Month: March 2025

This is one test you can do from the comfort of your own home, but since you’ll need some equipment to do it you may be better off heading down the gym for it.

Nutrition expert Ed Jones has claimed that if you want to be sure of a longer life then you need to be in a physically good condition and have a strong body.

He claims that what you really need is a ‘grip strength’ test and to do it you’ll need to find a dumbbell that’s three-quarters your own body weight.

The average British man is about 85kg and the average British woman around 72kg, so for the average bloke you’d need to be holding just under 65kg and women would need 54kg, and apparently all you need to do is demonstrate your grip strength by holding it for a minute.

Discussing this mortality test, which he says he learned from longevity medicine man Dr Peter Attia, Jones explained that his fellow nutrition expert believes that a strong body is a long-lasting one – so a weaker person would be more at risk of early mortality.

Speaking on the Nutrition World Podcast, the health expert revealed that there is a simple test which ‘doctors never ask about’ that could suggest you’re en route to an early grave, which he dubbed ‘grip strength’.

He explained: “If you can’t hold a dumbbell that’s 3/4ths of your weight for one minute, you will die earlier than you would if you were stronger. That beats cholesterol, it beats every blood test.

“How many health professionals have asked you that? None, none.”

He claimed your grip strength is a ‘marker for how everything else will weaken’.

“If you can do this with the right weights, everything else is stronger. The stronger and resilient body ages slower and has less disease.”

Those who are unable to do so might want to work on building some strength up to turn the tables, he explained.

Plenty of studies back up this idea, as those who tend to be stronger are at lower risk of deadly diseases as well as cardiovascular and respiratory issues.

If you don’t have massive dumbbells lying around your house and lack a gym membership then you might be interested in a different test you can do from home.

For this one you simply sit cross-legged on the floor and stand up, giving yourself a score of 10 and knocking off a point each time you needed something other than your core muscles and legs to lift yourself.

But what about the case of someone who ‘never existed’ at all?

This is exactly what happened in Sligo, Ireland, in what is now widely known as the Peter Bergmann case.

A man’s body was found on a Sligo beach days after he checked into the Sligo City Hotel on 12 June 2009, where he stayed most of the time throughout his visit to town.

While much of his movements and whereabouts were caught on CCTV, the reason for his visit still remains unknown by authorities.

The man checked in with the fake name ‘Peter Bergmann’, paid with cash and carried a worn-out bag, while providing an Austrian address as his home: ‘Ainstettersn 15, 4472, Vienna, Austria’.

Standing at a slender 5ft 10in build with short grey hair, blue eyes and a slight tan, it was believed that he was in his late 50s or early 60s.

Staff at the hotel noted that he spoke with a thick German accent.

He had made his way from Ulster, with no record of entry into Ireland, and it was assumed from his appearance that he was a professional worker and was seen smoking frequently in surveillance footage.

For the following three days, he could be seen leaving the hotel with a purple plastic bag full of items, and every time he returned, it was empty.

Authorities never worked out he threw away, as he discarded it in blind spots of the CCTV cameras. It was noted that his movements appeared calculated, and almost planned.

Bergmann was also seen buying eight international stamps from the post office with air mail stickers, and the next day, he asked a taxi driver for a nice quiet beach location where he could swim.

He suggested Rosses Point, before driving him there. The same driver returned and dropped him off at the bus station in the town.

On 15 June, Bergmann checked out of the hotel at around 1pm, still without an ID or passport.

The peculiar case didn’t end there though as he headed back to the bus station with a black shoulder bag, a purple plastic bag, and a different black luggage bag, with no trace of the bag he had when he arrived.

At a cafe, he could be seen with a coffee and a sandwich, writing something on a piece of paper before staring at it for a few minutes and then tearing it up and throwing it away.

In the afternoon, Bergmann headed back to Rosses Point Beach, where reports said he was seen by 16 people as he stood on the beach, fully dressed, with his shoes in hand.

He was spotted at 10:50pm, still pacing, and even had a brief encounter with a local on the beach, who said hello to him.

