Lifestyle

A fifth of adults will be spending Christmas alone or with just one other person, a new study has found. Despite six in ten saying spending time with the family is one of the best things about Christmas, many will only be afforded a small celebration rather than a large get-together. The results of the study come as a report from the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission found loneliness is as harmful to health as obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Sister of...

A transgender man has given birth to a healthy baby - five years after having his first child while living as a woman. Kaci Sullivan, 30, is believed to be the first person in the world to give birth while living as both a woman and a man. He underwent a C-section following seven days in labour and welcomed Phoenix into the world four years after beginning the transition from female to male. Business student Kaci conceived with partner Steven,...

Pressure from family, friends and TV advertising is plunging Brits into debt at Christmas. The latest Disposable Income Index (DII) published today by ISA provider Scottish Friendly reveals that many British families feel pressure to create the perfect Christmas and are taking out loans or spending more on credit cards in order to buy gifts. Nearly six in ten households say they make sacrifices to buy Christmas presents and of those with children 31 per cent are relying on credit...

The fashion industry is one that is full of consumer demand, timeframes and seasonal shifts that can happen in a matter of weeks. As shoppers demand an influx of new trends and looks that they can get their hands on at the right price, the industry has forged its own way to release new clothes at exactly the time consumers want them. Fast fashion is a concept that is growing in popularity year after year, and it’s because consumers can...

Like most men, any slight illness is immediately called man flu and gives us males the opportunity to act like we are inches away form death for a few days. Most of the time, I speak for myself, I might just be a combination of lazy and tired However, there is growing evidence that man flu is real. In a special Christmas issue of the BMJ, a Canadian academic set out to discover whether males really experience worse flu symptoms...

Carol singing, sending Christmas cards and kissing under the mistletoe are among the traditions we miss most, a study found. A poll of 2,000 adults found many of us also yearn to go back to the days when going for a post-Christmas walk, making homemade mince pies and going to pantomimes were the norm. Other festive rituals we’d like to see make a comeback include making our own Christmas cake, drinking eggnog and setting the Christmas pudding alight. Those polled...

Ok, the title is weird, and the grammar is poor, but try this. Look at your friends who are in couples. Check out their heights (I’m talking hetro pairs here). How many gals are taller than the guys? That’s right! I thought so! As close to zero as you can get. The occasional one who isn’t, really stands out (think Mr Speaker in Parliament, the charming John Bercow, with his delightful missus, Sally). I’ve surreptitiously surveyed several chums that I...

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...