Caitlin Moran on Perimenopause: “When you’re dealing with the menopause, or perimenopause, it’s useful, I think, if you’ve “done some drugs” in your life. The day after doing Ecstasy, when you can feel the drugs leaving your body, hour by hour, and the list of things that you felt inclined to do last night – dance, talk, laugh, jump off a wall because it was funny, kiss and hug people, shout, “I LOVE YOU!” at strangers, because, in that moment, you really do – gradually gets smaller and smaller, until you want to do none of those things any more…

In the 70s, there was a study on refined sugar at Loma Linda University. (Refined sugar is any sugar where vital minerals are removed, such as white, brown, powdered, cane, or turbinado sugar, or corn syrup.) In the study, five groups were given different amounts of sugar ranging from no sugar to 60 teaspoons. Across all groups, white blood cell efficacy decreased as sugar consumption increased. (If you’re new to immune-system biology: white blood cells help fight infection.) The group that was given the largest quantity of refined sugar showed a 50 percent decrease in white blood cells over the course of five hours.