Low blood sugar is known medically as hypoglycaemia, and commonly referred to as “a hypo”. This is when the level of glucose in your blood drops below the normal range. It can be a condition in people with diabetes, especially if you take insulin, but it can be related to medication and other medical conditions. Healthy blood glucose is somewhere in the range of 4 to 7 mmol/l before a meal. You get hypoglycaemia if your blood glucose goes below 4mmol/l. It's the higher risk the lower it goes, and the longer it goes on. If you are diagnosed as diabetic and either taking insulin or at risk of hypo's, either your doctor will provide you with a blood glucose monitor machine or sensor patch or you can buy one, to keep an eye on your levels.

Your thyroid gland is a small gland in the front of your neck. It's a chain reaction, where your brain releases a hormone, which prompts the thyroid gland to release a hormone (called thyroid-stimulating hormone or TSH), which then produces thyroxine, also called free T4. This is the active biochemical. Hypothyroidism means that your thyroid gland is underactive, or not making enough thyroid hormone. You get symptoms of a slowed metabolism, which affects how you use and store energy. This can affect the body in many ways: gain weight feel cold all the time feel tired sluggish need to sleep more dry skin hair loss slower in your thinking less able to concentrate feel a bit depressed have a slower or weaker pulse. Hypothyroidism is ten times more common in women than in men and in the UK about 1 in 100 of people have it. It is most common in adult women and becomes more common with increasing age but it can occur at any age and can affect anyone. Fortunately, it is easily fixed once it’s been identified and treatment started, although it can take a month or two for this to take full effect.

It’s easy to get confused between an intolerance to lactose, a component of cow’s milk, and an allergy to milk. Both are very common, but each has a different body response, and therefore needs a different approach to treatment. We’ll take you through the key differences, so you know the signs to spot if you or someone you know shows symptoms and will give you advice on what to do.

It’s common to experience a lack of appetite at various points in life, and this often leads to shedding a few pounds. Times of extreme emotional stress or bereavement, or illnesses such as flu or gastroenteritis are common prompts. But it can cause alarm if you can’t see a reason for it and it can be distressing to feel clothes becoming baggy or people commenting. Worries can be parked in two camps: firstly, how much weight you’ve lost and the risk of malnutrition, and secondly, whether there is any serious medical condition causing the weight loss.

Metabolic syndrome is the term used to describe a cluster of common medical problems including insulin resistance, abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, raised levels of blood triglyceride fats and low HDL-cholesterol levels. These can significantly raise your chance of developing heart disease, early age heart attacks, strokes and serious and life-threatening conditions. It is believed that if you have a combination of three or more of these conditions, then you have metabolic syndrome. This combination is very common, affecting around 25% of UK adults and up to 50% of adults globally. It may also occur in children and young adults who are obese, and that figure is growing as obesity becomes more common. In this article we look at what causes metabolic syndrome, how it is diagnosed, and what you can do to reduce your risk. What is metabolic syndrome? The term ‘metabolic syndrome’ has been used by doctors since the late 1980s, and the combination of conditions linked to it is used to identify people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It refers to specific conditions linked to obesity - particularly around the waist - and some which disturb the processes by which our bodies get energy. These include: Obesity, defined as a waistline of at least 89 centimetres (35 inches) for women and 102 centimetres (40 inches) for men High blood pressure, defined as higher than 130/85 Insulin resistance , diagnosed on a blood test where HbA1c is higher than 48 mmol/mol (or 6.5%) High cholesterol, as defined by high triglycerides and low HDL levels However, a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome does not take into account other factors such as age, smoking, gender and family history. Despite this, it is still felt by most healthcare professionals that it is a useful term as it can help to advise people who fit its criteria as to ways of preventing or reducing their longer term health risks associated with it.

Losing weight can be extremely challenging for some people. Even with a change in diet and increased exercise, they may still struggle to lose it. In scenarios like this, weight loss medication could be the answer. Different prescription weight loss drugs are available, but you may be wondering how effective they actually are and which one is right for you. In this guide, we explore your options with weight loss mediation.