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The UK spends most of the year wishing for warmer weather, then a heatwave arrives and we remember we're not particularly good at dealing with it. This summer has brought heatwave after heatwave, with England recording its hottest June on record and temperatures climbing above 35°C. During the day, it's easy to see why people love it. Lunch breaks get longer, everyone finds an excuse to sit outside, the evening stretches on, and people generally seem to be in a better mood. But the nights?

For most of human history, nobody thought too hard about whole milk. It was just something that we’ve been consuming for thousands of years, nourishing our bodies with its healthy fats and protein content. Only in the last few decades did the message around milk’s benefits begin to change. Semi-skimmed and skimmed milk became the default in many households while saturated fat and full-fat dairy became things to limit.

This piece originally appeared in The Source: The Anti-Optimisation Issue, Healf's print magazine. You can sense a shift in the way people talk — and obsess — about it. The questions filling TikTok feeds, doctors’ appointments, and dinner tables all point in the same direction: how to sleep better, deeper, longer, more efficiently.

While 37°C has long been the go-to figure for "normal" human body temperature (we can thank German physician Carl Wunderlich for that, who measured armpit temperatures across 25,000 people in the mid-1800s and identified the average result) research is now showing that a normal baseline actually runs slightly lower than that. In reality, the ideal human body temperature isn’t a single fixed number, but a range that spans between 36.1°C and 37.2°C.

Changes to your menstrual cycle don't always begin with a hormonal imbalance. Nutritional deficiencies can shape it too, though not always how you'd expect. Heavy periods can slowly drain iron stores, and eating too little to fuel training can stop ovulation even when someone looks perfectly healthy from the outside.

Recently, joint supplements have become one of the biggest categories in wellbeing, but they're also one of the easiest places to spend money without seeing much in return. Why? They certainly work, but they may be acting on the wrong issue. Aching knees after years of running, stiffness caused by osteoarthritis, and pain linked to inflammatory conditions can all feel remarkably similar, while responding very differently to supplementation. Current research reflects that complexity.

Nothing signals the end of a long day like the satisfying sound of a cold drink hitting the bottom of a glass. But with studies finding that alcohol, even in small amounts, isn't always what's best for health and wellbeing, and an expanding sober-curious crowd, the drinks market is booming with alternative ways to curb that five o'clock craving. And it’s not just about avoiding a fuzzy head the next day either.

Decades ago, science fiction movies like Star Trek and futuristic shows like The Jetsons predicted it: a world where strange machines and intelligent pills could peek inside your body to tell you what was really going on. Just over a half-century later, countless biotech startups have made those sci-fi gadgets a reality, spending endless amounts of money and resources to create "smart" tools that could read the language of our internal worlds.

The quality of the air inside our homes is often overlooked, but when we really think about it, from sleeping to working, cooking, helping kids with their homework, and lazy mornings, we actually spend a huge percentage of our lives indoors. It makes sense, then, that we’d want our home environment to be as clean – and friendly to our health – as possible. When we consider that the air we breathe plays a big factor in our wellbeing, it becomes doubly important.

Get personalised recommendations based on you What's your focus with Recharge Electrolytes - Variety Pack? 10% off subsequent orders Free delivery on subscriptions In stock. Next day delivery available. Healf Zone members get free next day delivery on all orders. Get personalised advice on whether this product is right for you Key Benefits Contains magnesium, which plays a role in normal muscle and psychological function. Contributes to electrolyte balance. Helps reduce tiredness and fatigue.