People

• Adults living with disability can experience a range of benefits from participating in community-based physical activities such as dance, Tai Chi and yoga, our recently published review found.
• Yet adults with disability are less physically active than those without disability, with inclusive community-based physical activities few and far between.
• This puts people with disability at increased risk of further disability.

Benefits of physical activity

• Our systematic review included 74 trials with 2,954 men and women living with mild-to-moderate physical and intellectual disability.
• All but one of these physical activities were delivered in condition-specific groups (for example, a group for people with Parkinson’s disease).
• Benefits included improvements in walking, balance and quality of life, and reductions in fatigue, depression and anxiety.

Considerations for physical recreation in the community

• Some physical recreation activities included in the review used adjustments and extra equipment to be suitable for people with disability.
• Most local community-based recreation groups should be able make simple adjustments to meet the needs of people living with mild to moderate disability.
• It may also limit the confidence of the person with disability to join a local class.

Access to services is a basic right

• Australia also has a Disability Discrimination Act (1992).
• But this seems to provide little incentive for services to take active measures to prevent disability discrimination.

The commission’s final report recommended strengthening laws to protect people with disability, prevent discrimination, and build a more inclusive society. Momentum and expectation is growing in Australian society for better inclusion for people living with disability.

So what can we do for better physical activity inclusion?

• First, more physical activity options suitable for people with disability are needed in the community.
• People with disability will then be able to choose an activity that suits their needs and preference.
• Second, community-based physical activities need to enable the person with disability to access the setting safely and have equipment suitable to use.

• Anne Tiedemann has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.
• Cathie Sherrington has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.

• This is even more true for luxury brands as their logos are some of the most recognised symbols globally.
• So, luxury brands should prominently display their logo, shouldn’t they?
• This trend refers to a more low-key approach to luxury where people favour subtlety and quality over prominent brand display.

• The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
• But the luxury market has been undergoing change for some years, partly as millennials and gen-Z become the main customers of luxury brands.
• These consumers demand that luxury brands are more sustainable and inclusive, contributing to the resurgence of quiet luxury.
• But what is the right strategy for luxury brands when it comes to displaying their logos?

Prominent brand display

• We found that prominent logo display discourages consumers both from buying items from luxury brands and from sharing images of these luxury items on social media.
• They also thought that prominent logo display reduced exclusivity, glamour and the brand’s sophistication.
• Our results show that UK customers’ perceptions of authenticity and coolness reduced by more than 10% when a luxury brand decided to use prominent logos.

The quiet luxury revolution

• Experts suggest that the quiet luxury trend is almost always connected with financial crises.
• The global financial crisis of 2007/2008, for example, led to a shift towards understated luxury in the fashion industry.
• As people struggle to make ends meet during the current cost-of-living crisis, quiet luxury is re-emerging on the scene.

The brand prominence dilemma

• Greater brand prominence is preferred by wealthy newcomers to the upper class, who are known as “parvenus”.
• People who are not rich but want to climb the social ladder (“poseurs”) also opt for more prominent brand displays.
• Their carefully crafted image of a luxury brand may otherwise suffer.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Thankfully, with the right preventative and protective measures, the human body can survive these icy temperatures.
• Here’s what you need to know about identifying and treating the most common cold injury: frostbite.
• However, despite our bodies’ inherent temperature controls, without the right protection, we might still be vulnerable to cold weather injuries.

• For frostbite to occur, exposed body parts need to be subjected to a temperature that is below minus 0.55°C.
• At this temperature it will take several hours for exposed skin to become frostbitten.
• For example, temperatures in the -20s can cause frostbite on exposed skin in under 30 minutes.

Who does it affect?

• However, with the global population beginning to live in harsher environments and an increase in winter and snow sports, this is likely to increase in the general population.
• Reduced ability to sense the cold also increases the frostbite vulnerability of those who’ve had a stroke or have peripheral nerve damage.
• The consumption of alcohol also reduces blood pressure, which may also reduce the amount of blood pumped to extremities.

Symptoms

• Preserving the core body temperature is key to keeping the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs functioning and preventing hypothermia.
• This cooling brings about tingling and numbness of the exposed areas, and skin flushes red or white as the body frantically tries to rewarm itself.
• This initial stage is known as frostnip, and, although uncomfortable, leaves no permanent damage to tissues.

Treatment and prevention

• For frostbite, immediate medical treatment should be sought – sadly the pain of recovery is often far worse than the injury.
• Rewarming is the process of bringing the affected parts back to functioning body temperature.
• However, where ice crystals have damaged tissue, blisters are common and the nerves become hypersensitive, causing excruciating pain.

Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Ultra-processed foods, in short, are commercially manufactured food products that include ingredients you wouldn’t cook with at home.
• Some of this processing makes foods more palatable, some increases shelf life and makes them more affordable – such as wholemeal supermarket bread, for example.
• A fair number of ultra-processed foods will have some of these unfavourable nutritional profiles – but many don’t.

Myths scrutinised

• Nor is there strong evidence that whether a food is ultra-processed or not is what determines how it may affect your health.
• Many studies have shown that people whose diets are high in ultra-processed foods have poorer health compared to those whose diets contain fewer ultra-processed foods.
• However, research suggests that it’s some specific types of ultra-processed foods foods that are linked to worse health in studies that examine this, rather than all ultra-processed foods.

• The study looked at whether ultra-processed food consumption was associated with developing cancer.
• We also know that people from poorer backgrounds or who have worse mental health often eat more ultra-processed food.
• Perhaps in the future, convincing evidence might show that some specific types of food processing can cause severe health problems.
• But until then, sensationalist messages and misleading claims about ultra-processed food are very real problems.

I receive research funding from the ESRC, NIHR and ERC. During 2014-2016, I was a named investigator on projects funded by Unilever and the American Beverage Association. I do not receive any funding, financial awards or fees from the food industry.