First aid

A blocked airway can kill someone in three to four minutes, but it can take more than eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. So a simple procedure such as opening someone's airway can save their life while they're waiting for emergency medical help.

Top ten first aid misconceptions
You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water - keep the butter for cooking.
If you can't move a limb, it must be broken/If you can move a limb, it can't be broken. The only accurate way to diagnose a broken limb is to x-ray it.
The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap you wash away the body's clotting agents and make it bleed more.
Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway.
A tourniquet is the best way to treat serious bleeding. It's harmful to stop the blood flow to a limb for more than 10-15 minutes.
If someone has swallowed a poison you should make them sick. If you make someone sick by putting your fingers in their mouth, the vomit may block their airway.
If you perform CPR on someone who has a pulse you can damage their heart. The evidence is that it isn't dangerous to do chest compressions on a casualty with a pulse.
You need lots of training to do first aid. You don't - what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid in ten minutes to save someone's life.
You need lots of expensive equipment to do first aid. You don't need any equipment to do first aid, there are lots of ways to improvise anything you need.

A blocked airway can kill someone in three to four minutes, but it can take more than eight minutes for an ambulance to arrive. So a simple procedure such as opening someone's airway can save their life while they're waiting for emergency medical help.

Top ten first aid misconceptions
You should put butter or cream on a burn. The only thing you should put on a burn is cold water - keep the butter for cooking.
If you can't move a limb, it must be broken/If you can move a limb, it can't be broken. The only accurate way to diagnose a broken limb is to x-ray it.
The best way to treat bleeding is to put the wound under a tap. If you put a bleeding wound under a tap you wash away the body's clotting agents and make it bleed more.
Nosebleeds are best treated by putting the head back. If you put the head back during a nosebleed, all the blood goes down the back of the airway.
A tourniquet is the best way to treat serious bleeding. It's harmful to stop the blood flow to a limb for more than 10-15 minutes.
If someone has swallowed a poison you should make them sick. If you make someone sick by putting your fingers in their mouth, the vomit may block their airway.
You need lots of training to do first aid. You don't - what you mostly need is common sense. You can learn enough first aid in ten minutes to save someone's life.
You need lots of expensive equipment to do first aid. You don't need any equipment to do first aid, there are lots of ways to improvise anything you need.

For couples who can't conceive, scientific breakthroughs offer hope. But they also raise ethical obstacles and headlines such as "Three-parent baby", "The end of men?" and "Your real mother was an aborted foetus".
Sometimes the media's portrayal of reproductive medicine spins the science to the furthest possible outcome. But what's the reality of work going on in our labs? How soon will it reach fertility clinics and will it really mean the end of society as we know it?
Womb transplants
Until recently, the majority of science behind reproductive medicine involved work on eggs and sperm (known collectively as gametes). If you were without a womb or it didn't work, your only real choice was adoption or surrogacy. But now, womb transplants are on the agenda.
Several research groups have had success with transplants in sheep, rabbits and pigs but haven't achieved a subsequent pregnancy. The first attempt in a human was reported in 2002, when doctors in Saudi Arabia transplanted the womb of a healthy 46-year-old woman into a 26-year-old. The graft survived two menstrual cycles, but had to be removed after a blood clot developed.
Professor Richard Smith from Hammersmith Hospital, London, thinks his team may have found the answer by transplanting wombs from organ donors, in the same way as hearts and livers. His team plans to transfer the larger blood vessels too, which a living donor couldn't do without. He believes this will give the organ a better chance of survival

Healthy living

Physical inactivity is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease - in other words, if you don't exercise you dramatically increase your risk of dying from a heart attack
Conversely, exercise means a healthier heart because it reduces several cardiovascular risks, including high blood pressure
Being physically active can bolster good mental health and help you to manage stress, anxiety and even depression
Regular exercise can help you achieve and maintain an ideal weight, which can be important in managing many health conditions, or may just make you feel happier about your appearance
All exercise helps strengthen bones and muscles to some degree, but weight-bearing exercise, such as running, is especially good in promoting bone density and protecting against osteoporosis, which affects men as well as women
Different exercises help with all sorts of health niggles, such as digestion, poor posture and sleeplessness, and physical activity can be beneficial for a range of medical conditions, from diabetes to lower back pain

In CHD, the arteries that supply the heart with oxygen and nutrients become narrowed by atherosclerosis. This restricts the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart, particularly during exertion when there are more demands on the heart muscle.
What are the symptoms of CHD?
The main symptom is angina, caused by insufficient oxygen reaching the heart muscle because of reduced blood flow.
Angina is a feeling of heaviness, tightness or pain in the middle of your chest that may extend to, or just affect, your arms (especially the left), neck, jaw, face, back or abdomen.
It's most often experienced during exertion - if you run for a bus, for example, or climb stairs. It may occur in cold weather, after a heavy meal, or when you're feeling stressed. It can subside once you stop what you're doing and rest, or take medication.

