The best advice for living a healthy, well-adjusted life \u2013 eat your vegetables, get a good night\u2019s sleep, politely decline when the J\u00e4gerbombs appear \u2013 never really changes. Other nuggets, such as how much protein you should be eating or how to maximise workouts, seem to change every year. But as we wonder whether we should really give sauerkraut another go, science marches on, making tiny strides towards improving our understanding of what\u2019s helpful. Here\u2019s what you might have missed in the\u00a0research this year, from the best reason to eat beetroot, to how to ruin your five-a-side performance before the game even starts. There\u2019s still time to break out the pickle juice shots before 2026 \u2026<\/p>\n
Collagen might help you jump higher<\/p>\n
Collagen\u2019s effects on your skin might be slightly overstated \u2013 a 2023 review<\/a> of more than two dozen trials concluded that supplementation has benefits for hydration and elasticity, but the effects aren\u2019t huge. However, there\u2019s another reason to take it: a\u00a016-week trial<\/a> on healthy young men, the results of which were published in July, found it can enhance muscle-tendon stiffness, which appears to improve explosive strength. Start with 10g a day: you might not look any younger on the pickleball court, but there\u2019s a chance you\u2019ll improve your Erne shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hot baths might be the next best thing to training up a mountain \u2026<\/p>\n If you want to do altitude training to improve your endurance in the UK, you\u2019re out of luck \u2013 even Ben Nevis, at 1,345 metres (4,413ft) tall, is a bit short of the 2,000 metres or so where oxygen really starts to thin. But there might be another option: a study published in May on cross-adaptation<\/a>, where the training effects from one stressor (such as heat) might carry over to another (such as altitude), put 20 well-trained adults on a high-intensity interval training programme and then dunked half of them in hot water after their sessions. After six weeks, they tested the athletes under low-oxygen conditions and found the hot-bath gang\u2019s time to exhaustion was 25% longer than the control group\u2019s. Jumping in a 42C bath after a bunch of sprint intervals probably isn\u2019t anyone\u2019s idea of a good time \u2013 and proper hydration is crucial \u2013 but if you\u2019re training for an altitude-based race, it\u2019s worth trying.<\/p>\n \u2026 and cold after training is probably bad<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve spent time on Fitstagram<\/a>, you\u2019ll have seen people jumping into everything from Alpine lakes to wheelie bins full of ice to boost post-training recovery \u2013 but evidence is mounting that it might have the opposite effect. A study published in September<\/a> found that when young athletes plunged one leg into chilly water after a resistance workout it\u00a0reduced blood flow and the delivery of amino acids \u2013 which would actually stunt, rather than promote, muscle growth.<\/p>\n Beetroot juice is good (again)<\/p>\n Remember the beetroot juice craze of 2012? It\u2019s fine if you don\u2019t: the short version is that it\u2019s a natural source of dietary nitrate, which the body converts to nitric oxide, improving blood flow and lowering the \u201coxygen cost\u201d of exercise. Top-flight athletes started taking it, and so did part-time Pelotonians \u2013 but the benefits for most people weren\u2019t huge so the fad fizzled out. Now, the purple elixir is making a comeback: in a study published in August by researchers at the University of Exeter<\/a>, taking concentrated juice \u201cshots\u201d twice a day lowered blood pressure in older adults after just two weeks. Adults in their 60s and 70s saw improvements in their oral microbiome \u2013 beneficial bacteria increased while harmful ones decreased \u2013 helping to convert nitrate to nitric oxide, which is key to healthy blood vessels. The same effect didn\u2019t seem to occur in younger volunteers, so if you aren\u2019t a fan of beetroot you can put it off until later \u2013 or try nitrate-rich alternatives such as spinach, rocket, fennel, celery and kale.<\/p>\n Exercise seems to help with internet addiction<\/p>\n We should be trying to cut down on TikTok and YouTube Shorts \u2013 a meta-analysis<\/a> published in September suggests increased use of shortform video and scrolling interfaces are associated with poorer cognition, reduced attention and more stress. Quitting is easier said than done, but physical activity might help. In a different analysis<\/a>, published in January, exercise interventions reduced internet addiction and improved the psychological symptoms of college students suffering from it. It\u2019s important to note that \u201copen\u201d motor skills \u2013 where you\u2019re forced to make quick decisions \u2013 are more effective than \u201cclosed\u201d ones, such as lifting weights or swimming laps. Time to sign up for that Brazilian jiu-jitsu class \u2026<\/p>\n Gargling with pickle juice can stop cramps<\/p>\n Sportspeople have been glugging pickle juice for a\u00a0while \u2013 the England men\u2019s football team reportedly used it<\/a> to treat cramps during Euro 2024 \u2013 but it really had a moment during this summer\u2019s French Open, with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner knocking it back during their five-set final. It\u2019s a source of electrolytes \u2013 sodium and potassium in particular \u2013 but the anti-cramp effect seems to come from the sour taste, which stimulates reflex signals that make muscles relax. The good news is that you don\u2019t even need to drink the juice for it to do the job \u2013 swilling it around in your mouth can work, with a previous study<\/a> suggesting it can take effect in 35 seconds.