Not many of us are in a hurry to get older. After all, ageing doesn’t just mean grey hairs and wrinkles — it can also mean years of poor health. In fact, ageing actually increases our risk of developing a range of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. And if that wasn’t a problem enough, it’s not always clear who may develop these illnesses.

While of course we know of certain risk factors that may increase a person’s chances of developing certain age-related diseases, a team of researchers at the University of Nottingham may actually have identified a better way of predicting long-term health — for men, at least. And it may be as simple as measuring levels of a particular hormone (not testosterone) in a man’s blood.

With all the rain we’ve been having lately, you might be wishing the weather was back to being as hot and dry as it was this summer. But since it doesn’t look like the forecast will change anytime soon, perhaps it’s time to embrace it by learning a few things you probably didn’t realise you didn’t know about rain.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to deliver his autumn budget statement later today. We already have a good sense of what to expect (spending cuts and tax rises) but the news could still shake the financial markets. We’ll be publishing reactions to the announcement from a panel of experts later in the day.

Heather Kroeker

Commissioning Editor, Health + Medicine

Who is likely to develop age-related disease could be predicted years in advance by looking at INSL3. Evgeny Atamanenko/ Shutterstock

Ageing: hormone could help predict men’s long-term health years in advance – new study

Ravinder Anand-Ivell, University of Nottingham; Richard Ivell, University of Nottingham

Our study found that low levels of INSL3 hormone were associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and frailty in men.

UK weather can often be on the damp side. Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock

Five things you probably have wrong about rain

Rob Thompson, University of Reading

On average, Sydney and Rome get more rain than London each year.

Rishi Sunak’s government is set to deliver its first budget statement on November 17 2022. I T S / Shutterstock

Autumn statement 2022: this budget may not cause Truss-level chaos but it could still provoke markets

Matthew Watson, University of Warwick

Sunak and Hunt may hope for some normality after the budget, but markets may not be so content with the details.

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