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Wellness

Wellness
Latest news and features on wellness, including diet, mental health trends, exercise, fitness, medicine and diseases.
Medjool dates from Ayoub’s Dried Fruits & Nuts. Photo: Handout
Food and Drinks

Why dates are healthier than sugar – but can you tell the varieties apart?

Popular gifts at religious events like Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan), dates are now catching on outside the Muslim world, partly due to their lower glycaemic index.

How to age well

Women’s heart attack symptoms and risk factors differ from men’s. Here’s what to know

Travel news and advice

Do you feel fatigued when flying? Expert tips to avoid mid-flight slumps

Hong Kong society

Parents of Hong Kong’s ‘Girl Behind the Face’ finally share their story

Mui Thomas’s story of living with a rare skin disease has moved many. Now, her adoptive parents share why they ignored advice to ‘walk away’.

Rog and Tina Thomas pose for a picture with their daughter, Mui, whom they adopted 30 years ago, in a Facebook post from 2015. Mui was born with Harlequin ichthyosis, a rare and often fatal genetic disorder. Rog and Tina now share their story in their new book, An Unexpected Adoption: The Girl Behind The Face.
Mental health

Magnesium can help you sleep – but check the dose and how to take it

Experts advise on magnesium threonate, malate, citrate and other compounds, as well as whether you should take it as a pill, as a powder added to a drink or as a spray.

How to age well

What is the best brain training test to reduce dementia risk?

Study finds speed-based brain training better than memory or reasoning training in reducing risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.

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Video gaming

How playing Tetris can help reduce traumatic memory flashbacks: study

Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial.

A study in the UK and Sweden found that playing Tetris helped reduce the frequency and intensity of traumatic flashbacks for healthcare workers. Researchers are calling the findings “an exciting step forward”. Photo: dpa
Food and Drinks

How did cookies kickstart a community social movement for one lost Hongkonger?

How does cake bring people together? Events organiser Rachel Au of Baking Social found purpose in her passion for all things sweet.

Disease

‘I could not walk’: how exercise helped a mother manage serious knee pain

With surgery off the table, Hong Kong-based Kavita Biswas forced herself to strengthen the muscles around the knee.

Cancer

Is magnetic heating technology a new weapon in the fight against cancer?

America’s Mayo Clinic is testing Israeli technology that targets solid tumours with fast-rising heat in a process it calls hyperthermia.

Mayo Clinic radiation oncology department staff test the magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia system. Photo: newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org
Mental health

Burnout brought a CEO to breaking point. How to recognise the signs and fix it

Headhunting firm founder Oliver Rolfe became compulsively addicted to his work and felt ‘miserable, emotionally numb’ – but couldn’t stop.

Oliver Rolfe runs the London Marathon in 2025 to raise funds for the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society. The CEO and founder of headhunting firm Spartan International suffered from burnout after throwing himself into his work and had to check into a rehab facility to get his life back on track. Photo: JustGiving
What to do in Hong Kong

5 of the best things to do in Hong Kong this weekend, February 20 to 22

Enjoy music and markets in West Kowloon, take your pet to a cafe in Sheung Wan, attend a women-only workout in Quarry Bay and more.

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Disease

The apple in this picture is not red, but grey. Why your brain lies to you

The representation of reality your brain provides after processing sensory perceptions may not match the real thing, a neuroscientist says.

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Hong Kong society

Breaking the cycle: Hong Kong parents wrestle with impact of their own abuse

Experts urge cultural change to end intergenerational violence as landmark study reveals childhood trauma still shapes parenting patterns.

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A landmark study has found that over 53 per cent of adults in the city have experienced at least one of 10 types of adverse childhood experiences. Photo: Getty Images
Food and Drinks

On the Menu | What do an American reality TV show and Chinese aunties have in common?

A Chinese millennial woman talks fat and fortune as she contrasts the toxic culture of the early noughties with today’s body positivity.

Contestants from the first season of America’s Next Top Model in 2003 in Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. The reality competition, wildly popular during the noughties, often told women that they were “too big” for the runway. Photo: TNS
How to age well

Singaporean started aikido in her 60s in poor health. Now 73, she’s a black belt

The Japanese martial art helped Lily Chan get off osteoporosis medication and massively improved her overall health and mobility.

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Icons and Influencers

Meet Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s Maga girlfriend, Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto

‘GG’ lives with Brin at his Lake Tahoe mansion and attends functions at the White House – Donald Trump just called her a ‘wonderful Maga girlfriend’.

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Mental health

Q&A | A mental health expert on how you can make your New Year’s resolutions stick

If your resolutions are already faltering in February, worry not – there’s always Chinese New Year, and Hong Kong’s Sonia Samtani is here to help.

Sonia Samtani, a leading mental health professional in Hong Kong, offers advice on new year’s resolutions. Photo: Handout
Healthy eating

Want to beat your sugar cravings? How to cut down and even quit sugary foods

Kick-start your sugar-free journey with expert tips on managing cravings, mindful snacking and embracing healthier substitutes.

Food and Drinks

This TCM bar in China makes customers drinks based on its doctor’s diagnoses

Shanghai bar Niang Qing is one of many new traditional Chinese medicine bars that offer bespoke wellness to China’s stressed-out youth.

Cancer

How the cancer that killed James Van Der Beek is threatening more under-50s

No one knows what is causing the rise in colorectal cancer cases in younger adults. Here are the symptoms and who is most at risk.

Photo: @vanderkimberly/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C6U5VHXLcPw/?hl=en&img_index=1
How to age well

This Singapore-based executive lost 21kg in 9 months and cured his knee pain

Weighing 93kg was a wake-up call for Ben Payet, whose health journey fixed a knee issue that threatened to stop him running for good.

Ben Payet at his heaviest weight of 93kg in October 2024 (left) and at his current weight of 72kg, which he first achieved in July 2025. Photo: UP Singapore
How to age well

8 hot wellness trends in 2026, from women’s longevity to ‘health raves’

Here are some of the top wellness trends predicted for 2026, including a focus on women’s health, ‘neurowellness’ and reducing over-tracking.

Ageing society

Opinion | Hong Kong should see the ‘silver economy’ as a golden opportunity

The city could reframe its ageing trend by working to become a global capital for ‘longevity finance’ and supporting East-West healthcare innovations.

How to age well

Can drinking tea and coffee reduce dementia risk? Yes, according to a study

A study conducted over 43 years suggests drinking two to three daily coffees, or one to two cups of tea, for a reduced risk of dementia.

Coffee and food from Mason Pocket, Hong Kong. A new study shows that moderate tea and coffee intake may lower dementia risk. Photo: Instagram/kwanheiting
Apple

Don’t rely on Apple Watch to point out you may have high blood pressure: study

Researchers say the watch’s failure to alert nearly 60 per cent of individuals with undiagnosed hypertension creates ‘false reassurance’.

The Apple Watch fails to alert 59 per cent of people with undiagnosed high blood pressure that they possibly have hypertension, according to the company’s own data. US researchers say this could lead to missed opportunities for treatment. Photo: dpa
World of performing arts

Hong Kong Ballet and Pure Fitness join forces to offer new exercise programme

The dance and strength training crossover aims to dispel the perception of ballet as an inaccessible and elite art form.

Mental health

Want to feel happier? Watch Spirited Away or play Zelda, new study says

Studio Ghibli films and games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can boost calm, purpose and happiness, a new study suggests.

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