But on the morning of 16 June, his body was discovered at the beach by a father and son, with his clothes found on the shore nearby, as he was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear.

Following a five-month investigation, the Gardaí could not identify him or find any leads.

A post-mortem took place and revealed that he was in poor health.

In fact, it revealed that he had advanced stages of prostate cancer and bone tumours, while his heart had signs of previous ischaemic heart disease – despite all of these conditions, there was no trace of medication in his system.

The official cause of death was determined to be acute cardiac arrest, as there was no water in his lungs, with no signs of struggle or injury.

It is thought that his heart failed just moments before he went into the sea.

16 years on from the incident, the man is still unidentified, with no relatives or friends coming forward. Authorities also made public appeals in Austrian and German publications in an attempt to find out who he really was.

Kendra was once one of Hugh’s many girlfriends, and started dating the Playboy founder when she was just 18 years old.

At one point, Hugh was thought to have seven girlfriends all living with him at the infamous Playboy Mansion — one being Kendra.

She first moved into the Mansion in 2004, and is thought to have stayed there for around five years.

Not long after she left, Kendra wed football player Hank Baskett, whom she divorced in 2019.

Last year, it was revealed that the 39-year-old has been celibate since her split from her husband.

More recently, Kendra admitted that her therapists suggested that she might have a ‘sex problem’.

Chatting to Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on their podcast, the mum-of-two said: “Look, I struggle still to this day with my relationships and my views on sex.

“I had to go through a lot of therapy, and they looked at me and they’re like — this is the first time I’m admitting this — but they’re like, ‘You might have a little bit of a sex problem. You have a little bit of a problem when it comes to thinking of sex’.”

Kendra also discussed how it impacted her dating Hugh when she was still a teenager.

When asked how dating the late American magazine publisher may have shaped her relationships that followed, she shared that she had ‘unhealthy thoughts’.

Kendra went on to explain: “Not really settling for a marriage and stuff like that — which is not, I wouldn’t say unhealthy — I’m saying that everyone has their choices, and some people wanna be single, some people wanna be married… and I’m more of a fun idea type of person.”

While Kendra implied that she wasn’t really a marriage person, she did tell Amy and T.J. that she’d potentially remarry her ex-husband Hank in a bid to bring their family back together.

The former celebrity couple share two kids together.

“I will always want my family back together,” she shared. “I will always want that, so, until the day I die, I don’t know if I have another chance at marriage with that man or not.”

“I will always want my kids to have these two parents together,” Kendra added.

When Amy alluded that Kendra may still be in love with Hank, the ex Playmate said: “Love will never go away.”

They say comparison is the thief of joy but I think we’re all guilty of watching influencers and their shiny everyday lives and wondering why on earth our morning routine doesn’t involve cold plunges and extensive skincare routines.

But one fitness fanatic has seemingly taken his routine to the next level, getting up six hours before he clocks in to work. Frankly, you should only be setting your alarm for 4.00am if you’re going to the airport, but each to their own.

Social media user Ashton Hall is known for sharing aspects of his lifestyle and everyday life with his followers, boasting over 2.93 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.

The video raked in millions of views, and saw him put us all to shame by rolling out of bed at 3.50am and into some push-ups on his balcony just 10 minutes later.

I’m shattered just thinking about that, to be honest.

Hall’s near six-hour routine also featured an intense run at the gym, followed by a swim and shower, with some time for meditation in there too for good measure.

The creator can also be seen dunking his face in a bowl of ice-filled water before heading to the gym and for a swim, and one more time before tuning in to a work call.

But what confused viewers the most wasn’t the fact that he was up before 4.00am or that he was pumping push-ups mere minutes later – instead, it was the time stamps on the video, which some said simply didn’t seem to add up.

According to the video, at 7.36am, it’s time for Hall to take a plunge in the pool for his morning swim, but his dive appears to take him four minutes to complete as it’s 7.40am by the time he hits the water.

Eagled-eyed viewers also noticed it took him an entire minute to walk through the door to his balcony ready for his push-ups, as the time stamp jumped up to 4.01am as he made it out.

