Whether it's Gymboree, Mini Mozart, Baby Yoga or Tumble Tots, as soon as a baby comes into the world these days, there are courses waiting for them.

While the sessions - which normally involve music, singing and playing with apparatus - are no doubt sociable, fun and, let's face it, a good way to fill the sometimes monotonous days spent entertaining a child, are they essential for your baby's development?

Those watching their weight and contemplating the impact of the party season should consider one sobering fact - cavemen did not eat starchy deep fried snacks. Humans were never designed to digest the foods which have propelled the western world into an obesity crisis.

Oil? Our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not have the technology to make it, and they did not hang around long enough to grow the crops that produce oil, or indeed those which make bread or pasta.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (Sad),sometimes known as the winter blues, is thought to affect around two million people in the UK and more than 12 million across northern Europe.

Its symptoms, described by the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association, can vary from depression, negative feelings often resulting in feelings of hopelessness and despair to numbness and apathy.

Last week, a team of surgeons performed the world's first robotically assisted pancreas transplant on a women in Italy who suffers from type one diabetes.

With her new organ, the mother of two is now able to produce the correct amount of insulin - the hormone which regulates the amount of glucose in the body - and this has effectively cured her disease.

Zumba. Everyone's talking about, doing it and loving it.

If you have never heard of it, you may be in a minority. And not just in the UK. Zumba, if the hype is to be believed, is the latest dance-fitness craze to get hips gyrating, arms swaying and bottoms shimmying in gyms, halls and living rooms around the world.

People exercise in different ways and for a variety of reasons. It might be to get fit, de-stress, relax, burn calories. Zumba does all of the above with one very important extra. It puts a smile on your face.

"You need to walk for your life!" commanded the doctor who informed me I had just flunked both the fitness and ideal weight test at my recent check-up. "Go for 10,000 steps a day - and get a pedometer to tell you when you've done it," he ordered.

I had heard about those 10,000 steps, now considered as essential for optimum health as your five-a-day. However, like every couch potato, I regarded this figure with some trepidation.