russian oil refinery, the regional authorities have said.
What happened?
Ukraine launched a drone attack on a major Russian oil refinery in the Tatarstan region, more than 600 miles into the country.
The mayor of Nizhnekamsk, Radmir Belyayev, now says at least 12 people have been killed and a further 39 injured in the attack on the city.
Watch the fallout from the attack on the Russian oil refinery
Recent attacks on Russian oil
The TANECO refinery, owned by Russian oil company Tatneft, is located in Nizhnekamsk and was also hit by Ukraine in early June.
On 6 July, Kyiv struck Russia’s biggest oil refinery in Omsk – more than 1,500 miles from the Ukrainian border – and forced it to halt operations.
3 min read
4 min read
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announces decision to freeze eggs
New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has revealed that she has decided to freeze her eggs.
What happened?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), 36, has announced she is going to freeze her eggs and will be sharing the process online.
The congresswoman revealed her decision to undergo fertility treatment in a series of Instagram stories this weekend. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
3 min read
2 min read
Why is AOC sharing her journey publicly?
I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes.
In an interview on , Ocasio-Cortez also said she wanted to “normalise” conversations about the process, adding that it was important “especially in this political environment”.
How cutting exercise drives up likelihood of cancer
According to new research, dropping even just a few minutes of vigorous exercise every day can push up the risk of cancer.
Here is everything you need to know.
What are the risks?
Experts have found that swapping exercise for more sedentary behaviour – such as watching an episode of a TV soap opera or sitting at a desk – drives up the cancer risk by up to 15 per cent.
They also warned that people who have been active during their lives should do all they can to maintain exercise, as even small drops in activity can affect health.
What does the research show?
What was studied?
The research, published in , looked at people’s lifestyles to find the link between exercise cancer risk.
Who was studied?
The analysis included 59,218 people (55 per cent female) with an average age of 61.7 from the UK.
The outcome
The research found that the more people moved, the lower their risk of cancer.
What can you do to reduce the risk?
- 1Replacing 15 minutes of sedentary behaviour with 15 minutes of movement were each linked to a 2 per cent reduced risk of cancer.
- 2Swapping 30 minutes of movement for 30 minutes of sedentary behaviour increased the risk by 8 per cent.
- 3While swapping it for sleep increased the risk by 7 per cent.
The expert view
The take-home message is that for people already leading physically active lives, it’s really important to maintain that level of activity as you get older.
Dr John Mitchell, lead author from University College London
Are you having as much sex as everyone else?
It’s natural for libido to wax and wane due to life events, dating status or hormonal changes.
And it can be hard to say what a “normal” sexual frequency is. But research and case studies give us a rough idea.
The statistics
When it happens
61%
A 2023 survey concluded that almost two thirds (61 per cent) of us wait until night-time to have sex.
Only 14 per cent opt to get busy in the early evening, and 10 per cent in the morning.
Research from 2019 suggests that the average number of times British live-in or married couples have sex per month is three.
Are Gen Z having less sex than older people?
I see my partner on the weekends and have sex with others in the week.
Leanne, a 27-year-old influencer from Bristol has sex three or four times a week, but only sees her long-distance partner on the weekends. They have agreed they can both sleep with other people during the week.
35-year-old Rebecca usually sleeps with her partner once or twice per week due to not having much child-free time.
Clare, 32, says her job is busy and she has to schedule sex with her partner on weekends, or some afternoons twice a month. “Occasionally this slips and I do worry that it makes us not as connected,” she says.
I haven’t had the issue of my sex life drying up with menopause. I’m more aroused now.
I’ve been married for 15 years. I love my husband, but our sex life is non-existent, and has been for about five years.
I’m not really motivated to seek out partners; I vaguely like the idea of it but not enough to take any action.
I’ve been married for 20 years and sex has become something of a rarity. We maybe have sex once a week on a Sunday morning as we’re both relaxed and I can take Viagra late on Saturday night – without it, I can’t perform.
JACK, 63, OFFICE WORKER, KENT
The seven rules that could save your marriage
Keep your sense of self
I did what I thought I was supposed to do and forgot my needs and wants. I think it’s really important that you’re an individual and not just a person who is married.
KATIE STRATFORD*, A 55-YEAR-OLD MUM OF TWO, WHO DIVORCED ATER 19 YEARS
Seven rules to save your marriage
The small things
Small things, like being brought a cup of tea or saying thank you, make a big difference.
Karen Deulofeu, who ended her six-year marriage, believes all couples should seek support, even before they think they need it.
Listen properly by repeating what you have heard and ask if you’ve got that right.
Don’t lose communication
People don’t talk about the deep issues; nobody else is going to do it for you. You don’t want to ask questions because it might rock the boat…you have to keep talking, and talk about what it is that you want within the relationship to keep going forward.
KATIE STRATFORD
Seven rules to save your marriage
Remember that things change
“What you see on social media and what friends say is quite often the nice version. Everything is a phase,” says Deulofeu.
