What was once a niche product is being embraced by more people. We examine the options at a range of prices

They are de rigueur in Scandinavian and Nordic countries, with as many as one for every household in Finland, where the old saying goes: “First build the sauna, then the house”, and it appears Britons are now following suit. Google UK searches for “home sauna” rose by 84% between January and March 2024 and the same period in 2020, according to the marketing company Semrush.

Hampson Architects – based in Brighton and working across the south-east of England – has seen a large uptick in demand. “On the larger houses (3,000 sq ft-plus) it’s increased from 30% wanting saunas to as high as 80-90% now,” says the managing director, Andy Parsons. “I think it will stay at that level now as there’s a market expectation to have them.”

Inner peace, clarity of mind and for some, better orgasms. Readers share their experiences of swearing off sex, whether temporarily or long term

• Read more in our Intimate details series

Over the last few years more than 120 million posts have appeared on TikTok about the rise of an unexpected trend: self-imposed celibacy .

While some predicted a post-pandemic era of “sexual licentiousness ”, readers from all walks of life and across generations told us that far from doubling down on hookup culture, they’ve found refreshing clarity in a more austere approach to physical intimacy.

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Philip Morris International has supported non-smoking programmes around the world ‘to advance its own interests’, say health professionals

The tobacco company Philip Morris has sponsored courses for doctors in multiple countries, in what critics have called a “grotesque” strategy.

Medical education programmes on quitting smoking and harm reduction in South Africa, the Middle East and the US have been supported by Philip Morris International (PMI) or its regional subsidiaries, according to advertising material seen by the Guardian.

A day with some blind and partially sighted walkers has shown me how much I barely notice – and how hard it is to find the right words

How many shades of green are there? Whatever the answer may be, I soon ran out of words to describe them. I was walking north along the Grand Union canal, trying and failing to adequately describe what I could see, to a friend who couldn’t. This was Dave Heeley , ultra-runner, who in 2008 became the first blind person to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Today we were walking rather than running – which, with me guiding him, was just as well.

I had guided a blind adventurer once before when I took part in the television series Pilgrimage. One of my fellow pilgrims was the remarkable Amar Latif . We were high up on the side of a deep, lush valley in eastern Serbia. I was focused on the trickiness of the path itself, but Amar kept asking me to describe the vista. I looked down that valley at the mountains in the distance and simply didn’t know how or where to start. I had a bash, as there was plainly plenty of material to work with, but didn’t feel I had done justice to the richness of that scene.

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist

Having turned my back on the partying, hangovers and self-destruction, I’ve slowly worked out what was behind them – and how to replace them with something better

The first alcoholic drink I had was a lemon Hooch in a gay club called the Palm Beach in south London in 1991. For the first time in my life the anxiety and self-consciousness I thought was just my personality melted away. A decades-long whirlwind of partying, hangovers and self-destructive behaviour ensued, all fuelled by trauma and self-loathing. That was until I finally realised too much was enough and that I needed to stop. Ten years ago, after 22 years of problem drinking, I shared a bottle of champagne with a friend and put the bottle and the glasses in the recycling bin. I haven’t had a drink since. These are 10 things I’ve learned in those 10 years of being alcohol-free.

Genetics alone can mean a 21% greater risk of early death, research finds, but people can improve their chances

A healthy lifestyle may offset the impact of genetics by more than 60% and add another five years to your life, according to the first study of its kind.

It is well established that some people are genetically predisposed to a shorter lifespan. It is also well known that lifestyle factors, specifically smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity, can have an impact on longevity.

Beware of ‘ Tetchy Rishi ’ – the prime minister struggles to control his anger during the Rwanda bill press briefing (1m24s); David Harewood on acting, racism and mental health (9m08s); Phil Daoust’s surprisingly simple solution to insomnia hell (24m33s); and Stuart Heritage examines the dangerous fallout from Netflix’s Baby Reindeer (42m29s)

The Unexpected, the latest book by the economics professor, examines the uncomfortable and embarrassing parts of pregnancy that no one talks about

Emily Oster really hopes you don’t need to buy her new book. The 44-year-old tenured Brown University economics professor and firebrand has published a handful of bestselling titles, all focused on childbearing and child-rearing. “I always say I’m not going to write another book after I write a book because it feels like so much work,” she said. “The first three books really track my own journey, from pregnancy to raising little kids to having older kids.”

But the fourth installment in her “ParentData” – also the name of her blog, podcast and newsletter – quartet, The Unexpected , swerves into thornier territory than its predecessors: pregnancies with complications, and the risks inherent in any subsequent pregnancies. For the first time, she is not writing about her own experiences. “I was inspired by the questions that I got from other people rather than the questions that I had myself,” she said.

• Increase in walking sees activity return to pre-Covid levels
• Active Lives research shows two million moving more since 2016

A silver surge in walking has led to record levels of physical activity among the over-55s in England, the latest edition of the authoritative Active Lives adult survey has revealed.

Figures covering November 2022 to 2023, showed that 62.3% of 55-74-year-olds did at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, up from 57% in 2016 when the survey was first commissioned. More striking still was the rise in activity in the over-75s, with 42.8% considered active, up from 33.4% seven years ago.