Health

A mum-of-two says she GAINED weight using a fitness tracker - but has now lost eight stone after ditching it. Fiona Benbow, 39, rewarded herself with huge sugary cakes and family-sized choc bars if the FitBit told her she had burned lots of calories. And in just a month her weight went up a stone to 19 and a half stone and her waistline expanded from a size 20 to 22. Fed-up Fiona stopped using the device and turned to...

A mum-of-three pretended to have CANCER to con her husband's family out of almost £50,000, a court heard. Claire Bain, 36, even made relatives take her to fake chemotherapy appointments. She stole most of the money from her father-in-law over a four-year period after she 'cruelly abused' trust he had placed in her while he was grieving for his own wife, who had died from cancer. Bain even made her husband and father-in-law take her to the Christie cancer treatment...

A charity backed by Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has staged a colourful tribute to the 800 children whose lives are lost across the globe every day due to dirty water and poor sanitation. Eight hundred buckets were placed alongside the River Thames to raise awareness of the one in nine kids around the world who don't have clean water. Each empty bucket in the display would hold almost enough safe drinking water to last a child an entire week....

Smoking pot can almost triple a teenager's risk of suffering depression, according to new research. A study of more than 3,000 teenagers found those who used cannabis were much more likely to suffer bipolar disorder by the time they reached adulthood. It found marijuana caused a condition known as 'hypomania' - periods of elated mood, overactive and excited behaviour and reduced need for sleep. These are telltale symptoms often experienced as part of severe depression - and have a serious...

As a leading cancer charity, working with us brings many business benefits including employee engagement and retention, mentoring opportunities and improved cancer awareness for employees. Many businesses are attracted to Macmillan because of the wide-ranging support we can offer their workforce through the challenges cancer can bring. We have decades of expertise in helping people living with cancer, and are an invaluable resource for employers who want to improve the support for their staff. As one in two people will...

Scientists have made the world's first 'healthy' alcoholic drink from tofu whey. The team used the tofu byproduct, which is often discarded, to create new drink Sachi, and have enriched it with healthy antioxidants isoflavones. Researchers took three months to concoct the brew, which began by making fresh soya milk from soybeans. The team at the National University of Singapore (NUS) then turned the milk into the tofu, collecting the whey, to which they added sugar, acid and yeast and...

Motivation can be hard at the best of times. In the darkest depths of winter, it can seem nigh on impossible. Here’s our guide to making it through to spring in great shape. Shorten your workouts This may seem counter-intuitive, but it could mean the difference between soldiering on through the spring or stopping altogether. Imagine yourself about to head out into the dark and the rain, now tell yourself you’ll be back in twenty minutes. Accomplishing the twenty-minute mark...

Garlic could ward off hospital superbugs, a new study revealed. Ajoene, an active sulphurous compound found in the pungent vegetable, when combined with antibiotics helps break down a bacteria's defences. Scientists hope the breakthrough could fight incurable cystic fibrosis and chronic wounds in diabetics as well as tackling MRSA and common hospital infection P. aeruginosa. University of Copenhagen researchers found ajoene destroys the biofilm of resistant bacteria and make antibiotics work again. It does not kill the bacteria but disrupts...

A man who suffered a stroke so severe he almost lost his ability to speak has won a prize after he turned to photography to help him recover. Richard Raynor, 36, was even able to give a speech at his wedding with the help of slides he had taken. The former business consultant from Chilton, Oxon., developed aphasia - a communication difficulty with speaking, reading and writing - after his stroke in 2012. His sensational snaps have now won him...