Look at yourself first
“Focus on what’s in your control and what you can do differently, rather than the other person or a situation that you can’t control. Invest in understanding yourself,” she adds.
There are things that all mid-life men should know about keeping their hearts healthy.
From eating more purple fruit to avoiding large bowls of pasta, consultant cardiologist Dr Zoe Astroulakis [below] shares her simple lifestyle habits she wishes her patients would take on board.
Positive changes to make
Swap ‘bad’ fats for healthy ones
You don’t need to eat a fat-free diet; the key is to reduce your saturated fat. Reduce your dairy and swap your red meat for lean meat such as chicken and oily fish.
Control your portions
You don’t need more carbohydrates in a meal than you can fit in your hand. Enormous plates of pasta can cause blood sugar spikes, which can lead to health problems.
Positive changes to make
Look for purple
Blueberries, black grapes and aubergines are great for boosting “good” cholesterol.
Have oats
Porridge is one of the healthiest breakfast options because it’s full of soluble fibre.
Stop taking cocaine
It can provoke a massive heart attack, even in younger people who don’t have existing artery problems.
Stay below the alcohol limit
- The NHS guidelines of 14 units per week is still more than 1,000 additional calories.
- The safest level to aim for is zero.
- If you’re drinking, make sure you have some alcohol-free days each week and space it out.
5 min read
Positive changes to make
Do cardio too
Don’t only focus on lifting weights. It might make you look toned, but it says nothing about the health of your heart.
Check your levels
You can get free blood pressure checks in many pharmacies or you can buy a monitor for around £30 to use at home.
Avoid night shifts
It disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm and can lead to increased cholesterol.
A sign to look out for
A beer belly is a sign you need to make urgent changes
It’s usually a sign you’re drinking too much. By the time your belly starts to bulge, it’s a sign that you’re consuming excess calories and storing too much fat internally.
3 min read
Want a new career but worried it’s too late?
Mid-life is not too late to start again, says experienced recruiter Elizabeth Willetts [below].
Here, Willetts shares the best jobs to switch to during midlife if you want a change – without sacrificing pay.
Changing careers in your fifties
Mid-life career pivots can lead to higher earnings.
7.4%
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, workers aged 45 to 54 who voluntarily pivot jobs see an average wage growth of 7.4 per cent.
3.5%
And those aged 55 to 64 still see a 3.5 per
cent increase.
The AARP Global Employee Survey also found that over half of workers who changed jobs voluntarily experienced improvements in work flexibility and mental health.
So what job options are there?
Virtual assistant
As a virtual assistant your workload will be very varied and it could be anything from tidying inboxes, booking travel, sending invoices or updating spreadsheets.
You can start out earning around £20 to £35 an hour, but it can scale into agency work, launch support or even project management. Some earn very well.
What it involves
You will source, screen and interview candidates to match them with the right job roles.
Who it’s for
You don’t need any qualifications but it’s suited to communicators and commercially-minded people.
The pay
The salary van vary from £25 to £50k, but you can earn around £100k depending on commission.
Jobs to switch to in your fifties
Estate agent
It offers flexible hours and weekend staff can earn £15 per hour.
This form of coaching for businesses could earn around £250 to £1,000 per day.
In the lower end, a sales rep can make £30k and on the higher end £50-60k, plus commission.
Why coaching is a good option
Coaching is incredibly varied and can be anything from career coaching, to confidence and leadership coaching.
- As it is an unregulated industry, you don’t need qualifications but the more reputable option is the International Coaching Federation.
- It’s a great career option for older people because clients genuinely value your wealth of life experience.
- It’s flexible, scalable, and you can start doing it part-time alongside another role.
- It could make you anything from £200 an hour, all the way up to £500 p/h+.
This can be across HR, operations, marketing, finance, people strategy or project management, as it’s varied.
Price on value, not hours – if your advice saves a client £200k, charging £150 an hour undersells what you’re worth.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
“Every cell in the body has water in it. If your cells aren’t full of water the chemical reactions in them can’t happen as efficiently,” says Bownes. “You can’t focus in the same way. Your likelihood of upper respiratory tract infections increases. To optimise our health, we need to stay hydrated.”
In an age of optimisation, this has given rise to gadgets offering to track our hydration levels, from sticks that analyse urine, to stick-on patches that measure the rate of sweat flow, or wearables such as the £179.99 hDrop hydration monitor I have clipped to a strap on my arm.
Track your electrolytes
The size of a large square of chocolate, it has a rechargeable sensor that connects to an app on your phone via Bluetooth and reveals how much sweat you lose and at what rate and your temperature – all of which you can monitor while exercising, along with sodium and potassium levels.
These are two of our key electrolytes – minerals that have an electrical charge when dissolved in liquid, which help muscles contract and the heart and nervous system stay healthy – and they get lost through sweat.
My son calls me a lizard, he thinks I drink so little water; I exercise most days and find it hard to concentrate. So I’m intrigued to see if the hDrop picks up a problem with my hydration.
