It was another long, grueling day at work. As Sandhya sat in traffic, she could feel the frustration bubbling up — not because of the cars lined up in front of her but because every small inconvenience suddenly felt like a monumental task. Her patience was wearing thin, and Sandhya couldn’t shake the feeling of exhaustion, even though I hadn’t physically exerted myself.

If you’ve ever felt emotionally depleted after a day filled with tough decisions, you’re not alone. Mental exhaustion is real, and recent studies are shedding light on how it affects us, especially our interactions with others.

Mental fatigue, or “ego depletion,” is a concept in psychology that suggests our willpower and mental resources are limited. When we spend a lot of time making decisions or exercising self-restraint, these resources get depleted. According to a study by the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy, exercising self-control can exhaust parts of our brain associated with decision-making and impulse control, causing us to act more impulsively or aggressively when mentally drained.

This phenomenon was tested by researchers who asked participants to engage in mentally demanding tasks. In one setup, some participants watched emotional video clips while trying not to react, while others watched the same clips without any self-control requirements.

Those who held back their emotions showed increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for decision-making and self-control. This change in brain activity, marked by “delta waves,” is usually observed during sleep, suggesting that parts of their brains were “switching off” due to mental fatigue.

How Mental Fatigue Affects Behavior

After undergoing these tasks, participants were asked to play a game that measured their tendency towards cooperative or aggressive behavior. Remarkably, those who had exerted self-control during the initial tasks were more likely to behave aggressively compared to those who hadn’t. This suggests that mental exhaustion can dampen our ability to engage cooperatively and makes us more susceptible to impulsive or hostile reactions.

As Erica Ordali, the study’s lead author, points out, this has real-world implications. “If you feel mentally exhausted, it might be best to avoid difficult discussions or decision-making until you’re more rested,” she advises. This advice isn’t just for work-related stress — it applies to our personal relationships and everyday interactions, where mental fatigue can lead to misunderstandings or unnecessary conflicts.

Why is Ego Depletion Controversial?

Not everyone in the scientific community agrees with the concept of ego depletion. A 2020 large-scale study with over 3,500 participants found no strong evidence that mental exertion consistently leads to behavioral depletion. Despite this, Ordali’s research offers compelling insights into how mental exhaustion may affect specific brain functions, potentially influencing our behavior in measurable ways.

Coping with Mental Exhaustion

Given the potential impact of mental fatigue on behavior, taking breaks and allowing your brain to recharge becomes essential. Here are a few practical ways to manage mental exhaustion:

1. Breaks help replenish mental energy, especially after challenging tasks. Short walks, stretching, or even a few minutes of deep breathing can make a significant difference.

2. Avoid decision overload by delegating less important choices. Reserve your mental resources for what truly matters.

3. Techniques like meditation and mindfulness help restore focus, enabling better impulse control even when tired.

4. Juggling multiple tasks depletes mental resources faster. Try focusing on one task at a time, and you'll preserve more mental energy.

5. Be mindful of your mental state before making important decisions or having critical conversations. Sometimes, waiting until you’re rested can lead to better outcomes.

In breast cancer research, the search for effective treatments is constant. At times, the most promising candidates are not newly developed drugs but existing medications whose potential benefits have remained hidden in plain sight. A recent study suggests that a pill usually prescribed to calm queasy stomachs could also be helping women live longer, particularly those battling one of the most aggressive forms of the disease.

The medication in question is aprepitant, a drug doctors have been doling out for years to keep chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in check. But according to researchers from Monash University in Australia and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, this humble anti-nausea capsule could be pulling off an unexpected encore performance by lowering the risk of breast cancer returning and even cutting the risk of death.

How the discovery unfolded

When the numbers were crunched, aprepitant stood out. Women who took it had an 11 per cent lower chance of their cancer making an unwelcome comeback and a 17 per cent lower chance of dying from breast cancer over a decade. Other anti-nausea meds did not show the same life-saving magic.

The triple negative twist

Dr Aeson Chang from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, a senior author on the study, explains why this matters so much. Triple negative breast cancer does not give many treatment tools to work with. That is why finding new uses for safe, existing drugs could be a fast-track way to help patients.

A drug repurposing opportunity

Repurposing medications is not new; after all, sildenafil was once meant for chest pain before its other, more famous use took off. In this case, aprepitant has already cleared safety hurdles and been in use for years. That makes it an appealing candidate for rapid integration into cancer care, provided future research confirms its benefits.

However, more work needs to be done before prescribing rules changes. Triple negative breast cancer is notoriously tough to treat. With around 3,000 new cases diagnosed annually in Australia alone, every potential new pathway matters. Researchers would like to see more studies to confirm if aprepitant really can prevent relapse and if so, we may need to rethink anti-nausea prescribing guidelines altogether.

Beyond the guidelines

Currently, aprepitant is only recommended for patients whose chemotherapy carries a high risk of causing nausea and vomiting. But nausea is a common visitor for most people going through systemic treatment; up to 60 per cent experience it. The study hints that more patients could benefit from aprepitant’s unexpected bonus effect.

Dr Chang believes this opens the door to testing whether a wider rollout could improve survival rates. Aprepitant is usually taken during the first three days of chemotherapy. Now they are wondering, what if longer-term use made the benefits even bigger?

The data detectives

Where next?

Before you rush to the pharmacy, here is the reality check. This study shows an association, not absolute proof of cause and effect. More clinical trials will be needed to see if aprepitant directly influences cancer biology or if the benefit comes from another, related factor.

Still, the idea that a simple anti-nausea pill could be doing double duty is an enticing one. It is a reminder that in medicine, sometimes the best discoveries do not come from flashy new drugs but from looking again at what is already in our medicine cabinets.

