Manova Journal

Health advice you can check

Plain-English guides to weight, medicines and everyday health. Written by our editorial team, medically reviewed by our clinical lead, and referenced so you can follow the evidence yourself.

Illustration of clippers, a razor and a bottle of sunscreen arranged on a shelf

Shaving your head: a practical guide to doing it well

Not a white flag. For a lot of men it is the point at which they stop thinking about their hair several times a day, which is worth something on its own.

September 3, 2026Read More

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Three pieces that answer most of what people ask us first.

01What is a healthy BMI in the UK?The ranges, who they work for, and the 30-second check that tells you more.02Calorie deficit explainedWhy the arithmetic everyone quotes is wrong, and what to do instead.03Why am I not losing weight?Nine reasons the scales stall, in the order they are actually likely.

Weight loss

All weight loss articles

Illustration separating obligatory energy expenditure fall, adaptive thermogenesis and reduced everyday movement

Metabolic adaptation: three different things people call one thing

Everyone quotes the Biggest Loser study. Almost nobody quotes the part where metabolic slowing did not predict who regained, and the people who kept most weight off had slowed down the most.

Illustration showing intentional and unintentional weight loss overlapping in observational data

Weight cycling: a risk marker that keeps being read as a cause

The headline is that weight cycling is dangerous. The problem is that losing weight without meaning to is a sign of serious illness, and no observational study has managed to separate the two.

Illustration of a zone of indifference bounded by upper and lower intervention points

Set point theory: a biased range, not a thermostat

There is a version of this idea that is true and useful, and a version that tells people their weight is fixed for life. The second one is not supported by the evidence, and it puts people off trying.

Illustration mapping appetite hormones to the organs that release them

Appetite hormones: what they do, and what the famous study really showed

One small Australian study is cited constantly as proof that your hormones never forgive you for losing weight. It had fifty people and no control group. What it did show is still interesting.

Illustration comparing research-grade and routine clinical measures of insulin sensitivity

Insulin resistance: what it is, and why the NHS will not measure it

Private testing companies will sell you an insulin resistance score tomorrow. The people who invented the score published a paper explaining why you should be careful with it.

Illustration of five risk-factor criteria with any three highlighted

Metabolic syndrome: a label the UK does not actually use

It has a name, a set of numbers and a Wikipedia page. What it does not have is a NICE guideline, an agreed cause, or a treatment that differs from treating each part separately.

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Illustration comparing a shed hair with an intact root bulb against a hair snapped mid-shaft

Hair care and styling damage: telling breakage apart from hair loss

Hair found on the floor with a small white bulb on the end came out of the follicle. Hair without one snapped. Almost everything useful follows from that distinction.

Illustration of a hair loss progression timeline compressed into a shorter span

Hair loss and anabolic steroids: what they accelerate and what may not come back

Steroids do not give you a hair loss gene you did not have. They compress a process that might have taken fifteen years into two or three.

Illustration of a centrifuge tube with separated blood layers beside a scalp injection site

PRP for hair loss: promising, unstandardised, and not a replacement for anything

The evidence is more positive than sceptics allow and much less useful than clinics imply, for one reason: no two clinics are doing the same thing.

Illustration of a face showing thinning outer eyebrows and a smooth patch in a beard

Beard and eyebrow hair loss: the red flags that matter most

Scalp hair loss gets all the attention. Eyebrow loss is the one that more often means something, and occasionally means something urgent.

Illustration of a widened central parting with a preserved frontal hairline

Hair loss and PCOS: what the pattern tells you, and what it doesn’t

Hair thinning gets people sent for PCOS testing constantly. The guideline is surprisingly clear that on its own, it is one of the weaker reasons to look.

Illustration of a hair growth cycle timeline showing a trigger point and a delayed shedding phase two to four months later

Hair loss and thyroid disease: why the shedding often starts after treatment does

The most common thyroid hair question is why the shedding got worse once treatment started. The answer is a lag, not a failure, and it is not a reason to stop.

Illustration of a scalp cross-section showing sebaceous glands, surface flaking and inflammation

Dandruff and seborrhoeic dermatitis: what it is, what it isn’t, and whether it causes hair loss

A flaky scalp is not an infection, not a hygiene failure, and not a cause of pattern baldness. It can still make your hair shed, and it is worth treating properly.

Illustration comparing a tightly pulled hairline with a loosely dressed one, showing tension at the follicle

Traction alopecia: the hair loss caused by how hair is worn

Almost the only hair loss with a single, identifiable, removable cause. Which is good news, right up until the point where it stops being reversible.

Illustration of the two-way relationship between sleep quality and sexual function

Sleep and sexual function: the link most men miss

Testosterone is made largely while you are asleep, and erections happen there too. Treating the night is one of the more overlooked routes to fixing the day.

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How we write

Written byThe Manova editorial teamOriginal writing. No AI-spun rewrites of other people's articles.

Medically reviewed byNaeem Teni, Clinical LeadGPhC 2215591, independent prescriber. Every article, before it is published.

ReferencedNHS, NICE, MHRA and peer-reviewed researchEvery article lists its sources, with the date each guideline was published.

Articles about prescription medicines are written to inform, not to advertise. They are not a substitute for advice from your own prescriber.