“I’m still trying to figure out how it took him a whole 1 minute to go from one side of the patio door to the other,” joked one viewer.

Finally, some viewers pointed out that the influencer was reading his book for less than a minute as he picked it up at 5.30am and was filmed putting it back and leaving the table before the clock struck 5.31am.

Now, there’s every chance the bloke is just trying to cram it all in and whizz through his morning tasks before work – or some of the time stamps could have been a simple editing error as he spliced the clips together.

Either-way, despite the backlash, Hall seems to be having the last laugh as he announced that he hit a billion views in 30 days on YouTube, and that his Instagram following had surged to eight million.

New York City, Washington, Las Vegas, Disneyland… There are many reasons why someone might want to visit the US this summer.

But Brits are now being warned to get clued up about the ‘strict’ entry requirements that come with a trip to the States amid Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

The 78-year-old has wasted no time in getting to work since his inauguration in January, making plenty of controversial calls from dismantling the Department of Education to signing an executive order to end the use of federal taxpayer dollars to ‘fund or promote elective abortion’.

However, one of the president’s most controversial actions has come in the form of his clamp down on immigration, with 238 alleged ‘illegal aliens’ deported to El Salvador recently, where they will spend time in a prison renowned as one of the world’s worst.

Trump’s new rules were imposed on British backpacker Becky Burke, who spent time in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing centre in Washington along with 110 others after being denied entry into Canada at the border.

And unsurprisingly, the UK government has now issued more up-to-date advice to ensure that other British citizens won’t face similar punishments should they make the trip to the States.

What is the current travel advice for those travelling from the UK to the US?

British citizens are urged to ensure they have the correct documentation and to adhere to all visa conditions when entering the country, which includes obtaining either an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) or a visa.

The updated guidance from the GOV.UK website reads as follows: “You should comply with all entry, visa and other conditions of entry. The authorities in the U.S. set and enforce entry rules strictly. You may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”

Your passport must also be valid until the end of your stay and to enter or transit through the US.

The site also adds: “Visa appointments at the US Embassy in London are limited. Plan your application as far ahead as possible before travel.”

For people with dual citizenship, ‘US law requires US citizens to enter and exit the US using a US passport’.

While the US isn’t actively urging British tourists to stay away in the same way that some locals in Mallorca are because of our boozy habits, the punishment for travelling in the US without proper documentation is far worse than having one too many beers in Barcelona.

So maybe think twice before you book that romantic trip to Rhode Island and make sure everything is in order when you take to the skies.

LOL: Last One Laughing is a show that has been done in a lot of other countries around the world already, including Germany, Brazil, Canada and Ireland – but it’s finally landed in the UK.

Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the premise of the show is to bring together 10 of the country’s best comedians and trap them in a room together, with one goal: to try and make each other laugh, without bursting into laughter themselves.

It results in a number of hilarious attempts from the celebs, who get more and more desperate to get a giggle out of their counterparts.

But in episode three of the Prime Video series, comedian Harriet Kemsley is instructed to ‘go to the locker room and play her joke’ by Carr.

With each contestant preparing an act of some sort, Kemsley comes out in a trench coat with an oversized fireman suit underneath, joking ‘there’s a fire in my pants, and for once, it’s not the c**p’, as she jokingly strips.

Carr watches on from a different room with a number of other recognisable comedians, such as Joe Wilkinson and Joe Lycett, bursting into laughter.

Underneath the fireman suit is a police costume though, followed by a dress.

Kemsley sports a backwards cap throughout, and even takes off multiple pairs of underwear in an attempt to get her contestants to crack.

It’s fair to say she comes close with some, though Richard Ayoade expectedly remained straight-faced.

After taking off her tights and then peeling a plaster off her arm (for some reason) and dropping it, she takes a seat on stage for her finale.

Honestly, nobody could have expected what was to come next.

Kemsley sits down, holds something in her crotch area and looks to push down on it, resulting in a machine shooting out ping pong balls from what looks like her, err, private area.