Bownes says that for elite sportspeople such as footballers and tennis players analysing sweat can be “helpful” in terms of adjusting training and nutrition. While laboratory testing of blood and urine have been around for years “testing is more popular now in terms of what’s commercially available. People planning to run ultra marathons ask me how they can test.”
But he believes that for the average exerciser, gadgets like these aren’t required. “If you’re exercising for under an hour you probably won’t be sweating enough to appreciate the deficit you get yourself into.” And, he adds, “as with other wearables I’m not sure how accurate [these] gadgets are”.
hDrop Technologies Inc, which launched its sensor in 2023, says its data is at least 85 per cent accurate, citing a study in the journal that found “no significant difference” between sweat loss estimated by the hDrop and laboratory measurements.
Bownes believes the rise in popularity of hydration trackers is tied to the increasing buzz around electrolyte supplements. Last month, Sainsbury’s reported a 333 per cent increase in searches for “rehydration sachets” over a year, and social media is filled with fitness influencers singing their praises.
However, although low electrolyte levels can lead to fatigue, dizziness and muscle cramps, most of us get adequate levels through our diet. In fact, most of us already consume more than the recommended maximum of 6g salt in our diet, which effectively serves the same function as sodium.
“You don’t have to reach for expensive electrolytes,” says Bownes, who concedes, though, that in this unprecedented spell of hot weather, taking them in supplement form “could be helpful in maintaining hydration levels for heavy exercisers or those who sweat a lot.”
Discover your sweat zone
hDrop calculates a sweat rate “baseline” for users – a score of zero to 100 which puts you into one of three “sweat zones” – concentrated, with more salt and less water, a sign you’re not drinking enough; the target zone, which means the concentration of salts are balanced; and diluted, where the salts in your body are diluted and you might need more electrolytes.
At 61, my baseline puts me in the target zone. Whether spinning, running, or lifting weights, I lose around 750ml sweat loss an hour, which, the app says, is average, but makes it easier to appreciate just how much fluid I’ve lost – around three mugs of tea’s worth – and how important it is that I replace it.
When I lift weights, the sodium concentration in my sweat is 20mg per oz (below average) but during a half-hour spinning session, it’s 35mg per oz (above average). Fluctuations are normal, depending on the weather, and how hydrated you are to start with, so I’m not worried.
Keen to find out how the heatwave affects hydration when I’m not exercising, I wear the tracker for 10 hours, largely sitting at my desk on a 35°C day – during which time I sweat about the same amount as I do during an hour-long workout, lose 363mg sodium (around three packets of crisps), and lose 66mg potassium (around three slices of banana).
Given I often wake up covered in sweat, I’m also keen to wear it overnight. But the sensor flashes a green light, and my husband protests.
In short, my vast array of data seems to tell me that my sweat quantity and quality are normal. As Bownes puts it: “I’m not saying trackers don’t work, but are they something the average person would need, other than just being educated on staying hydrated?”
Analyse your urine
I take another test by health analysis company Vivoo, that assesses my hydration by analysing the specific gravity of my urine (£16 for 30 tests). When dehydrated, kidneys conserve water, making urine more concentrated. You download the Vivoo app, urinate on a patch on a stick and then match the colour the patch turns to the closest of seven colours on the app.
Mine, a yellow, classes me as dehydrated. To be in the optimum range it would need to turn turquoise. Vivoo stresses its test is not intended for medical diagnoses and “if it’s helpful for someone to get their head around where their hydration’s at, fine,” says Bownes, whose advice, however, is much simpler. “Just use your urine as a way of monitoring your hydration levels. It should be clear or very light-straw-coloured. If you wake up in the morning and you’ve got very concentrated looking urine you know you’re dehydrated.”
We should produce at least 0.5ml urine per kilo of body weight, per hour, he says – so a 60kg woman should produce at least 720ml urine every 24 hours. The water we need depends on variables such as the weather and activity levels, but the European Food Safety Authority suggests women need around two litres a day and men about 2.5 litres a day, including water from food.
Get water from food
But it should be water, stresses Bownes. “Tea and coffee are diuretics, pulling more water out of your tissues that you’re then passing out of the body. So they’re actually dehydrating you.” So too, he adds, are lemonade, cola, squash and even apple juice.
While chugging back water before bed will probably result in a disrupted night, “a large glass of water first thing in the morning is a good thing,” says Bownes. “Carry water with you and keep water at your desk.”
Fruit and vegetables can be a helpful way of increasing intake – strawberries, courgettes and tomatoes all contain over 90 per cent water, while spinach, 90 per cent water, is high in potassium.
Don’t wait until you feel thirsty to drink, says Bownes – by this time, you’re probably already dehydrated. Bottles with hourly drinking goals and jaunty messages (9am “keep going!” 4pm “never give up!”) sound gimmicky, but help remind me to drink water. Which is the crux of the hydration trend, of course – and completely free.