It’s that smell of the Algarve we all know and love. The sweet, woody scent of the Rock Rose or Esteva bushes hangs over the hot countryside like a thick blanket from April onwards, reaching it’s heady heights around mid-summer.

Next time you pass by a Cistus plant, take a closer look. Have a feel, too. If it’s the classic Rock Rose, or Gum Cistus (Cistus ladanifer), its leaves will be sticky, and there will be pools of gum where the leaf joins the stem. This gooey nectar, called labdanum, gives the plant its delicious perfume and an array of medicinal properties.

Female urinary incontinence is much more common than you think. In fact, 1 in 4 women over the age of 18 experience involuntary leakage of urine – and most of these suffer in silence due to misinformation surrounding the condition.

This article attempts to set the record straight on a condition that can be emotionally and physically demanding – starting with some basic little-known facts.

This is the season for stuffy noses, persistent coughs and sore throats. So even if you try, you end up getting these annoying symptoms. If unfortunately you did not manage to avoid catching a cold, here are some tips to ease this common disease at this time of the year.

The average human being is living longer than ever before. Nearly every country on the planet has seen an increase in life expectancy since the beginning of the 21st century.

But though we are living longer, not all of us are living healthier. Health Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE), or healthy life expectancy, is a metric used by the World Health Organization to measure the number of years a person can expect to live in good health, taking social and economic factors into account alongside disease and disability rates. When we deduct healthy life expectancy from actual life expectancy, we see the average amount of years someone can expect to live in bad health – or 'Bad Health Years'.

Many of you will remember Gill from the horse riding centre opposite the International School in Porches. She gave so much to her students by helping them not only on the horse but off it. She concentrated on each child to give them confidence and to make them feel special.

Whilst doing a favour for a friend, she suffered a tragic car accident. This left 54-year-old Gill with a severed spine. She is now a tetraplegic without feeling in most of her body. Through concentrated physiotherapy she has regained partial use of her left arm.

I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen recently with fermented foods. Many of you will have heard of the fantastic health benefits of consuming live cultures in food such as yoghurt, sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha – but let’s recap anyway.

Not all forms of heating are created equally. Some contribute to the home in a healthy way when others don't. Keeping your house warm is important, but protecting the health of your family has to be the priority. Fireplaces are basically just pollutant machines. Gas fueled forms of heating can contribute to carbon monoxide poisoning.

There are many different types of heating, but not all of these will provide the same benefits as infrared heaters. Adding a heater that uses infrared tech to heat the home provides many healthful benefits that other secondary heat sources simply don't. But just how healthy are they? And how exactly do they work?

The new Physical Therapy clinic specialising in painful joints and muscular issues.

Neuromuscular Physical Therapist David Murphy has decided to up and leave cold and rainy Ireland and set up here in the Algarve after running a very successful clinic for 10 years there.

He specialises in treating very painful conditions that most people believe they are stuck with like Sciatica, Osteoarthritis, Frozen shoulder to name a few.

“Most people have to take painkillers or anti-inflammatories just to make it through the day says David, “but recent press reports have shown they don’t always work and have other side effects such as stomach upset etc. I have used the latest techniques in soft tissue release and pain management to restore some, if not all range of movement to the affected joint/muscle but most importantly the reduction of pain is immediate”.