The idea that we need less sleep as we get older is a myth, according to researchers.

A study has found that the middle aged and elderly need just as much as the young if they want to keep a clear head the next day.

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Increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish may turn back the biological clock.

Increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish – it’s well-trodden advice in the battle against heart disease. Now, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it’s a move that may also turn back the biological clock.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, found that among men with stable coronary artery disease, those with the highest blood levels of omega-3 fats had a slower rate of telomere shortening, a marker of biological age.

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A generation of Britons could be putting their health at risk by wrongly self-diagnosing a food allergy or intolerance, one of the UK’s leading experts warns.

‘Instead of having their condition medically diagnosed and treating the root cause of their symptoms, millions of people are needlessly cutting whole food groups out of their diet,’ says Dr Carina Venter, allergy specialist at the University of Portsmouth.

Up to 20 per cent of us now believe we have a food intolerance, she says, with the real figure lying somewhere between 1 and 2 per cent. ‘The health implications of limiting the diet in this way can be far worse than food allergies or intolerances themselves – and it only takes a few years of cutting food groups out to have a much longer-term impact.’

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She is known to her family and friends as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ – but her life is no fairytale.

Louisa Ball, 15, sleeps for two weeks at a time because she suffers from an incredibly rare disorder.

She misses school exams, dance lessons and even missed an entire week’s holiday away with the family as she slept the whole way through.

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Designers have come up with a running shoe for women which adapts shape to suit their hormone levels.

The trainers – available in white, gold and black – capitalise on research showing that changes in levels of oestrogen affect flexibility and the height of the foot’s arch.

When oestrogen is high, and a woman is at her most fertile, the arch drops. Later in the month, when she is menstruating, levels of the hormone are low but her arch is raised.

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Designed to flush the digestive system and fight stress, a yoga program left me energized, but not cleansed.

I should have been imagining a babbling brook or repeating my dedication to endangered leatherback turtles. Instead, as I struggled to twist my body into a position more complicated than a reef knot, all I could think about was how my internal organs were going to thank me for all the love I was giving them.

Because nothing says New Year like a detox, I spent four days last week wringing out my insides, purifying my breath and finding new energy during a “detox flow” yoga class at 889 Yonge, a yoga and wellness centre in Toronto.

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US actress Brittany Murphy died of pneumonia, a Los Angeles coroner has ruled.

Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey added that iron-deficiency anaemia and “multiple drug intoxication” were secondary factors in her death.

The drugs were all prescription medicines. More details are due in two weeks when a complete report is ready.

Murphy collapsed at her Los Angeles home and was pronounced dead in hospital on 20 December, aged 32.

The coroner ruled the death was accidental.

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Madonna and controversy have never been parted long. Once it was her body of work that sparked both criticism and praise. In these less shockable, but no less critical days, it’s her body itself that draws comment.

Last year, the 52-year-old completed a year-long world tour. She played 85 shows in 32 countries, performing with the energy of a woman two decades her junior. Her fans watched with awe; her critics with grudging envy.

And each night in the wings, one petite blonde enjoyed the show, basking in the knowledge that she was the woman who built Madonna. Or, more accurately, the woman who rebuilt her.

Tracy Anderson is the most successful celebrity trainer around. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson and Shakira are just some of her many devoted clients. But it is not a job description with which Tracy is entirely comfortable.

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