The contestants were left wide eyed and shocked by the move, while Carr was in bits.

She then invited some of them to come up and hit some of the balls with a ping pong paddle.

Judi Love then dropped what might be one of the funniest lines we’ve heard on TV after Bob Mortimer hit her with one of her balls.

“I mean, your p***y ball just hit me on my shoulder,” she pointed out, adding: “How did the show get to this stage?”

In a talking head, Rob Beckett said it was ‘tough’ when the balls started coming out, and that Love’s comments ‘didn’t help’, as he was fighting back a grin.

Surprisingly though, despite some noises from Kemsley without breaking, they all saw the act out without laughing, with ‘p***y balls’ all over the floor.

The actor, 44, posted a picture of himself on Instagram where he showed what he looks like at the moment compared to how he was for a pair of films he worked on.

“We back up! lol,” Tatum said as he put a picture of himself looking in fine physical form, followed by one where he was noticeably larger and then a third image where he was clearly quite a bit skinnier.

“1st photo is today 205. 2nd photo 235 for a movie called Josephine. Then went to 3rd photo which is 172 for a movie Roofman.

“I’m so grateful for my genetics. Grateful for my chef/nutritionist/witch. Grateful for my trainer.

“I couldn’t make these big swings in my weight without you guys. But I won’t be doing anymore fat roles haha. It’s to hard on the body and to hard to take off now.

“But damn when I look at these pics it’s just wild what the human body and will can do.”

The movies Josephine and Roofman are both currently in post-production so Tatum has finished his filming on the projects and it seems clear he’s not interested in doing more body transformations.

While the changes to his physique are certainly impressive as he’s been able to shift between 172lbs (78kg) to 235lbs (106kg) for roles and then settle on something in the middle at 205lbs (93kg), this type of transformation isn’t healthy.

He’s not the only actor to say they’re done with the body transformations either.

Christian Bale, who rather famously became skinny as f**k for The Machinist then got ripped for Batman Begins and later in his career piled on the pounds to play Dick Cheney in Vice, has made it clear it’s not a great idea.

Bale said he was done with the body transformation as he didn’t want ‘to die’ after dropping the Vice weight so he could fit into the cars for Ford v Ferrari.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 star Will Poulter said that getting into shape for his role as the superhero Adam Warlock meant ‘a lot of gym work and a very, very specific diet’.

He added that getting into shape for a role also meant eating ‘quantities of food you wouldn’t necessarily want to ingest, and other times not enough food’.

To do the body transformation means a big change in diet and lifestyle, and back in 2022 Tatum himself told The Kelly Clarkson Show that the older he’s got the harder it has been to lose weight, saying that it used to ‘fluctuate’ pretty easily but ‘now, I can’t get it off as easy’.

At the end of the day, the most important thing for Tatum has got to be putting his own health and body first.

Nikki, a TikToker and content creator, has an account with her husband, Marty, where they share aspects of their family life with followers.

But in a video uploaded on 1 February, the mother-of-two revealed that she had experienced a heart attack, after dismissing initial signs before it happened.

The 46-year-old believed it was perimenopause at worst, but the medical emergency took place around a week after she started feeling the symptoms.

In a viral video that has garnered over 7.7 million views, the Houston native – who had no prior health conditions – said it all began with a sore left shoulder.

Nikki explained: “It felt like I was sleeping on it wrong. I thought it was possibly a frozen shoulder from perimenopause.

“Then the day before I had my heart attack, I woke up in the morning and my shoulder was sore again. I felt like I was going to throw up.”

In just 15 minutes, she was over the nauseous feeling and she thought nothing of it – until it returned on the day of her emergency.

Believing it was the same thing, she made a coffee and sat down, only to feel her chest tighten, and pain start to shoot down from her shoulder down to her arm – an obvious sign of cardiac arrest.

“At that point, I held my husband up and told him ‘Don’t go to work yet, I’m really not feeling that well. I’m going to jump in the shower and see if that helps me feel better’,” Nikki explained.

