How to prevent bullying - ditch the yes or no questions

How to prevent bullying - ditch the yes or no questions

If you want to stop your child from being bullied — or better yet, prevent it in the first place — there is a very simple thing you can do: talk to your child.

We don’t so much mean talk to your child about standing up to bullies, or about letting a teacher know if they see or experience bullying, although both of those are important messages for your child to hear. We mean literally just talk to your child, so that you can better get to know him or her — and better get to know what their daily life is like.

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Insufficient sleep - the health hazards

Insufficient sleep - the health hazards

Skimping on sleep can raise the risk of many health problems and leave you prone to accidents.

Sleep experts say we should get at least seven hours of slumber each night. But as many as one in three of us routinely sleeps for less than six hours—a trend that can have serious health ramifications.

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Lower your cholesterol without drugs - this is how

Lower your cholesterol without drugs - this is how

You can begin to reduce your “bad” LDL cholesterol by making a few simple changes in your diet.

If your cholesterol is creeping upward, your doctor has probably told you that diet and exercise — the traditional cornerstones of heart health — could help to bring it down. And if you’d prefer to make just one change at a time, you might want to begin with your diet. A major 2012 analysis of several controlled trials involving hundreds of men and women found that dietary changes reduced LDL and total cholesterol while exercise alone had no effect on either. (However, adding aerobic exercise did enhance the lipid-lowering effects of a heart-healthy diet.)

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Struggling with emotional eating?

Struggling with emotional eating?

Learn to control the cycle by recognising causes and triggers.

Some people cope with difficult situations by reaching for comfort food. Chowing down on ice cream or macaroni & cheese can make everything seem like it's going to be okay. And there may be a reason why,

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Learning to think positively may extend your life

Learning to think positively may extend your life

Mounting evidence from medical studies has indicated that people who think positively have a lower risk of dying of all causes compared with others their own age who have a gloomier view of life. Over the last decade, researchers have identified practices that can help you achieve and sustain a positive attitude toward your future. Many of them are explained in the Harvard Special Health Report Positive Psychology. Here are a few suggestions:

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The impact of exam pressure on students' wellbeing - Margareta James interview with the Cambridge News

Doing well at school is a worry all youngsters have to contend with – but are schoolchildren in Cambridge more stressed than we thought?

It could be so, after it emerged children as young as 6 are now being treated for stress by professionals, with the pressure of taking school tests cited as one of the most common denominators.

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Fast running is as deadly as sitting on couch, scientists find

Fast running is as deadly as sitting on couch, scientists find

Running a few times a week at a moderate pace is the best way to improve health, say scientists, as they warn against overdoing it.

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The hazards of bad sleep — early predictors of alcohol and cannabis use

The hazards of bad sleep — early predictors of alcohol and cannabis use

Scientists have discovered a possible link between sleep habits and early substance abuse. Sleep duration and quality during late childhood seem to predict alcohol and cannabis use later.

“Treating problems with drugs and alcohol once they exist and preventing them can be challenging, and we are always looking for modifiable risk factors,” says..

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Freedom from our perfect self / The dark side of 'positive thinking'

Freedom from our perfect self / The dark side of 'positive thinking'

Over many years of working with people, it became obvious to me that in the process of ‘becoming’ we think we need to be perfect. What do I mean by this?  We become addicted to perfecting ourselves, to carving out a ‘front’ that would be admired by all around us. And this then destroys us if we are not careful.

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