Blog Posts by Kim Hookem-Smith

Kim Kardashian is the latest in a long line of pregnant celebrities to be snapped wearing skyscraper heels late in pregnancy.

And the pictures of her painfully swollen ankles reveal why many experts claim that these high profile mums-to-be are setting a bad example and expectant women should ditch the heels for the sake of their health.

It's one thing wearing high heels for a few minutes to be papped on the red carpet, and quite another to go about your day in them as usual - as the size of Kim's swollen ankles suggest she has.

High heels change your centre of gravity, alter the muscles your legs use to keep you upright and how you walk and tilts your entire posture, changing blood flow and putting strain on your feet as more your weight is supported by the balls.


Now think of pregnancy - it changes your centre of gravity, posture, blood flow and weight distribution. Plus the hormones change the ligaments and muscles in the body, making them Read More »from Wearing heels in pregnancy - is it safe?

If you sleep in a purple room you could be doing yourself out of almost two hours a night of precious sleep.

The colour of our bedroom walls has been found to be so influential to our bodies that the shade we choose determines how much shut eye we get - with blue coming out as the colour most likely to help you nod off.

According to a study by Travel Lodge, blue-roomed sleepers enjoy an average seven hours and 52 minutes sleep a night, followed by yellow, green, silver and orange, which all encourage you to get more than seven and a half hours.

On the other end of the scale, those sleepers in purple rooms are the most sleepless, averaging just five hours and 56 minutes a night. Those in brown, grey and gold rooms don't fair much better either, catching less than seven hours of their 40 winks.

And, if you were hoping painting your room red would boost your sex life and encourage romance, you should have opted for brown instead. According to the

Read More »from Your bedroom colour scheme could be why you can't sleep

If you eat healthily all day but treat yourself in the evening and at weekends then you may unknowingly be on the 'working-week diet'.

And it could be the reason you don't feel the benefits of your 9-5 efforts. We asked nutritionist and women's health expert Marilyn Glenville, author of Fat Around the Middle, how to break the cycle of weekday halos and weekend binges.

"It's so common," she tells us. "It’s almost like as a reward for all your hard work - but you go and ruin it with what you think is a harmless treat.

"And it's becoming harder and harder to manage because people will go overboard on Friday and Saturday nights. By the time you've recovered from the weekend, the next one's already arrived and you're liver has to deal with takeaways, processed foods, sugars and all that alcohol over again.

"It doesn't give your body, and especially your liver, time to do it's normal tasks such as breaking down hormones. It has to deal with breaking down the toxins such as alcohol, first."

Read More »from The working-week diet: are you on it and how can you get off?

It was a beauty battle of the Brits on the red carpet for the Great Gatsby's Cannes premiere, with the movie's star Carey Mulligan upstaging model Cara Delevingne on the red carpet with her dazzling beauty look.

Both UK stars opted to channel the red lips trend that's been popular throughout the spring. But while Carey went low key for the rest of her hair and makeup, Cara's look was unflatteringly OTT.

Model Cara appeared uncharacteristically over made up, with her eyes and strong brows extra heavily-defined and her lips coloured a deep red.

The vampish look aged the 20-year-old well beyond her years and she seemed to lack her usual, natural charm.

Carey on the other hand, looked every inch the classic movie star, relying on a defined, red lip to elevate her look for the red carpet and keeping her eyes neutral, with just a few layers of mascara to accentuate.

The 27-year-old, who plays Daisy Buchanan in the Baz

Read More »from Cara Delevingne fails to impress at Cannes Great Gatsby premiere as Carey Mulligan nails her beauty look

It takes just the tiniest hint of the sun's rays to convince us to shed our layers and prostrate ourselves on pieces of grass the land over.

But experts have warned that more than half of Brits are at risk of skin cancer-causing sunburn this year.

Not wearing sunscreen, using old bottles that are out of date and forgetting to reapply are all reasons we might burn this year. And by the end of the summer 1250 people in the UK will have died from skin cancer, so it's time we started putting more effort into sun protection.

After the soggy washout of last summer, followed by dreary, even-wetter months during the winter AND the non-existent spring it's no wonder we can't get our heads around sun protection in the UK.

But during spring and summer we're closer to the sun and even when there's ample cloud cover, UV rays can still cause our skin damage and aging. (In fact, on your face, skincare experts recommend wearing SPF 30 all year round.)

To remind us to look after our skin, Asda and the Read More »from The sun can be more dangerous than cigarettes - but 60 per cent of us still risk sunburn

Sun is one of the biggest causes of skin damage, premature ageing, wrinkles and discolouration – so even with Britain's changeable weather, it’s essential we protect ourselves from the sun this summer.


As we head into the summer months, it’s time to ramp up sun protection element of your skincare as the sun's rays get stronger, but with so many options available, we asked some top skin experts what really works and how to apply SPF products for the best results.



“We strongly believe that SPF 30 is the minimum you should be using all year round,” says Peter Roberts, MD of SkinMed.

He tells us that the weather shouldn't make any difference to our sun protection. Sun's rays can cause damage through rain, clouds and even on the greyest days when you feel a bit silly slapping on the sunscreen.

He adds: “Rays can actually be stronger in the spring – because the sun’s coming in from a different angle.”



But for those of us who’ve neglected the holy trinity of S, P and F so far this year, Read More »from SPF explained and how to protect your skin from sun damage

A growing number of high profile women have opted for a double mastectomy to protect themselves from breast cancer. Angelina Jolie is the most recent to explain how a blood test showed she carried the risky mutation of the gene BRCA1.

She, Sharon Osbourne and Michelle Heaton have all helped to raise our awareness of the availability of a test for this type of breast cancer. But for us non-celebrities, what are the options for testing and cancer prevention?

What is the breast cancer test?

Doctors take a blood sample to test for mutations in various genes that are linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Though everyone has these genes, it is only when they mutate and develop faults that they are potentially dangerous.

More than 1,000 mutations in the BRCA1 gene have been discovered. The healthy gene supports normal cell growth and also helps mend damaged DNA. It, and another gene - BRCA2 - are part of a family known as 'tumour suppressing genes'. BRCA2 does a similar job to BRCA1 and has aroundRead More »from Breast cancer testing: should you be screened for BRCA1 and 2?

Angelina Jolie has written a powerful editorial in a US newspaper revealing her decision to have a double mastectomy.

The actress and director, who has six children (three adopted, three biological), explained that she decided to have both breasts removed after discovering she carried the cancer gene BRCA1.

Angelina, 37, discovered that carrying this gene upped her risk of breast cancer to 65 per cent and her risk of ovarian cancer, the disease to which her mother lost her life at 56, to 50 per cent.

Angelina writes about how her decision was made for her family. "We often speak of 'Mommy’s mommy'," she says. "And I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us.

"They [her children] have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer."

Angelina details her treatment in the piece, explaining the operations she Read More »from Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy bravery praised after breast cancer gene discovery