The mum recalled that she felt better and had a doctor’s appointment for an unrelated issue that morning anyway so told them what had happened.

The doctor told her to go straight to the emergency room if it happened again, and not in that moment as she ‘wasn’t experiencing any symptoms and they probably weren’t going to be able to see what was going on’.

But then, within an hour of leaving, Nikki said ‘the feelings started all over again’.

The 46-year-old explained: “The arm pain was radiating all the way down. My chest felt like it was being squeezed as tight as you could squeeze it.

“I started to feel sick again, I texted my husband and said the feeling came back and that I was one street away from the emergency room.”

Somehow managing to drive to the nearby hospital, she went to the counter and demanded that someone look at her heart ‘right this second’.

“At that point, I was shaking. There was a male nurse who then peeked round the corner and saw me and saved my life,” she explained.

“He saw me, he waved me back and within seconds that we knew I was having a heart attack.”

Luckily, since posting the video, Nikki has updated worried fans with her recovery, saying that she feels much better now.

While doctors had no idea about the cause of her heart attack due to no blockages or build up in her arteries, it took a trip to a women’s heart specialist to discover what happened.

She headed to The Texas Heart Institute and was told that it was the ‘perfect storm’ of perimenopause with illness all at once, with no genetic link made.

The mum also revealed that scans since the incident suggest that there may be lasting damage to her heart, though further tests must be carried out first.

Feeling lightheaded, dizzy, sweaty, and overwhelmingly anxious are also symptoms of a heart attack, according to the NHS.

The NHS advises to call 999 immediately if you think someone might be having a heart attack.

But the reality is, so many of these actors and musicians have been around longer than you’d think, and were once trying their best to break into the mainstream.

That doesn’t stop us from pointing and looking all wide-eyed when we see them on screen in a past title that we didn’t know about, though.

Those online seem to love it as well, with one celebrity-filled photo resurfacing recently before going viral.

It was originally posted on Instagram by nostalgia account @90sanxiety, among their many posts that focus on life and pop culture in the 1990s.

In the picture, we can see four stars, who are children in the snap, as they were part of the discontinued Mickey Mouse Club show that aired on Disney Channel, on and off from 1955 to 1996.

The show featured skits, music videos from the iconic Mouseketeers, and even live concerts to go with their themed episodes – think Saturday Night Live for kids.

It served as a platform for child actors to give their career a boost, with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Keri Russell going on to have successful careers in the entertainment industry after stints as one of the Mouseketeers, as they were called.

However, three of the four in the photo above are widely considered to be the most successful to have come out of the show.

As you can probably tell, Barbie star Ryan Gosling sits in the middle of the photo, with a look that hasn’t seemed to change much over the span of his 30+ year career as an actor and occasional singer.

Britney Spears is on the left of the photo, and would be propelled to fame just five years after the show, selling over 150 million records worldwide, affectionately being dubbed ‘the Princess of Pop’.

On the right is former NSYNC frontman Justin Timberlake, and despite occasionally venturing into acting with films such as The Social Network and Friends With Benefits, he is best known for his singing career, with 10 Grammy Awards and fittingly known as ‘the Prince of Pop’.

But what about the boy lying across the three stars-to-be?

The caption read: “Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake & TJ Fantini.”

A lot of people didn’t know who TJ Fantini was, and the comments reflected this.

One user commented: “I was about to make a smart ass comment about who’s tj fantini but then I realised I’m even more of a nobody than TJ Fantini so I decided to just keep my mouth shut”

Another said: “*Googles TJ Fantini*…”

But someone has left a brief explanation of who TJ Fantini really is, posting: “Retired from acting. Today he’s a council member in the state of Washington and continues to do music now as a hobby.”

On Fantini’s Instagram page, he has numerous posts with his wife and children, as well as some flyers about meetings as he is a Councilman on the Anacortes City Council.

He describes himself as a ‘Musician / Entrepreneur’ in his bio.

Not everyone wants to become a celebrity at the end of the day, and it looks like all four are happy with their outcomes.