Clare Balding has revealed her secret to staying physically fit during her gruelling Olympic broadcasting schedule – walking
Clare Balding has revealed her secret to staying mentally and physically fit enough to cope with her gruelling broadcasting schedule during the Olympics – she went for long walks.
The sports presenter who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2009 and had two throat operations and further treatment, says her daily walk is the key to staying healthy.
Clare, 45, explains: ‘I walk to keep fit. I am a rambler. I go out for big walks. My record is 19 miles in a day.
‘Every day at the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, I walked before I worked in the evenings and I did that in Rio as well when it wasn’t too hot.’
Clare fronts the Radio 4 show Ramblings, where she joins notable people for a country walk.
Her book Walking Home: My Family And Other Ramblings focused on her love of the great outdoors, and she has just released a children’s book, The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop.
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Colours brought into focus
A new invention may bring colour into the life of the 2.7 million Britons who are unable to tell red from green.
Colour blindness is more prevalent in men than women, with one in 12 suffering in some way – the most common being problems with red and green differentiation.
Using specialised lenses, the new Encroma glasses (pictured) correct red/green colour blindness by filtering out sharp wavelengths of light to enhance specific colours
Using specialised lenses, the new Encroma glasses, below, correct red/green colour blindness by filtering out sharp wavelengths of light to enhance specific colours.
Wearers have reported being able to see the colours for the first time in their lives. The glasses, which can be fitted with a wide variety of lenses, start at £269 for adult sizes and £207 for children, plus shipping.
lenchroma.com
Wearing splints could be an effective way to combat osteoarthritis of the thumb. New research has found that the pain levels of sufferers who wore a splint on their problem thumb were seven times lower than those of sufferers who did did not wear a splint.
Arthritis of the base of the thumb, known as carpometacarpal (CMC) osteoarthritis, can cause lasting pain, work disability and reduction in quality of life, with some sufferers finding it impossible to even open a screw-top jar.
The study, published in Prosthetics And Orthotics International, showed that the average pain reduction after four months of wearing a splint was 20 per cent, compared to three per cent in a control group. More than 300 people are now being recruited for a trial by the University of Southampton.
Autistic? Try Shakespeare
Shakespeare can help autistic children improve their social and communication skills, a new US study has found.
Performing Shakespeare can help autistic children improve their social and communication skills, a new study has found
Researchers at Ohio State University invited 14 children with autism to take part in a playful performance exercise based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
The children had to act out lines of dialogue in rhythm, complete with dramatic facial expressions, while patting a heartbeat pattern on their chests, an intervention called the Hunter Heartbeat Method, developed by British theatre and television actress Kelly Hunter.
Following one hour-long session a week after school for ten weeks, there was improvement in the children’s recognition of facial expressions and language skills.
The study, published in the journal Research And Practice In Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, also found that the children became more experienced at taking turns and talking in front of people.
Eight in ten Britons believe that skinny people can’t have high cholesterol, a study has found. Just over 80 per cent of respondents to a survey said cholesterol was nothing to worry about if you were not overweight.
The survey, carried out by pharmaceutical company Sanofi to raise awareness of cholesterol during National Cholesterol Month 2016, highlights a lack of public knowledge of what it is and the potential effects of high levels.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance made in the liver which can also be found in foods. When cholesterol enters the bloodstream, it combines with a protein to create either high-density lipoprotein (HDL), known as ‘good cholesterol’, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), ‘bad cholesterol’.
High levels of LDL increase the risk of heart disease, and it can affect people of all shapes and sizes. While it is more common among older people to have high levels of bad cholesterol, a person can be affected at any age, but 75 per cent of those polled said they thought cholesterol was only an issue in later years.