Oliver Burkeman ‘A world with no rudeness would be one that had come to a standstill.’ Illustration: Kenneth Andersson for the Guardian. Click on picture for full frame. The notion that civility is on the decline is a perennial one. If the BBC website’s Have Your Say slot had existed in Tudor England, you can...
Patrick Barkham and Laura Barnett ‘Most doctors would prefer not to be resuscitated if they lost consciousness.’ Photograph: Tetra Images/Corbis “Would you like to die the way your patients do, doctor? We suspect that many of you will answer no,” thundered a recent editorial in the BMJ. Ken Murray’s essay has triggered a lively...
Jon Henley Roy Baumeister … One cake now, or two if you wait? Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian In the smart restaurant of a very smart hotel in the West End of London, Roy F Baumeister, eminent American social psychology professor, orders a lunch of fish and chips, and then decides not to eat the...
Katherine Baldwin We all lose around 100 hairs a day, but there are around 50 hair loss disorders that can affect men and women too. Photograph: Stockbyte/Getty Images Far from being my crowning glory, my hair has been the bane of my life. But one question has always plagued me: is my problem on...
What will be on your mind? Photograph: Brad Wilson/Getty Images In The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, a book compiled by Bronnie Ware, a palliative care nurse, she lists the most common themes of remorse of those she nursed. It was one of the most popular Shortcuts articles last week, and readers were...
Denis Campbell, health correspondent Cancer researchers claim that a reduction in the amount of salt, sugar and fat ingested would help cut rates of the disease. Photograph: Brian Jackson/Alamy Foodstuffs and drinks need to contain less sugar, salt and fat in order to help combat the growing number of people developing cancer, campaigners against...
Alok Jha, science correspondent Sugar rush: The authors propose taxing sweetened fizzy drinks and juice and putting an age limit on their purchase. Photograph: Nick Hanna/Alamy Sugar should be regulated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco because its increasing use in processed foods poses a significant danger to public health, according to...
Mark Simpson David Beckham flaunts it in a 2008 advertising campaign for Giorgio Armani. Photograph: Kevin Sam/FilmMagic.com Back in the early 90s, when Loaded magazine and footie were conquering the culture, making it untuck its shirt, admire its beer belly and leer at “babes”, I foolishly predicted the future of men was metrosexual. No...
Ruth Jamieson Need to cut down on the booze and get more sleep? Photograph: Image Source/Alamy Resolution: get more sleep App: Sleep CycleAvailable: iPhoneWillpower substitute: 10/10 Sleep Cycle will not help you go to bed earlier or sleep longer – but it will make you feel like you have. It’s an alarm clock, without...
Luisa Dillner Both health watchdog Nice and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recommend vitamin D supplements. Photograph: Alamy How could we have forgotten about vitamin D? Suddenly newspapers are reporting that one in four toddlers do not get enough and rickets is emerging again. The chief medical officer in England, Dame...
