People with red hair have long been the butt of unfair jokes, but a study suggests that when it comes to ageing they may have the last laugh.

Having a mid-life crisis is more common than you may think with six in ten of those aged 40 to 59 admitting they might be experiencing one.

Meditation doesn't just relax the mind - it could also keep it young.

Marriage has long been thought to be beneficial - both in sickness and in health. But a study suggests that widows actually suffer less stress and frailty than wives whose husbands are still alive.

COMMENT: If the fit, strong-looking people in their 60s and 70s I see there are anything to go by, it's never too late to start getting strong.

Each week Megan Nicol Reed talks through what's on all of our minds.

I counselled my young daughter last week that we should do what scares us; it informs us of what we are capable, reminds us we are alive.

Boys are catching up with girls in the health stakes, figures have shown.

Here's an interesting statistic: since 1840, life expectancy at birth has risen three months each year, come war, epidemics or advances in medical science.

Those in their 20s and 30s might want to be careful next time they go looking for love online - they might run into their parents.

As a teen, I couldn't have explained why, because I've only just figured it out, writes Verity Johnson.

A study has found mothers over 40 are at the forefront of a middle-aged drinking epidemic.

Scientists now believe it is possible to stop people growing old and to consign diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to history.

Who said rock'n roll was for kids? It's a golden age for golden oldies who refuse to grow old.

Things are booming at rest-home builder and operator Ryman Healtcare, with profits growing and a pipeline of new villages underway.

Developing a sudden liking for slapstick comedy could herald the onset of dementia up to nine years before the illness is diagnosed.

The green-eyed monster of envy has a tighter grip on young adults than on their elders, a study has found.

Millennials have tough new competition for apartments and flats heating up the nation's housing market: Mum and Dad.

Forty years ago, the Queen sent about 100 letters a week to Britons who had reached the age of 100.

A panel of 1,000 people were shown images of celebrities with stained teeth and cleaned teeth and asked to guess their ages.

My town actually went backwards in the last QV figures, with one real estate company listing a solid three-bedroom home for $45,000, writes Mark Ebrey.

We all hope our children will surpass us one day. But you don't want it to happen while they're still at primary school, writes Matt Heath.

A diabetes pill is the first drug to show promise in helping subdue two of the world's most rampant health epidemics.

A chemical found in red wine helps slow dementia, say scientists - but you would have to drink 1,000 bottles a day to get enough of it.

Two minutes of hopping a day can strengthen hip bones in older people and reduce the risk of fracture after a fall, scientists have suggested.

They said that while longer spells of moderate exercise were good, there were "strong benefits" in repeated short bouts of intense activity such as star jumps.

When the midwife handed me my newborn son, my first thought was that this hideous homunculus could surely not be mine. He was bald and jaundice-yellow, his little features squashed into an expression of profound dismay at finding himself in the world.