Heart attack?
Unfortunately, for many people the first indication that something’s wrong is a heart attack.
This happens when the blood supply to a part of the heart muscle is completely interrupted or stops, usually when a blood clot forms in a diseased coronary artery that's already become narrowed by atherosclerosis.
The pain of a heart attack is often severe, and is frequently described as a central, crushing type of pain - like a tight band around the chest. Unlike angina, the pain doesn't subside when you rest.
Sometimes it can be mild, and is mistaken for indigestion. Some people have a heart attack without experiencing pain.
Other heart attack symptoms include sweating, light-headedness, nausea or breathlessness which, again, aren’t alleviated by rest.
If you suspect you, or someone else, is having a heart attack, seek medical help immediately by calling 999. Modern treatments can restore the blood supply to the heart muscle. The sooner treatment is given, the less permanent damage there will be.

A good daily target is to keep fat intake below 100g for men and 75g for women. If you're trying to lose weight, your target should be 70g for men and 55g for women.
Problems with fat
There are nine calories in every gram of fat - more than twice as many as in the equivalent amount of protein or carbohydrate. That's why cutting down on high-fat foods is the first step to a healthier diet.
A diet high in saturated fat - the type found in animal produce - is also one of the leading factors in heart disease, the number one cause of premature death in the UK. Saturated fat can block the arteries that carry blood away from the heart, leading to high blood pressure and heart attacks.
How to eat low fat
If you're used to eating high-fat food on most days, it's time to swap these for lower fat and starchy alternatives. Try the following suggestions, aiming to do as many as possible this week, but making them all part of your routine in the long-term:
Use a low-fat spread instead of butter or margarine.
Eat fewer meat pies, cheesy dishes and sausages, and choose lean meat instead.
Grill, bake and dry-fry (use a low heat and a non-stick pan).
Don't add oil or butter to vegetables and potatoes.
Make tomato-based sauces, not creamy ones. Try this grilled tomato sauce.
Use granules to make gravy instead of fat from the meat.
Have a couple of meat-free days a week and experiment with vegetarian dishes. For example, lentil and spinach stew, spinach and chickpea curry or nut loaf.
Reduce the portion size of meat to about 75g and fill up on vegetables and starchy foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta, bread or couscous.
Remove visible fat from meat, eat fish at least once a week, choose low-fat milk and yoghurt, and keep cheese as an occasional treat.

Why do we need water?
Water comprises 50 to 70 per cent of an adult's total body weight, and without regular top-ups, our body's survival time is limited to a matter of hours or days.
Water is lost from the body through urine and sweat, and must be replaced through our diets. Many people, though, don't consume enough and as a result may become dehydrated, causing symptoms such as headaches, tiredness and loss of concentration. Chronic dehydration can contribute to a number of health problems, such as constipation and kidney stones.
How much do we need?
The body gets its water from three sources:
From drinks, either plain water or as part of other beverages.
From solid foods, especially fruits and vegetables.
As a by-product of chemical reactions within the body.
What about bottled waters? There are two types of bottled water: spring water and mineral water. Spring water is collected directly from the spring where it arises from the ground and must be bottled at the source. CR sources of spring water must meet certain hygiene standards, but may be treated in order that they meet limits set on pollution.
Mineral water emerges from under the ground, then flows over rocks before it's collected, resulting in a higher content of various minerals. Unlike spring water, it can't be treated except to remove grit and dirt. Different brands of spring and mineral waters will have differing amounts of minerals depending on their source.

Getting pregnant isn't always easy. About a quarter of couples experience a period of infertility lasting more than a year, and some continue to experience difficulties for longer. At least one in six couples consults an infertility specialist, and about one is 80 babies in the UK is born as the result of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.
Infertility may be a result of factors affecting the fertility of either partner. In some instances, despite investigation, the cause is never identified. This is called unexplained infertility.
How long does it take to get pregnant?
If you make love two or three times a week, you have about a 20 to 30 per cent chance of conceiving in any month. It's not unusual, however, for a healthy couple to take up to two years to conceive, as the following statistics from the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) show.
30 per cent of couples conceive within a month of starting to try for a baby.
75 per cent conceive within six months.
90 per cent conceive within a year.
95 per cent conceive within two years.
Time it right
For fertilisation to occur, the man's sperm needs to meet the woman's egg at about the time of ovulation (when the egg is released from the ovaries). Ovulation normally occurs 14 days before a period. So, if the woman has a menstrual cycle of 28 days, ovulation will be on or around day 14. If the menstrual cycle is longer or shorter, count 14 days back from when the next period is due.