<\/p>\n Creatine might help your brain (or make up for\u00a0a bad night\u2019s sleep)<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s often used by bodybuilders and athletes\u00a0to let them push harder during workouts, evidence is mounting that creatine might bolster your brain. It can help cognition in older adults<\/a>, according to a study published in September, and might improve clinical outcomes<\/a> in\u00a0menopausal women, according to one out in August.<\/p>\n Sex is a mood booster \u2026 for up to two days<\/p>\n There are a few benefits to regular rolls in the hay \u2013 from better sleep<\/a> to a lowered risk of death from heart disease<\/a> \u2013 and new research suggests that it\u00a0can\u00a0also give you a mood boost that lasts for up to\u00a048\u00a0hours. A study published in January using diary data<\/a> from almost 600 volunteers found that\u00a0\u201csexual\u00a0afterglow lasted at least one day on average, particularly following partner-initiated and mutually-initiated sex\u201d, and might last up to two days.<\/p>\n Eating more fruit might protect your lungs from pollution<\/p>\n It\u2019s not ideal that 90% of the global population is exposed to air pollution levels that exceed WHO guidelines. If you\u2019re looking to offset the effects of dirty air, new research suggests that diet could offer a backup. A study out in September, using UK Biobank data<\/a> from about 200,000 people, found that a healthy diet is linked to better lung function regardless of air pollution exposure \u2013 and that women who ate four or more portions of fruit a day appeared to have smaller reductions in lung function associated with air pollution than those who ate less. \u201cThis may be partly explained by the antioxidant and anti-inflammation compounds,\u201d noted study lead Pimpika Kaewsri. \u201cThese could help mitigate oxidative stress and inflammation caused by fine particles, potentially offsetting some of the harmful effects.\u201d Write to your MP, but have an apple in the meantime.<\/p>\n Sitting for hours isn\u2019t good for your brain<\/p>\n Bad news if you\u2019re a fan of front-loading your daily exercise \u2013 staying sedentary for hours is associated with neurodegeneration as you age, even if your physical activity levels are high. Established back in 2012, the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project is a\u00a0longitudinal study investigating vascular health and brain ageing, and data collected from more than 400 of its participants<\/a>, and published in May, suggests that more sedentary time is associated with worse executive function, memory and cognitive function.<\/p>\n Going on your phone before five-a-side might\u00a0ruin your first touch \u2026<\/p>\n Doomscrolling before Monday night football might seem sensible: a bit of aggression never hurts on the pitch, so why not get angry about everything? Sadly, a study of volleyball players<\/a>, published in February, suggests otherwise: when a group of teenage athletes went on social media before training, their attack efficiency diminished, so being \u201ctoo online\u201d can actually harm concentration before a match.<\/p>\n \u2026 and being dehydrated might make you more\u00a0stressed<\/p>\n Got a few horrible days in the office coming up? It\u00a0might be time to invest in one of those big water jugs. In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology<\/a> in September, volunteers were labelled as \u201clow fluid\u201d (if they drank less than 1.5 litres of fluid per day) or \u201chigh fluid\u201d (if they regularly met the daily water intake recommendations \u2013 2 litres for women and 2.5\u00a0litres for men). Then they took the Trier Social Stress test, a way of provoking anxiety in subjects by\u00a0putting them through a mock job interview and mental arithmetic questions. The low fluid group showed a\u00a0cortisol response to stress more than 50% higher than those who met daily water intake recommendations \u2013 which could, over the long term, be harmful to health.<\/p>\n Drinking coffee helps your heart \u2013 if you do it in the morning<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t already been browbeaten into not drinking coffee after 1pm by the sleep-optimisation lobby, there\u2019s one more reason to keep your mochas for the morning: it seems to be better for heart health. Analysis of more than 40,000 adults published in January found that morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease during a 10-year follow-up period than those who went without \u2013 but there was no significant reduction in mortality for all-day drinkers compared with those who avoided coffee. There was already research<\/a> to suggest that up to three cups of coffee a day can help heart health, but it\u2019s unclear why the effect disappears for afternoon drinks \u2013 one possible explanation is that it disrupts sleep, with all of the negative effects that entails. There\u2019s also hope for people who just love the taste of an after-lunch americano: if coffee\u2019s protective effects come from anti-inflammatory compounds, as some researchers speculate, then decaf would have similar benefits \u2026 without ruining your shut-eye.<\/p>\n