Why thousands of women diagnosed with ADHD could really be suffering from iron deficiency - that can easily be solved by taking this simple supplement
There were also the 'debilitating' periods of hyper-fixation. Josie, 44, explains: 'I'd swing from being completely unable to focus – at work I'd drift off whenever anyone tried to explain anything – to staying up all night obsessively focused on a single task. It was always something random, like putting up a shelving unit at 4am. With two kids, the cycle left me completely burnt out.'
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists reveal foolproof formula for a lifetime of happiness - and it takes just five minutes to perform
It's often said that happiness is about finding joy in the little things in life - and now scientists appear to have found proof in that. Just five minutes a day performing 'micro-acts of joy' that foster positive emotions is enough to banish stress, boost health, and improve sleep quality, experts found. According to stress expert Dr Elissa Epel, listening to laughter, admiring a flower on a local walk or doing something nice for a friend can measurably improve people's emotional well-being and attitudes toward life. Epel, an expert on stress and ageing who oversaw the new research, said: 'We were quite taken aback by the size of the improvements to people's emotional well-being.' Epel's team at the University of California San Francisco studied almost 18,000 people, mainly from the U.S., UK, and Canada, for the web-based 'Big Joy Project' over a two-year period to 2024. It was the first study to look at whether small, easy-to-do acts that take minimal time could have measurable and lasting effects on people. Participants were asked to perform five-ten minute acts of joy for a week. Prof Epel said the thousands of people who took part in her project matched the positive results achieved by programs that required months of classes, for hours at a time. The study, published in the Journal Of Medical Internet Research, asked participants to perform seven acts over seven days, such as sharing a moment of celebration with someone else, doing something kind for another person, making a gratitude list or watching an awe-inspiring video about nature. Prof Epel said her team picked tasks that were focused on promoting feelings of hope and optimism, wonder and awe, or fun and silliness. Each task took under ten minutes, including answering short questions. Participants were quizzed about their emotional and physical health at the start and end of the week-long project, providing a measure of their emotional well-being, positive emotions, and 'happiness agency', along with their stress and sleep quality. The psychologists explained that emotional well-being includes how satisfied people are with their lives and whether they have purpose and meaning. Happiness agency is how much control they feel they have over their emotions. The team found improvements in all areas, and the benefits increased depending on how fully people participated in the program, meaning those who completed all seven days saw greater benefits than those who only managed two or three. While further research was needed, according to Epel, it's clear that a daily dose of joy could help people in trying times: 'All of this well-being stuff, it's not a luxury. 'We often say that we'll let ourselves be happy once we've reached some point or finished some task. Well, we want to flip that – we need the energy of joy to get through the hard parts. These are really necessary skills.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
After suffering a breakdown at work, a nurse has had to confront her lifetime of damaging self-sacrifice
Bec* first came in for therapy for burnout. She was a psychiatric nurse and worked at a public hospital in an inpatient unit. She sobbed during our first session, full of guilt at having had to take leave after collapsing in tears during a shift. She said she was letting her patients and team down by being away. The strength of Bec's anguish at letting people down felt disproportionate to the circumstances, and I noticed that she wasn't concerned about her tears and collapse, just about the impact of her time off on others. I probed deeper, trying to understand this. Bec said she'd been working very long hours, usually pulling double shifts a few times a week. She was proud of her work ethic and said that always being available to her team and patients was important to her. She seemed to derive most of her identity from her professional role. While she had a partner, she was often too tired to see her girlfriend, or to socialise with friends or exercise. She was often stressed because of her long hours but felt too guilty to make any changes and kept pushing through her tiredness and stress, until the day she broke down crying. It felt important to understand Bec's relationship with work in the context of her underlying personality traits and the beliefs she had formed about herself. Often, when people are over-invested in work, they have a psychological makeup characterised by themes of self-sacrifice, abandonment of their own needs, perfectionism, enmeshment with others and the need to 'earn' their place in the world. We spoke about Bec's early life during our first few sessions. She was raised by a single mother who had a serious mental illness and difficulties with addiction, and was repeatedly admitted to hospital. Bec was her mother's carer from the age of 13, managing appointments and medication, soothing her mother and remaining attuned to her moods, remaining alert to the possibility of overdose, and helping with daily tasks. She developed great empathy for those who were unwell and said that she had a strong desire to help others, leading to her decision to train as a psychiatric nurse. She'd been praised from a young age for being so 'mature, kind and giving', and she had learned that her value lay in these qualities. Bec had almost no emotion in her voice and body language when she told me about her childhood. She seemed nonchalant about her mother's difficulties and dismissive when I reflected that becoming a carer at a young age would have come with struggles, such as missing out on important adolescent experiences or being able to live free of worry. 