HEALTH

The fabled Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of frailty in old age, according to research.

The diet has previously shown a number of health benefits and an extensive research review has now added quality of life in old age to the list.

Researchers at University College London assessed four published studies on the subject including 5,789 people from France, Spain, Italy and China.

Lead author Kate Walters said: “People who followed a Mediterranean diet the most were overall less than half as likely to become frail over a nearly four-year period compared with those who followed it the least.”

When babies crawl they kick up a dust storm of dirt, skin cells, bacteria, pollen and spores which they breathe in, inhaling four times as much as an adult would, a study has found.

Experts say it is not necessarily a bad thing as it could help infants build up defences against asthma and allergies.

Brandon Boor of Purdue University in Indiana said: “Many studies have shown that inhalation exposure to microbes and allergencarrying particles in that portion of life plays a significant role in both the development of and protection from asthma and allergic diseases.”

Loud music has been listed as the most annoying “neighbourhood noise” according to a sound test.

Brits lose an estimated 84 million hours a week due to noisy neighbours, and bassdriven music came top of the annoyance list at 43%.

This was followed by couples arguing at 34%, and drilling at 29%. Men are more annoyed by human noise, including babies crying (25% compared to 19%) and children arguing (24% compared to 17%) than women.

MARTIN BAGOT is the Mirror’s Health Correspondent