If future research backs it up, doctors might start prescribing it not just to soothe stomachs but also to boost survival odds, especially for those facing the toughest breast cancer battles.

During a heatwave, adequate hydration becomes a health priority rather than a casual choice. High temperatures increase the body’s fluid loss through sweat, and without sufficient water intake, the risk of dehydration and heat-related illnesses rises significantly.

The Heatwave Hydration Rule

According to Dr Sonali Ruder, who works as an emergency doctor, a good general rule is to drink about half your body weight in ounces of water. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds (around 68 kg), that is roughly 75 ounces (just over 2 litres) spread throughout the day. But if you are jogging in the park, hauling shopping in the midday sun, or simply existing in a non-air-conditioned flat, you will need to top that up.

Pregnant or breastfeeding? Your body’s running on extra hydration demands, so keep the bottle handy.

Tips to Keep the Water Flowing

Invest in a large, insulated bottle that keeps your drink icy cold, and take it everywhere. You are more likely to sip without thinking if it is right there on your desk, in your bag, or even next to the kettle.

The Dark Side of Dehydration

Signs you might be running on empty include:

• Thirst (obvious, but often ignored)
• Dark yellow or strong-smelling urine
• Headaches and dizziness
• Fatigue or confusion
• Dry mouth, lips, and eyes

Left unchecked, dehydration can lead to heat exhaustion or heatstroke, which is a fast-track ticket to the hospital.

Can You Overdo It?

Surprisingly, yes. While staying hydrated is crucial, overhydrating can also cause problems. Drinking far too much water in a short space of time can dilute the sodium in your blood, leading to a condition called hyponatraemia. Symptoms include nausea, headaches, confusion, and, in extreme cases, seizures.

This is rare, but it is worth knowing that balance is key. Your goal is steady hydration, not winning a personal best in “litres consumed in an hour”. In the British heatwave, your best defence is a smart hydration plan. Sip water consistently, up your intake if you are sweating, and pay attention to your body’s signals. Keep your urine pale, your energy steady, and your insulated bottle close by.

From glossy Instagram reels to glossy foreheads, vitamin therapy has become the darling of beauty trends. It promises “instant glow” and “Rapunzel hair”, often in the form of IV drips or colourful capsules. But is it really a miracle elixir or just a very expensive placebo with better marketing? Dermatologists say it is a bit of both.

Vitamin therapy acts as a protective shield for your cells. According to Dr Pravin Banodkar, Co-Founder and Lead Dermatologist at Skin Beyond Borders, our skin and hair face daily assaults from pollution and dust to stress and hormonal changes. Over time, these factors wear down cell health, slow growth, and accelerate signs of ageing. For skin, that means hyperpigmentation and dullness. For hair, it often means thinning and increased shedding.

Vitamin therapy works by giving cells a protective boost through antioxidants, which fight off damage and keep things running smoothly. “It helps reverse some of the impact by preventing damage to hair cells and boosting repair processes,” Dr Banodkar explains.

When Life Gets in the Way of Nutrition

If your diet often looks like coffee for breakfast, desk snacks for lunch, and “something quick” for dinner, your skin and hair may already be paying the price. Dr Banodkar says that people with hectic routines often develop deficiencies in vitamins A, C, D, and essential micronutrients. Left unchecked, these gaps can shorten the hair growth cycle and weaken the skin’s barrier function.

For such cases, vitamin therapy – oral, topical, or even targeted IV – can help fill the gaps. But if you already eat a balanced diet and nourish yourself consistently, “high-dose supplementation and IV drips offer no extra benefit,” he adds. Meaning, if your body is not missing it, megadoses will not suddenly help.

Micronutrients

One of the buzzier developments in dermatology is the “micronutrient concept”, feeding the hair bulb with targeted nutrients to prolong the growth phase (known as the anagen phase). Examples include:

• Vitamin A: Promotes skin cell turnover, reduces acne
• Vitamin C: Boosts collagen production, brightens skin
• Vitamin E: Antioxidant that aids repair
• Biotin (B7): Supports hair and nail strength
• Vitamin D: Crucial for follicle health and immune function
• Niacin (B3): Improves skin texture and barrier

Used strategically, these can improve skin repair and help hair grow longer before shedding. But more is not always better.

The Hype vs The Hard Truth

Dr Aseem Sharma, Director and Chief Dermatologist at Skin Saga Centre for Dermatology, points out that vitamin therapy has its place but not as a monthly beauty ritual for those without a medical need. “If you are genuinely deficient in D, B12, or iron, correcting that can transform skin and hair. But topping up levels that are already normal rarely produces dramatic results,” he says.

Biotin, for example, is often marketed as the holy grail for hair growth. In reality, unless you are deficient, which is rare in healthy adults, it won’t magically transform thin hair into thick locks. Hair growth depends on protein intake, hormones, follicle health, and micronutrients working together.

Antioxidants

Vitami and glutathione can protect skin and hair from oxidative stress, the kind that speeds up ageing and damages follicles. But their benefits plateau once the body has enough. Overuse can even cause side effects, especially with fat-soluble vitamins that linger in the system. In other words, popping a week’s worth of supplements in one sitting won’t give you a week’s worth of glow; it might just give you an upset stomach.

Should You Book That Vitamin Drip?

Both Dr Banodkar and Dr Sharma agree: start with your diet. Focus on whole foods, adequate protein, and a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Address specific deficiencies through tests, not guesswork. Save the IV drips for genuine medical needs, not pre-party touch-ups.

Vitamin therapy can be a useful support act, especially for people with nutritional gaps, malabsorption issues, or recovery needs. But it is not the headliner. Your real glow comes from a healthy lifestyle, consistent skincare, and, yes, the occasional salad that is not just for show.