'It is what it is,' she said, and this was a line she would repeat multiple times throughout our therapy, each time I touched on anything sensitive. Bec's difficulties struck me as difficulties that had been decades in the making. While she was 45 when she saw me, her patterns of overwork had commenced as soon as she started working as a nurse. She over-identified with this role and told me she couldn't sleep at night when clients were not doing well. Bec's pattern was typical of the archetype of the wounded healer. Many people drawn to helping professions such as nursing, psychology or paramedicine have experienced difficulties in life that have predisposed them to wanting to help others as a way of finding their own healing. They often re-enact early patterns, such as self-sacrifice. The wounded healer has been hurt but has not engaged in any healing work. They may try to resolve their own hurts by helping others. While people with this pattern can make excellent clinicians and healers with great empathy and sensitivity, this is usually facilitated by self-discovery, insight and good boundaries, and engagement in recovery work. When the wounded healer pattern is unrecognised, the outcomes can be disastrous with malignant behaviours, such as positioning oneself as a saviour, working to the point of collapse, or breaching boundaries with patients. As therapy progressed, Bec and I started to explore the messages of self-sacrifice she had unknowingly absorbed. The day she spoke about her sadness at having missed her school formal because she was caring for her mother was a turning point. We could then start to speak about the role of children in a family and the impacts of being parentified. We worked on emotional recognition and healthy lifestyle management, as well as boundaries. We needed to do a lot of work with the part of Bec that felt guilty for holding boundaries, as well as the guilt she felt when talking about her resentment toward her mother. We encouraged regular rest and worked on helping Bec understand and meet her own emotional and physical needs. Her progress in therapy was slow as the ground we covered was vast, but this work allowed Bec to have a more realistic appraisal of the importance of work, and to nurture an identity outside the self-sacrificial healer role. * Bec is a fictitious amalgam to exemplify many similar cases that I see Dr Ahona Guha is a clinical and forensic psychologist, trauma expert and author from Melbourne. She is the author of Reclaim: Understanding Complex Trauma and Those Who Abuse, and Life Skills for a Broken World In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
I'm a longevity doctor. These are my daily habits to stay young
Dr Mohammed Enayat is a London-based GP and the Founder of HUM2N Longevity Clinic. Here, he walks us through how he structures his day, making simple tweaks to his diet and lifestyle, to ensure he lives a longer, healthier life. Wake up I'm up at 6am every day and the first thing I do is take myself out to the garden to do some breathing. I live with my parents in their house in north-east London at the moment, and they're lucky enough to have a lovely garden. I moved in with them 18 months ago just as I was opening my longevity clinic HUM2N. It made sense financially for me as I was setting up my business, but they're also in their mid-70s now and being there means I can spend more quality time with them. I'm getting married this summer and then I'll split my time between my parents' and my future wife's, who lives on the Kent coast. Once I'm outside, I'll do breathing exercises or pray for a few minutes, but just putting my bare feet on the ground helps me to wake up. Even when it's been raining! Then, I'll brush my teeth and hop in the shower. Only then do I switch my mind to work, looking at my phone and checking emails and messages. Breakfast: 0 calories I rarely eat breakfast because I've worked out I feel more energised when I do intermittent fasting. So I'll have my last meal of the day by 8.30pm, and then my first meal at lunch. It means I'm carbohydrate free for the whole morning, so biologically, I'm in a fasted state five days a week. When you haven't eaten for 10-12 hours, glycogen stores in the liver become depleted, and so your body begins breaking down protein and fat stores for energy. Before I leave for work, I'll take my morning supplements with some water. I'm always adjusting the amount and the ones I take depending on what my body needs. I take up to eight some days, but others I don't take any at all. I have annual blood tests taken at my own clinic that help me decide on which supplements to take. These tests aren't typically available on the NHS, but will look at an extensive list of 120 biomarkers that indicate what's going on in our bodies – from our immune system to our hormones and digestive health – and identify areas of health that need attention. I'm 41 now, and I do think your 40s can be a slippery slope in terms of health, which is why the annual blood test is worth doing. People don't become sick overnight. There are silent things that can accumulate in the body and if you can catch these as early as possible, you can do something about it. This turns medicine on its head a bit, because we're not looking to treat an individual symptom or organ, we're looking to treat a whole human. As a doctor, I find I can improve people's health much better when I'm looking at all of their systems together, rather than in bits and pieces. Annual blood tests inform my morning supplements The last time I had my blood tests taken, I discovered elevated levels of the protein zonulin in my blood, indicating I have a leaky gut at the moment. That's where the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged, allowing bacteria, toxins, and undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream. So now I'm on a supplement plan that contains L-glutamine, digestive enzymes, and probiotics. I've also removed dairy from my diet for now as it was flagged as one of the leaky gut drivers for me. I've noticed that my bloating has gone down and the dry skin I was also experiencing has gone away. The blood test also showed that I have adrenal fatigue too, and that my stress responding hormones aren't working as well as they should be. Symptoms that people can look out for are feeling 'wired but tired', getting colds and flus more often, and feeling generally run down. As well as taking supplements to help with this, I'm being more mindful of my workload, and making sure I'm bringing down my cortisol levels in the evening with a few minutes of meditation or deep breathing. I'm also taking peptides to support tissue repair and recovery as I'm doing a lot of strength training ahead of my wedding. One of these peptides is called BPC 157, and the other is called Ipamorelin. My commute I commute on the Central Line from my parent's home to my clinic in South Kensington and it takes about an hour. I'll listen to podcasts on the way. At the moment I've been listening to Robin Sharma, humanitarian, author of The Wealth Money Can't Buy, which I enjoyed a lot. I'll also plan for the day ahead by taking notes or journaling. I have my first coffee at around 9am, before starting my day at work. Every day is different, and I have some days where I'm seeing back-to-back clinical patients, and then some that are full of management meetings with my team. I try to take some of those meetings as walking meetings so that I can get my steps up, and get some more daylight and fresh air. I love my patient time because I love working with people. I do a day a week as a GP with the NHS, so most weeks I'm working six days. Within the week, I also spend about 20 per cent of time educating my team and leading in-house learning with different specialists and building out our team of experts. It's full on, but I feel like I have important work to do that will hopefully help people. How I make time to exercise At lunchtime, I take an hour and a half break and go for strength and conditioning training at a nearby gym which, at the moment, is focused on my core and posterior strength development. I'd started to get some back pain from being quite sedentary. It's not too bad yet, but I wanted to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue. I'm getting married in August, which is really motivating me to get fitter and healthier, because that can slip when you're busy. I've got my sights set on a really nicely-fitted suit. I also do boxing once or twice a week, and that's my cardio. My training regime does tend to vary. I love to be outside when I can, so in the warmer months I'll do my boxing and circuits outdoors. On the days that I'm not commuting, I try to go for a run outside or do some skipping. You should always make time to move your body, it's one of the most important things you can do for your mental and physical health. Snack: 185 calories If I feel like I need something to keep me going until lunchtime, I'll have a smoothie with blueberries, a scoop of almond butter, 22g of collagen protein, greens powder, oat milk and water. Lunch: 800 calories Once my training is done, I have my first meal of the day. Usually that's something with good, clean protein – like a salmon fillet or tuna steak – with lots of vegetables. Because I'm doing strength training at the moment I want to make sure my protein levels are extra high, so I'll have that along with a protein shake. I change the protein source in the shake, and go through periods of using a pea-based protein or a beef collagen protein, sometimes a whey protein. I'm using a collagen peptide protein at the moment. I'll have lunch in the eating area at my clinic and chat to whoever's around. I'll take 25 minutes there without my phone before heading back to work. Then I work through until around 7pm and try to miss rush hour if I can. On the way home I'll be journaling again, emptying my thoughts before I get home. I use this time to reflect on work, relationships, home, finances, and check-in on what's coming up. Dinner: 1000 calories Once I'm home I have my final meal of the day. I do two or three days a week vegetarian, and only eat red meat once a week. Otherwise, I have a good portion of chicken or fish with a nice two-thirds of my plate as vegetables, depending on what's seasonal. I vary these throughout the week to make sure I'm getting a good mix of fibre and micronutrients. I'll have broccoli, potatoes, squash, turnips, cabbage, peas, courgettes, asparagus. I really enjoy cooking. I'll do meal prep for the week ahead on Sundays, and cook dinner at least twice a week for my family. One of my favourites at the moment is a nice oven-roasted chicken with ras el hanout, an Algerian spice mix. It's got turmeric in it, which is a great anti-inflammatory. I love extra virgin olive oil too, so I usually drizzle that over my dinner, with a bit of Himalayan salt. The oil is rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and antioxidants, and the salt is less processed than standard table salt. I'm from the Indian subcontinent – and if mum's cooked, it's usually a nice curry. I'm not a big rice eater, but if I do have rice it'll be wild rice, because it's better for the digestive tract. My parents taught me the importance of working hard. If your relationship with work is unhealthy, that can be ageing. But if you develop a healthy relationship with your work, and find purpose and mission in it, it can improve longevity. My mum and dad showed me that work can give you your get up and go. I also inherited meditation and prayer from my parents, which is a big part of their approach to longevity and managing life's stresses. They've passed me so much wisdom throughout my life, so it's great to have an opportunity to share some of my own wisdom with them and support them as they get older. Tea: 20 calories Caffeine doesn't affect me too much so I have a cup of tea with unsweetened oat milk in the evening before bed. I aim to be in bed around 10.30pm, and keep my bedroom slightly cooler by leaving my windows open. I've always been a decent sleeper but I do still track my sleep, aiming to get two hours of deep sleep a night. I won't watch TV before bed, and I keep my room a phone-free zone. I strongly believe deep sleep supports regeneration and healing and helps to balance your immune system. A lot of other good stuff happens during deep sleep, like cell and tissue repair, memory consolidation, and hormone regulation. Self-care for a doctor can be hard Living in a city like London where everyone is go, go, go all the time, you absorb people's energy and momentum. It's easy to get caught up in that to the detriment of your own health, and your goals. Getting out of that environment from time to time is super important, so I head to the coast when I can. To help regulate my nervous system in the city, learning to tolerate cold exposure has been really helpful. I have cold showers a few times a week, and three times a week at home I use a large bowl of cold water with some ice cubes in. It needs to be deep enough for me to submerge my head in, and I keep it in for about 10-20 seconds. I find this to be a really good challenge that helps to teach me to control my stress response as I come out of the cold water.
